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CNN Saturday Morning News
Bush Ends Difficult Week
Aired October 27, 2001 - 08:22 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush signed an anti- terrorism bill into law yesterday and then headed for Camp David for the weekend. Our White House correspondent Kelly Wallace is near the presidential retreat. She joins us live now.
A difficult week for the White House, yes, Kelly?
KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Kyra. A very, very difficult week because there were mounting questions about the progress in the military campaign against Afghanistan and also continued concerns about the federal government's handling of these cases of anthrax. We saw President Bush, though, leaving the White House yesterday afternoon, heading to the presidential retreat at Camp David. He will do this morning what he does every Saturday now, and that is chair another video teleconference from the presidential retreat with his National Security Council.
Again, he and his advisers expected to go over the military campaign and also continued concerns, again, about anthrax in the United States.
What we did see from President Bush and all over administration officials towards the end of the week, getting the message out that the federal government would respond much more quickly to any concerns about exposure to anthrax. We saw the president yesterday signing a new bill, as you mentioned, Kyra, giving sweeping new police powers to law enforcement to crack down on suspected terrorists. And during that signing ceremony in the East Room the president talked about the D.C. postal workers. He said he mourned the loss of life for those two D.C. postal workers who died of inhalation anthrax. And then he had a message out really to the entire country, saying the federal government would do everything possible to protect all postal employees and all postal offices around the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to assure postal workers that our government is testing more than 200 postal facilities along the entire Eastern Corridor that may have been impacted and we will move quickly to treat and protect workers were positive exposures are found. But one thing is for certain, these terrorists must be pursued. They must be defeated and they must be brought to justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And, Kyra, just as he does every Saturday, the president will deliver his weekly radio address. And today his message will really be to law makers in the United States Congress. He will be pressing Congress to finish up work on a bill to beef up airline and airport security.
The main sticking point continues to be whether baggage screeners, the people who screen your luggage and baggage, should be federal employees. Democrats say yes. President Bush says the federal government should set standards and do background checks for these workers. He also wants the federal government to have the flexibility to decide if they should be federal employees or private workers -- Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Kelly, would that talk include the issue of pilots and handguns?
WALLACE: No. No mention in that radio address of that very controversial issue. The White House has made it clear that it is not something that President Bush and his top advisers support, allowing pilots to carry weapons. They think other measures can sort of handle the job of protecting pilots, such as strengthening cockpit doors, again, putting armed federal marshals on most planes, most domestic flights around the country and, again, taking more steps to do a better job on the ground in terms of screening passengers and, again, more federal oversight of those people who screen baggage on the ground -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And quickly before we let you go, the anthrax scare. Kelly, what's happening at the White House to protect the president and the people that do work in the White House?
WALLACE: Well, Kyra, as you know, this is one issue White House officials do not like to talk about and certainly don't like us to talk about, what precautions they are taking to protect the president and his top aides. We certainly know certain things are going on. Obviously there were big security measures in place before September 11 when it came to White House mail. We are told that those measures have been enhanced and certainly much more screening going on when it comes to mail.
We certainly also know that periodically there is testing of the air around the White House for tests for any chemical substances. In fact, our Pentagon colleagues reporting that they have these mobile biological units around the Pentagon testing for any chemical or biological agents in the air around the Pentagon.
So some security measures. Again, obviously continued vigilance on the part of the Secret Service and other officials to check for any biological or chemical threats -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Kelly Wallace, always a pleasure. Thank you so much for being with us this morning.
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