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CNN Saturday Morning News

President Bush Gets Ready to Deliver Weekly Radio Address

Aired September 29, 2001 - 10:02   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 SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: At the moment, we want to bring you Major Garrett live. Major is standing by just nearby Camp David in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Major, the president in his weekly radio address updating the American people. Obviously, the administration has promised this is a lengthy campaign; no military action yet. A challenge keeping public support up?

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think so, John. You know, and so many people have compared the tragic events of September 11th to Pearl Harbor, and just as the president of that era, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, used the radio to try to ease the American public's sense of trauma and update the American people on what exactly was happening, the president will be using the radio address today to do exactly the same thing. Reminding the American public this is long and protracted campaign, updating progress on several fronts. Talking about military progress, diplomatic progress, what's happening with the airline security and what's happening on the legal front. Pushing a counterterrorism piece of legislation through Capitol Hill.

Trying to update the American public and let them know that this campaign is in fact being fought on many fronts and progress is being achieved. Although day to day, at least on the ground, the American public hasn't seen the kind of military confrontation it might have expected in the days right after the tragic events of September 11th.

Nevertheless, the president saying his progress is going to be made on all these fronts. Stay with me. I'll keep you updated. That's really the main focus of the radio address. John.

KING: A difficult challenge, Major, is it not? On the one hand, the president wants the American people to hang in there, if you will. He says this will take a long time. Be patient. Yet yesterday in the Oval Office he says we are in hot pursuit of Osama bin Laden and other terrorist believed responsible for this. A juggling act?

GARRETT: A juggling act in which the president must say, on the one hand, as you said, this is going to take time, but also let the American public know activity is going on. Progress is being made. And as he often says, some of it you will be able to see, some of it you may never see and some of the victories in this conflict, in this campaign, may be in things that simply do not happen. A terrorist activity that's thwarted. A bank account that may be funneling money to a terrorist organization that is quietly, almost secretly, shut down. A Major effort, a Major achievement in this war against terrorism, but one that may not be noticed or taken note of for weeks or months after it happens.

So, the president has to sort of say again and again, don't look at this as the wars of the past. Don't look at this as a place where beachheads are secured. Don't look at this as a place of massive military confrontation. Look at this as a progress and as a campaign where we achieve certain victories, and we will tell you about those victories. We can all celebrate those victories. Some of them you'll even see on television. But others, we wouldn't tell you about and you may never know until it's too late -- until after the fact, rather. John.

KING: Major Garrett, stand by. We'll come back to you after the radio address.

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