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Special Report: Bush Meets the Press
The press used the rare opportunity to explore some of the President's deepest concerns and his greatest hopes for the country. Below, is a transcript of a portion of the transcript, reproduced for our readers. We normally do not use this space for verbatim recitations of this nature, but we felt it was important given the rarity of President Bush's press conference for readers to have a better chance to get to know the man who is seeking re-election in 2004. The following is a verbatim excerpt from the President's press conference: "Q: Mr. President, how close are we to catching Saddam Hussein? THE PRESIDENT: Catching Saddam Hussein, that's right. Yes. We got his sons, Qday and Usai. Those two despicable henchmen have met their fate. We've ended their careers of evil. We're close to getting Saddam too. We've snuck up on his hide outs a few times. Once, we found a still smoldering cigar in the ash tray. We almost had him in a restaurant once too, but he pulled the old "sneakin' out the bathroom window" trick on us. He can't run forever though. Q: Mr. President, what do you say to those troops who fought long and hard and now are eager to come home, given the fact that it's hard to find other countries to send in troops that could serve as replacements? THE PRESIDENT: First, we do have a good rotation plan in place now for our troops. I like to call what we've been using the "full court press" but we may have to go to a zone to try and keep the troops fresh. In a worse case, we could try an all out blitz but I'm hopeful we can save that for when the chips are really down. Steve. Q Thank you, sir. Homeland Security is warning against possible hijackings this summer. How serious is this threat, and what can you do about it? How can Americans feel safe? THE PRESIDENT: Well, I can't do much about it. I'm just one guy. That's a joke. Of course, I can do something about it, and I am. Steve, I'd say it's a fairly serious threat. We do know that al Qaeda tends to use the methodologies that worked in the past. That's kind of their mind-set. And we have got some data that indicates that they would like to use flights, international flights, for example. So, if you're considering an international flight, you know, to someplace like Canada or Florida, you might want to use extra caution. Q: Mr. President, 28 pages of the 9/11 report are classified. What do you say to those, like Senator Graham, who have indicated that most of this report could be made public without damaging our intelligence gathering services? THE PRESIDENT: Senator-- who did you say? Q: Graham. Bob Graham? THE PRESIDENT: Bob Graham, oh yeah. Well, he's certainly one guy who would know. I rely on his counsel and his support, so if he thinks we ought to reveal the pages, we'll take a hard look at that suggestion. Q: Mr. President, you do realize that Senator Graham is a Democrat, right, and that he's running for President against you?
Q: Sir, Phil Gramm is a former Senator. THE PRESIDENT: I don't think so. I believe he's still serving. In fact, I think I had lunch with him just last week. Q: No sir, Kay Bailey Hutcheson and John Cornyn are the current Senators from Texas. THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, that's right. Those two and Senator Gramm. Those are the three Texas senators. Q: Mr. President, Texas only has two Senators. THE PRESIDENT: Now, I know that's not right. Each state gets three Senators. That's how you get one hundred. John. Q: Mr. President, you've spearheaded three tax cuts through Congress, each of which has been designed to create jobs. Yet, unemployment remains high at 6.4% and 44,000 jobs were lost last month alone. How do you think the tax cuts are working out? THE PRESIDENT: I think what you are really asking me is whether I think people ought to get more of what they earn and I certainly believe strongly in that. No one likes paying taxes, least of all to the government. Q: Mr. President, what is your administration's current policy on North Korea, given that by all reports it has likely developed nuclear capabilities? THE PRESIDENT: It's like this, Jim, some things are a lot cheaper to make overseas because the labor's a lot cheaper. Cheaper labor means cheaper costs. It's a pretty easy concept. What we're doing is allowing them to make the nuclear weapons that we'll then be able to buy at a wholesale cost. Should save millions and millions of dollars, from what I've been told. Q: But Mr. President, isn't North Korea part of the "axis of evil"? THE PRESIDENT: No, I think that was South Korea. Let's see, the axis of evil was Iraq, Syria and South Korea. Q: Don't you mean Iran, Iraq, and North Korea? THE PRESIDENT: Iran? No, I don't believe so. It's South Korea, France, and Iraq. Yeah, that's it. KARL ROVE: Excuse me, I'd like to thank you all for coming out today. This concludes the press conference. THE PRESIDENT: Are we done? I'm good to keep going. KARL ROVE: Thank you for coming. THE PRESIDENT: How'd I do, Karl? That was fun. |
Over the years, presidential press conferences have presented the media with the rare opportunity to ask the world's most powerful man direct questions and demand honest answers. A President's unscripted remarks can reveal much about the man whose every word is usually agonized over by a team of professional speech writers.
President Bush has given a relatively few number of press
conferences compared to President Clinton and the former
President Bush, which made all the more important his press
conference last week.
THE PRESIDENT: Democrat? Are you sure? Oh, wait, did you
say Bob Graham? See, I thought you were talking about Phil
Gramm, who is a Senator from Texas. You had me confused there for
a minute --