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CNN Saturday Morning News

Bush Agenda Has Changes Drastically

Aired September 22, 2001 - 07:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Very trying times here for the Bush administration and others here in Washington. This is a president, of course, elected to push a domestic agenda, tax cuts, government reform. But in this past week to 10 days, he has been tested, and he -- this is still a very young administration, a president we are still getting to know.

Now he's trying to lead the country into war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm a -- I'm a loving guy, and I'm also someone, however, who's got a job to do.

KING: This is the first major crisis, if you will, of this presidency. There was, when the plane was shot down over China, that was a major crisis for the president, but not as multifaceted as this one.

We're seeing many more snapshots of the different President Bushes, if you will. Emotion on the one hand, anger on the other.

BUSH: It is time for us to win the first war of the 21st century decisively.

KING: The other day when he was talking about all this, at the very mention of Osama bin Laden, his hand snapped up and clenched into a fist. And then he was talking about the hijacking, and he said it was not one but four planes, who could have imagined that? And his hand came up and he held out his fingers, and, you know, he looked -- you could still see the disbelief in his eyes that this had happened the way it happened.

So we're seeing a much greater range of the president's emotions.

BUSH: We ask Almighty God to watch over our nation...

KING: The president leading the national prayer service at the cathedral was a role we had never seen this president do.

BUSH: And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.

KING: This has been a crisis, a catastrophe, that has exposed us to the many different sides of this president and introduced us to aspects of this president that we had not seen before, because he and, one could argue, few if any of his predecessors have been tested quite like this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: A transforming event for the country and, in his own words, a transforming event for the Bush presidency. Mr. Bush very early on called his Cabinet into the White House, told them to go about their business, to continue to push his domestic agenda. But he also told them now that leading the war on terrorism, in his view, was the singular mission of his presidency.

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