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CNN Saturday Morning News

President Bush Undergoes Colonoscopy Today

Aired June 29, 2002 - 09:02   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: A routine medical screening for President Bush results in a less-than-routine shift of power. For a few hours today, while President Bush is sedated, Vice President Dick Cheney will be the acting president.

Joining us now with more, CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux. Hello again, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.

Well, the president is at Camp David now under the care of his physicians and a backup medical team. We have been told that for national security purposes, we will not be told exactly when the president becomes incapacitated and transfers his power to the vice president. But we have been told that it will only take, this whole process, about three or four hours.

The vice president arrived here at the White House just before 7:00 this morning for briefings, we're told, intelligence as well as national security and homeland defense.

Now, it was just yesterday that the president left hand-in-hand with the first lady, explaining that he was transferring this power as a wartime precaution, that this was a routine kind of exam. He even joked that Cheney would not be president for long.

Now, this is how it's going to work. The president will be sedated intravenously. It is a drug that takes effect very quickly. It is regulated based on the president's dis -- level of discomfort. The president will invoke Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, formally transferring his power to the vice president. That will happen when he signs a letter, a letter that will be faxed to the speaker of the House and the president pro tem of the Senate.

Now, we expect that this whole procedure will last about 30 to 60 minutes. We have been told that if there are polyps that are discovered, that they'll be removed. Once this procedure has been completed and the president feels up to it, he will go ahead and sign a second letter. It'll be sent to congressional leaders. That will formally indicate that he has resumed power.

Now, Kyra, we should mention that the president is in excellent health, according to his doctors. He'll be turning 56 next week. He has had this procedure done before two other times, where they discovered benign polyps. This was something that the doctors just thought he needed to check out once again.

We've also been told that the president hopes that all of this is over by the afternoon so he can go for an afternoon run -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Suzanne Malveaux, thank you so much.

Well, this is only the second time that a president has transferred his power to his second-in-command.

Let's talk more about the decision with CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider. Let's talk about the first time, Bill.

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: The first time was in 1985, when President Ronald Reagan underwent surgery for colon cancer. And he transferred power, somewhat reluctantly, but he did transfer power, the first use of the 25th Amendment for this purpose, to the vice president of the United States, who happened to be the current president's father.

President Reagan did not do that, however, in 1981 when he was shot by an attempted assassin. He went immediately to the hospital. It was an emergency. And there was no procedure in place, that was very early in his presidency, just a few months after he was inaugurated. President Reagan and his staff did not have a procedure in place to transfer power.

PHILLIPS: So why do this if he's just going to be sedated, Bill?

SCHNEIDER: Because there has to be absolute continuity of leadership. There can be no period of time, even if it's only a few hours, when the United States of America has no leader. Suppose there were some sort of surprise attack or an urgent -- a crisis in the country. Who would be in charge?

There can be no debate over who's in charge at a time of national emergency. At -- when the president is under sedation, that will be the acting president, Vice President Dick Cheney.

PHILLIPS: All right. When did he get his power back, and who determines that he's OK, and can take the power back?

SCHNEIDER: He determines that. He sends a letter, faxing it, again, to the president pro tempore of the Senate and the speaker of the House. The president is the sole judge of that. He's the one who says, I am now able to resume my duties. He faxes them a letter, and he resumes the power of the presidency.

There is in this amendment a procedure for declaring the president unable to serve. That's an elaborate procedure, either a majority of the cabinet or a majority of a body appointed by Congress, in case the cabinet is unwilling to perform this function.

They can be dispatched to judge whether the president can serve. And there have been cases in American history where a president has been shot, like President McKinley or Garfield, where a president had a stroke. In the last 18 months of his presidency, Woodrow Wilson was really unable to function. And there were no procedures in place for declaring whether he was able or unable to serve. Throughout that period, Woodrow Wilson remained president.

But now, since 1967, we have an amendment to take care of just those kinds of emergencies.

PHILLIPS: All right, our Bill Schneider. Thanks again, Bill.

SCHNEIDER: OK.

PHILLIPS: All right.

We're going to talk more about the colon screenings now. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us once again to talk about this process. Once again, not a big deal.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Not a big deal. The reason why the president's having it, as Suzanne mentioned, is that a couple of years ago, he had a routine colonoscopy and they found some polyps, which were benign, and they removed them, because even though they are benign, they could be precancerous.

So now he's having a follow-up to see if there are any new polyps.

Let's take a look at exactly what will happen, and I promise we won't get too graphic here. The president will be given intravenously a pain medication and a sedative. The sedative will make him feel sort of out of it, probably. Some people sleep through this procedure, don't remember a thing. Some people are kind of awake but in a -- but aren't necessarily completely aware of what's going on, or they certainly feel very relaxed.

A thin, flexible scope with a small light and a camera attached to it is used to see inside the colon. It goes through all the bends and turns to see what's in there. And the president's heart rate and breathing rate and blood pressure will be monitored.

And the risks of this procedure are very, very small. It is possible that the person who's doing the endoscopy could sort of nick the wall of the colon and cause some bleeding, but that doesn't usually happen, and if it does happen, it is usually fixable.

PHILLIPS: All right. How long for recovery?

COHEN: You know, the recovery process really depends on the person. I mean, the procedure itself takes about 30 to 60 minutes, and some people come out of it and, you know, might feel a little kind of out of it, but won't feel so bad, and will be ready to get up and go within a couple of hours. Other people, it takes a couple of hours more than that.

They tell you that you have to bring someone to drive you home. They won't let you drive you home -- won't let you drive yourself home because of the sedation. But the president said yesterday he expected to be exercising by the end of the day, and that's entirely possible. PHILLIPS: Yes, he wanted to get up and go running.

COHEN: That's right, that's right.

PHILLIPS: Doing stuff.

COHEN: He wouldn't be able to do it right after, but within a couple hours, he might be able to do it.

PHILLIPS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

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