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CNN Saturday Morning News

President Bush to Undergo Colonoscopy Today

Aired June 29, 2002 - 07:02   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Today the president will undergo a routine health screening with a very important political side effect. While President Bush is sedated, Vice President Dick Cheney will be the acting president.

Joining us now with more is CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra.

Well, the president is at Camp David this morning under the care of his doctors and a backup medical team. We are told for national security reasons that we're not going to be told exactly when the president is incapacitated and transfers his power over to the vice president. But we're told all of this will take no more than three or four hours.

We saw the vice president arrive here at the White House just moments ago. We understand that he's going to be undergoing a number of briefings.

Now, it was just yesterday that the president left the White House with the first lady, walking hand in hand. He said that he's transferring this power because it is a wartime precaution, that this is simply routine. He even joked, saying that Cheney is not going to be president for long.

Now, here's how it's going to work. The president will be sedated intravenously through a drug called propofol. The drug takes effect only within minutes. It can be regulated depending on the president's discomfort. He will invoke Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, officially transferring his power to Cheney.

He'll make this official by signing a letter, faxing this letter to the speaker of the House as well as the president pro tem of the Senate.

Now, when the procedure is done, we expect the procedure to take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes, when this is done, he will go ahead and sign a second letter that will officially indicate that he is resuming power as the president -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Suzanne Malveaux, we'll keep following this story all morning, of course. Thank you.

But for more of the political and historical weight (ph) on the decision to transfer presidential power, we turn to CNN senior analyst Bill Schneider.

Bill, good morning.

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: Good morning.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's go back in history a little bit and talk bout the 25th Amendment of the Constitution. What prompted that way back when?

SCHNEIDER: Well, it was passed in the 1960s because at that time, President Kennedy was shot, had been assassinated. President Johnson was president and didn't have a vice president, so there were -- and Johnson himself had suffered a heart attack in the past, so there was a lot of concern about what would happen if something incapacitated the president. There was no vice president around to take over.

So that's when they decided they'd better have an orderly procedure. I -- it was ratified in 1967.

PHILLIPS: So Bill, when Ronald Reagan was shot, why didn't he exercise this and transfer power?

SCHNEIDER: There were two occasions when he was in the hospital. Once was when he was shot in 1981, and it was an emergency. He was a new president, it was only a few months after he took office. There's been a lot of discussion about why that decision was not made, and most argue that because of the emergency situation, no one was prepared or had clear -- had really prepared the procedure for exercising the 25th Amendment, the third section.

But on a second occasion in June -- July 1985, when he underwent cancer surgery, the procedure was used even though he wrote in his letter that he didn't think it was necessary. There were several hours when he did formally transfer power to Vice President George Bush and notified the speaker pro tem of the Senate and the speaker -- the president pro tem of the Senate and the speaker of the House.

PHILLIPS: So Bill, are there any concerns right now about Dick Cheney's health?

SCHNEIDER: Well, there have been concerns all along because he has a history of heart problems, and -- but at the moment, he appears to be healthy and able to carry out the functions of office.

I should point out that he becomes acting president. I have Section 3 of the 25th Amendment right here. He becomes acting president for the time being, and as President Bush said, he's doing this because the nation is at war, and he doesn't want to give anyone the indication that there is no leader of the country.

But historians agree that when Ronald Reagan was subject to an assassination attempt at the end of March 1981, there were some hours when there was no formal leader of the United States. They don't want that to happen again.

PHILLIPS: And this procedure, of course, is really routine. But the times that we are in are definitely not, they're very abnormal.

Finally, Bill, how does the president get his powers back?

SCHNEIDER: He writes another letter, which must be transmitted to the president pro tem of the Senate, the speaker of the House, saying he's capable of resuming his duties. Interestingly, the president himself under Section 3 is the judge of that. He's the one who says, I'm unable to assume my duties for a period of time, and he's the one who notifies Congress that he's able to take them back.

Now, the constitution provides that he will be the judge of that. In fact, he -- under modern technology, he will fax that letter to the Congress. The amendment simply indicates that he must transmit that intention. It doesn't say that Congress has to be there, that they have to receive it, only that he has to transmit it.

PHILLIPS: All right, Bill Schneider, we're going to check in with you throughout the morning. Thanks, Bill.

SCHNEIDER: OK.

PHILLIPS: Well, joining us now to talk more about colon screenings and the health benefits, of course, for President Bush and for everyone else, we turn to our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

I wonder if the Constitution mentions faxing.

PHILLIPS: Yes, do you think, do you think it's in there? I don't know.

COHEN: And when it happens, you do the fax in such-and-such hours...

PHILLIPS: Exactly, yes.

COHEN: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

PHILLIPS: I don't know, I don't think faxing was really hot back in the U.S. '60s.

COHEN: No, I don't think so. We'll have to look into that. Probably doesn't mention colonoscopies either, actually.

PHILLIPS: Good point.

COHEN: But here we are today.

PHILLIPS: And the process, kind of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- it's very routine...

COHEN: Right, it's very routine.

PHILLIPS: ... right? It's not a very dangerous procedure.

COHEN: Not at all, not at all. As a matter of fact, I accompanied a relative to a colonoscopy not too long ago, so I actually remember what -- exactly what they did.

What will happen is, the president will go in and he, as Suzanne mentioned, he will be given a sedative and pain medication via IV. And that is because the procedure is pretty uncomfortable if you don't have it.

So let's take a look specifically. Pain medication and a sedative are usually given, don't absolutely have to be, but it's certainly the way I think most people would want it. And a thin, flexible -- excuse me -- a thin, flexible scope with a small light and camera attached is used. So that scope can then see inside the colon and can see if there are any polyps or anything that isn't looking quite right.

The reason why the president is having this is that a few years ago, some benign polyps were found and removed, and so now they want to check out and just make sure that there isn't anything else going on in there.

But let's take a look at who exactly is supposed to have this procedure done. It's recommended regularly for people over 50, that's for people who have a history of polyps and for people who don't have a history of polyps. Everyone's supposed to get it.

Two million Americans undergo the procedure every year. That's actually fewer than should be. Public health authorities for a long time now have been saying we really need to get more people to get colonoscopies. And maybe after seeing the president, people will.

Let's talk a little bit about why he's transferring the powers. The reason why is because when you have this kind of sedative, you're not out, you're not anesthetized like you might see on "E.R." or a television show like that. People are kind of a little bit out of it. A lot of people sleep through the procedure. People are kind of awake and kind of see things but aren't really aware necessarily of what's going on.

The level of sedation, the level that he'll be under, is really up to him. He can tell them, Well, you know, this feeling a little bit uncomfortable, can you turn it up? Or, I'm fine, you don't need to turn it up any more.

PHILLIPS: Now, these polyps, is it easy to see them? Is it easy to miss them?

SCHNEIDER: They're pretty easy to see from what I understand, I mean, when they go in there. I've actually seen them when they've been up on the video, I've seen video, and you can sort of see that there might be something going on there. Of course, sometimes they are missed, and then they're caught in the next colonoscopy.

If they are caught, if they see any today, they'll remove them right then and there.

PHILLIPS: What kind of device is used?

COHEN: To remove them? There's an instrument that they put actually on the end of that scope that they can use, the same instrument that's used to see them is also then used to -- or the same tube, another instrument's put on there, and it's used to remove them.

PHILLIPS: And recovery time, we were talking a little bit about this, depends?

COHEN: Well, the procedure's about 30 to 60 minutes, and the recovery time is really different for every person, but it can be, just as they said, a matter of hours. He may be out of it right out -- right after the procedure. It may take him a couple of -- it may take a couple hours for him to sort of come to completely.

But it may not take that long, it may be quicker than that.

PHILLIPS: All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

COHEN: OK.

PHILLIPS: We'll continue our discussion throughout the morning, you and Bill Schneider are both here with us.

Great, thanks, Elizabeth.

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