Posted on 12/04/2001 9:58:33 PM PST by JohnHuang2
W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 4 — In his first television interview since Sept. 11, President Bush spoke to ABCNEWS' Barbara Walters about the responsibility of leading the nation's response to the terrorist attacks. He and First Lady Laura Bush gave Walters a tour of the White House's Christmas decorations — which this year are closed to the public for security reasons.The interview will be shown on 20/20 on Wednesday, Dec. 5, at 10 p.m. ET. The following is a complete transcript of their discussion.
FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH Isn't this beautiful? This is our beautiful upstairs yellow Oval Room. It's the formal living room upstairs.BARBARA WALTERS, ABCNEWS Private quarters?
MRS. BUSH Private quarters.
WALTERS (Overlap) This is private quarters.
--> MRS. BUSH This is private quarters. This is where we meet with Heads of State before we go down to the State Dinners.
WALTERS And your personal, your own Christmas tree.
MRS. BUSH This is our personal Christmas tree with all of our own ornaments.
WALTERS I see a baseball.
MRS. BUSH (Laughs)
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH A reminder of days gone past.
WALTERS Yes. These are all trinkets and ornaments…
--> MRS. BUSH That's right. These are ornaments we've had for all of our years of marriage.
WALTERS There's a picture of the girls.
MRS. BUSH That's right. A little picture of the girls up there; and Barney our dog is up there.
WALTERS Everybody's included.
MRS. BUSH Everyone is included.… PRESIDENT BUSH (Overlap/Inaudible)
MRS. BUSH -->Old pictures of the White House from President Bush number 41's term.
WALTERS That's a lovely room. You've redecorated everything up here.
MRS. BUSH Well, not this room.
WALTERS Not this one.
MRS. BUSH This room has been this way for a long time, and I think it looks so pretty.
WALTERS I've been here before when it was… (inaudible).
MRS. BUSH --> These, these chairs we're sitting on were actually the (Inaudible) that Jackie Kennedy put on them.
WALTERS Really?
MRS. BUSH Uh-huh.
WALTERS Well, let's go back to September 11th. Mr. President, you were in a classroom of second graders reading a school children's book when your Chief of Staff whispered in your ear. What did you say and what did you…
PRESIDENT BUSH He said, "A second airplane has hit the World Trade Center. America is under attack."
WALTERS What were your thoughts?
PRESIDENT BUSH Well, I knew I needed to be clear headed, and I was anxious to get out of the classroom to get the facts. But I was thinking about what responses we needed to take. The first thing is I was concerned about [was] the security of my administration.… I needed to know what it meant: "America was under attack."
And during this period of time, by the way, after I'd gotten out of the classroom and started getting on the phones, there was a lot of information, some of which was accurate, some of which was not. But the thing I've learned was it's important to understand exactly what had taken place.
WALTERS Well, you're then on Air Force One making phone calls to your Vice President, other people. When did you say to yourself, "This means war?"
PRESIDENT BUSH When I learned that the crash was not an accident, but looked like a planned attack, I knew we were… entering into a whole new era in American history, that we were at war.… One of the first things I did was talked to Secretary Don Rumsfeld and put our troops on full alert, or on higher status…
WALTERS This is while you were still in the plane?
PRESIDENT BUSH On Air Force One, yes, ma'am.… One of the interesting sidelines… I know you did recently interview Vladimir Putin.
WALTERS Yes.
PRESIDENT BUSH At the same time, he called (or right afterwards); he called in and informed our government that he understood what we were doing and he himself was not going to put his troops on alert. In other words, the old Cold War era had finally begun to recede in the minds of the Russian military planners. That was a very important step, by the way.
WALTERS That he was leaving things in your hands?
PRESIDENT BUSH Yes, that he was not going to respond to our alert as if something might happen…
WALTERS (Overlap) Yes.
PRESIDENT BUSH That's important.… The point I make is, by putting our troops in alert, obviously I was in a war mentality. At the same time, I had also made the decision, or close to made the decision that if we found an airplane that was squawking emergency, that its transponder had showed distress, that I had given the orders to the Secretary of Defense to shoot that airplane down.… WALTERS Hmm.
PRESIDENT BUSH Um,--> That's a tough decision to make, but you've got to understand that I was the Commander in Chief and the President of a nation that had just been attacked by four aircraft, and we didn't know if other aircraft were coming or not.
WALTERS (Inaudible) Mrs. Bush, you were on Capitol Hill…
MRS. BUSH Yes.
WALTERS …preparing to testify on education.
MRS. BUSH Uh-huh.
WALTERS And you were taken directly down into the Emergency Operations Center in the basement of the White House.
MRS. BUSH Well, I was taken to another secure location where I was all day…
WALTERS (Overlap) But then eventually you were…
MRS. BUSH (Overlap) But then eventually, late that afternoon, right before the President left, I was taken down there.
WALTERS As you waited, what were your thoughts?
MRS. BUSH Well, like every American, my thoughts were with the people who were in that building. I called my mother, I called our daughters… WALTERS (Overlap) What did you…
MRS. BUSH … --> talked to the President.
WALTERS Can you tell me what you told your daughters?
MRS. BUSH I told them that they were okay, that they'd be fine. They were frightened, I think; one of them wept a little bit. When she woke up, she had heard it on the radio… her radio alarm to wake her up for class, and one of her neighbors in the dorm came in crying because her little brother was in a school close to the World Trade Center. As it turned out, he was fine. But, she was really impacted with it. The other one was asleep still in the Texas time zone. But I talked to both of them.
I called my mother, because I wanted to hear her voice. I acted like I was calling to reassure her, but the fact is I wanted her to reassure me.
WALTERS Were you worried about your husband?
MRS. BUSH I was worried about him. I talked to him a lot of times during the day. When he first got on Air Force One to come home, I talked to him.… He called me a lot during the day from Air Force One.
WALTERS That's how you take care of each other.
MRS. BUSH (Laughs) Right.
PRESIDENT BUSH Well, she's been incredibly… 'steady hand," as we say in Texas.… WALTERS Yes …
PRESIDENT BUSH --> She's been very calm and reassuring. She's reassured the nation; but as she's done that, she's also reassured me. It's been… really a joy to see Laura's true strengths, for America to see the true strengths, the reason I married her. A lot of people wonder why she married me… (LAUGHTER)
WALTERS Well… (Laughs)
PRESIDENT BUSH Now you see why I married her.
WALTERS Speaking of that, do you get tired of people saying that your husband has exceeded … (LAUGHTER)
MRS. BUSH Expectations?
WALTERS …expectations?
MRS. BUSH Well, I'm glad that people are getting to see him for how he is.
PRESIDENT BUSH (Laughs)
MRS. BUSH He also is a very steady hand. He's very focused, he's very disciplined. I said that a million times during the campaign.
WALTERS Now they believe you.
MRS. BUSH It didn't… resonate then, but…
WALTERS (Overlap) Yeah. When you came back and you went down and met with your National Security Council, during this operation, and they were all gathered around the table — what was the mood? What was it like?
PRESIDENT BUSH Well, it was incredibly somber.…
WALTERS Did anyone disagree?
PRESIDENT BUSH No. We were resolute in our determination to get specs and put a plan in place to prevent future attacks on America. We were at war. Every person down there realized… that we were facing a new kind of war…
I am surrounded by a fabulous group of people. These are problem solvers. These are people that are, that are focused and determined and have got a great deal of experience, and we're functioning well as a team. And as a result of that initial meeting, we have put together the strategy to protect the homeland, as well as to pursue the war and wherever terror may exist. (continued)
BARBARA WALTERS, ABCNEWS One of the newsmagazines said that you have a gift for war.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH Hmm? Gift for war? … WALTERS (Overlap/Inaudible)
PRESIDENT BUSH -->Well, I don't long for war. I hope I've got a gift for peace. I hope the legacy of the Bush Administration is a lasting peace, so that our children's grandchildren can grow up in a civilized world, a world that won't face the terror that exists today. And, and make no mistake about it, these people aren't through. These are very evil, murderous people.
WALTERS How will you know, in your own words, when we have won? It's not going to end, we now know, in Afghanistan.
PRESIDENT BUSH That's right.
WALTERS How do we know it? Will we ever know?
PRESIDENT BUSH You know, I don't think there's ever going to be an end to evil. But I think the free world, the civilized world, the good people of the world, can strike a serious blow against the evildoers. But there's got to be a lot of things we've got to do. We've got to make sure that the education system throughout the world provides people the needs to be able to provide work. That people are given freedoms. That women around the world are free to exercise their God-given rights.
WALTERS But there's not going to be a victory day?
PRESIDENT BUSH Oh, no, I don't think so. But I think there's going to be moments of victory, which indicate to potential terrorists that there's going to be a severe and significant price to pay if they harm America and/or our allies.
WALTERS I would like to turn to some of the very pressing news today. The situation in Israel is horrendous. Israel has all but declared war on the Palestinians. Do you support Israel's retaliatory efforts?
PRESIDENT BUSH I support Israel's right to exist as a free nation; and I made that very clear to the Prime Minister of Israel who came to see me.
Here's what I think people must understand: There are people that don't want peace…
WALTERS (Overlap) Is that the Palestinians?
PRESIDENT BUSH No, I don't think so.
WALTERS But we're talking about Israel and the Palestinians.
PRESIDENT BUSH I understand what we're talking about. I think there are some Palestinians who don't want peace.
WALTERS Okay.
PRESIDENT BUSH Hamas doesn't want peace; they will do everything they can to destroy a peace process — a peace process, by the way, that was just beginning to mature and nurture and develop. What the free world must do… and what the Middle Eastern countries must do if they're interested in peace — and we are interested in peace, the Prime Minister is interested in peace, Prime Minister Sharon — they must root out those terrorists, those few who would prevent the peace process from going on. There is no way that Israel can negotiate a peace process so long as its country is being terrorized.
WALTERS Is Arafat, Yassir Arafat, interested in peace?
PRESIDENT BUSH That's what we're about to find out. And in my statement yesterday to the world I said it's now time for Mr. Arafat to prove whether or not he is for peace. And the way he can do that is to aggressively root out those who would derail the peace process by murdering innocent Israelis — innocent women, innocent children. And now is the time for him to step up and lead; he must show that behind his words of peace there is action. Because now is the time. We need action.
WALTERS Or else?
PRESIDENT BUSH Or else there's not going to be peace. And we'll just have to deal with that when it comes. I'm an optimist.… WALTERS Yeah.
PRESIDENT BUSH …-->I hope he does respond.
WALTERS But at the moment, you do support what Israel is doing.
PRESIDENT BUSH At the moment I support the fact that we must root out terror in order for us to get back to a peace process.
Listen, I was so sympathetic yesterday… I mean, Sunday, to Ariel Sharon. When he's standing in my office, obviously agonizing over the loss of innocent life, the clear attempt of murdering innocent people and a successful attempt of murdering innocent people. And this is a man who is the only elected official in the region, democratically elected official in the region who has got the responsibility to defend his people. And he will do so.
WALTERS Mrs. Bush, do you discuss these things at night?
FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH We do discuss some of them certainly. And we talked about Ariel Sharon. We talked about the situation that he faces as a leader when his people are terrorized. The same sort of situation we're facing in our country now.… We talk about things like that. We also try to laugh and try to relax and be with our friends and be with our family members and…
PRESIDENT BUSH Play with our dog.
MRS. BUSH Play with our pets. (LAUGHTER)
PRESIDENT BUSH I would play with the dogs and the cat, but the cat's kind of hard to train. (LAUGHTER)
WALTERS Yes, the cats don't like that.
PRESIDENT BUSH They don't like that. (Laughs)
WALTERS Even for a President, they don't like that. (LAUGHTER)
Mr. President, it looks as if we are closing in on Osama bin Laden.
PRESIDENT BUSH Uh-huh.
WALTERS Although you had said at one point it might take ten years, but it looks as if we're closing in; and you said you wanted Osama bin Laden dead or alive. Which would you prefer: Dead or alive?
PRESIDENT BUSH I don't care.
WALTERS As long as we get him.
PRESIDENT BUSH Yeah.
WALTERS Are we closing in?
PRESIDENT BUSH And it's not just Osama bin Laden. It is… WALTERS Yeah.
PRESIDENT BUSH …--> the al Qaeda leadership that has planned and caused there to be thousands of deaths in America. And, yeah, we're making progress. We're making it harder for him to find sanctuary. We are closing down caves, we are getting more and more of the territories under control of our friends and allies, and therefore, we have a better chance of spotting him in person. We're tightening the noose on Osama bin Laden.
WALTERS I guess the question next is… Afghanistan. Eventually and not too far off in the future we will end our war there… PRESIDENT BUSH Uh-huh.
WALTERS … -->and perhaps have a better state of affairs there. The question now is where would you strike next?
PRESIDENT BUSH Well… today, interestingly enough, I'm starting down a foundation here in America, a tax exempt foundation that has provided funding for Hamas. And my point to you, Barbara, is that this war on terror is so unconventional that there will be strikes that people may not see until we tell them that there's been a strike. So financial strikes are going to be incredibly important. It will matter. Strikes will be incredibly important. And there may be need to use military troops elsewhere. And I just want the American people to know that we're keeping all options on the table.
But let me caution you about this, that we've got a while to go in Afghanistan. The mission is not just to achieve military success. There's a humanitarian mission; we've got to make sure that is fulfilled, as well as make sure that there is… a government that doesn't export terror, export heroin and is a peaceful neighbor to Pakistanis — or the Iranians, for that matter.
WALTERS Well, let's talk about Iraq, one of the countries that you've been talking about. You've called Iraq's President Saddam Hussein "evil." You've demanded that he allow weapons inspectors back. If he does not allow them back, is there a deadline? I mean, what people want to know is, is there going to be a point where you say, "That's it," and will you attack?
PRESIDENT BUSH Well, what people need to know is, we're going to do our job in Afghanistan first.
WALTERS Okay.
PRESIDENT BUSH Seriously. No, I think that's very important for people to know. There seems to be an impatience here in Washington, D.C., about what's going on in Afghanistan. We've got troops at risk. We've got…
WALTERS (Overlap) Are they going to be there for years?
PRESIDENT BUSH No, I hope not. It's hard for me to predict. But I can tell you this, I'm the kind of president, and this is the kind of administration, that makes sure that the task we're doing is accomplished. And then we can find other areas… of opportunity to rout out terrorism.
There's no telling how the world will respond, how nations will respond once we're successful in Afghanistan. I mean, it may just be that countries say well, gosh, there's a full intent of the coalition to hold us accountable for harboring terrorists and/or developing weapons of mass destruction, which could be used by terrorists and therefore we will… And they may say, please… will come in with us…
WALTERS Iraq may say, "Please come in, we'll…"
PRESIDENT BUSH Could very well be; we don't know yet.
WALTERS So Afghanistan is going to be much longer than any of us expected.
PRESIDENT BUSH Well, listen, as I've told the world leaders that have called me: I hope it ends quickly. But we're not leaving until we've accomplished the mission. And we haven't accomplished the mission yet.
WALTERS If Iraq does not say please come in (you know what I'm getting at), will we attack?
PRESIDENT BUSH You're trying to get me to give…
WALTERS Oh I am. You're absolutely right…
PRESIDENT BUSH (Overlap) …some kind of a warning.… I will warn him that he ought to let inspectors in.
I just call him evil because he is the one person on the face of the earth who has recently used chemical warfare, weapons of mass destruction to poison his own people and his neighbors. This is not a good man and he signed an agreement, or agreed to allow inspectors in his country to show the world that he is not going to develop weapons that could be used against them. And I strongly urge him to allow inspectors back in.
WALTERS He's stubborn Mrs. Bush, he's not going to answer my question. He's not going to answer my question, right?
MRS. BUSH That's right, he isn't going to answer it.
PRESIDENT BUSH Wait a minute, I did answer it.
MRS. BUSH He did answer it. He gave you a very good… (Overlap)
WALTERS When you said to me, "You're trying to get me to answer something," I think "Oh, I'm not going to get that exact answer." (continued)
==================
BARBARA WALTERS, ABCNEWS We asked some of our viewers to submit questions and this is one that many people asked. They said, just this past Monday we were told once again that we should be on alert to terrorist threat, but nobody tells us what that means.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH Right.
WALTERS And we've detained hundreds of people, we've talked to nations all over the world who know about terrorist cells, but we still don't know where or how that next attack will be? How is that possible?
PRESIDENT BUSH Well, because the intelligence is such that they're not saying, "We'll meet you at X spot within a certain city." They're basically saying, "We're gonna get them again." There seems to be a heightened amount, an intense amount of information coming in, particularly associated with the Ramadan period. And therefore, I have the obligation of reminding law enforcement officials…
WALTERS Primarily.
PRESIDENT BUSH Around the country — primarily law enforcement officials — that you must be on alert. Now, in the past we had, for example, threats related to our ports; and so we've been working again with the port authorities and the port police and the Coast Guard to be on heightened alert. I also have told the American people, on the one hand, we have the obligation to heighten alerts with the law enforcement; but they themselves need to go about their lives.
I'm going down to Florida after this interview to talk about and answer questions from people such as this question about what does it mean to be on alert. But I also want to show that traveling to Florida, or tourism, needs to go on — it's an important part of making sure the terrorist is not able to succeed, which is basically shutting down our economy.
WALTERS There are reports that Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda may have radioactivity…
PRESIDENT BUSH Yeah…
WALTERS …that could be put into bombs. We just heard this. People feel, "Where do we go?" We don't have bunkers, we don't have fall out shelters.
PRESIDENT BUSH No, what you do is you rely upon the government…
WALTERS To take care of you if it happens?
PRESIDENT BUSH …to do everything in their power. You bet. And we have got FBI agents all over every single piece of information.
We are giving people an opportunity, by the way, to help keep America secure. You've read about the interview process, that we've asked people who are enjoying the liberties of our country — these are not U.S. citizens, these are people who've come into our country — we're asking them to help make America secure. It seems logical to me and right to me to say that if you come and enjoy the benefits of America, then you ought to help America, on a voluntary basis, determine whether or not we can find potential terrorists imbedded into our country. That's a very important part by the way of helping secure the homeland, is to get as much information as we can.
But the American people need to know, one, we don't know whether or not Osama Bin Laden has got a nuclear device. We do know that he openly bragged about trying to get one. We do know that he is a murderer. We do know that he has no sense of civility about who he kills. And therefore, we're going to do everything we can to stop him. And they need to know the government is on alert…
WALTERS Military tribunal…
PRESIDENT BUSH Yeah.
WALTERS …which is part of all of this. And you know, there has been a great deal of criticism back and forth: no jury, no right of appeals, trial (Inaudible) secrecy. What's so wrong with the American judicial system that it can't take care of matters the way they are now? I mean, it has already convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and… Why wouldn't it work? Why do we need this?
PRESIDENT BUSH Well we're at war. This is a war, Barbara… we're under attack.
WALTERS But we don't want to destroy the liberties that we've fought for.
PRESIDENT BUSH I couldn't agree more with you. But in times of war the president ought to have at his disposal extraordinary measures to deal, means to deal with extraordinary circumstances.…
First of all, we have never had a military tribunal in my administration.… I'd like the tool just in case we need to use it. Secondly, no U.S. citizen will be brought before a military tribunal… Let me finish…
WALTERS Okay.
PRESIDENT BUSH Thirdly, if, for example… Remember, this is a continuing set of threats to America; if you knew that a trial would reveal sources of information which could jeopardize our capacity to defend the homeland, you as the president… And certainly I'm not going to allow that source to be compromised. So therefore, there may be an occasion when it's in our national security, the interest of our national security, to make sure that information related to a particular murder does not make I into the public. That's when I would use a military tribunal.
WALTERS Not widespread.
PRESIDENT BUSH No, not at all; of course not. And not only that, I would hope that we would be able to convict the killers in our regular courts. But I need to have the option because I will not compromise the national security of the United States;nor will I put the American citizens in a threatening position in order to convict an al Qaeda member. I refuse to do something to compromise our capacity to defend innocent Americans.
WALTERS What about American citizens… PRESIDENT BUSH (Overlap)
WALTERS --> John Walker Lindh, who is a 20-year-old American.
PRESIDENT BUSH Yeah…
WALTERS He's fought for the Taliban. He is being held by U.S. forces. What do you do with him? Is he a traitor?
PRESIDENT BUSH Well, we didn't find out the circumstances…
WALTERS And then… (Inaudible)
PRESIDENT BUSH …Well, we think — we're not sure — we're just trying to learn the facts about this poor fellow.
Obviously he has been misled. It appears to me he thought he was going to fight for a great cause; and in fact, he was going to support a government that was one of the most repressive governments in the history of mankind. Surely he was raised better than to know that a government that suppresses women and women's rights, that doesn't educate young girls, is not the kind of government worth dying for.
WALTERS What do we do with him?
PRESIDENT BUSH I don't know. We're trying to figure that out. I can't make any news right now because we're in the process of determining what to do with John.
'A Fight for Civilization Itself'
WALTERS You have so many decisions every day…
PRESIDENT BUSH Yeah.
WALTERS And you were quoted in Newsweek as saying, "I have not looked back on one decision I have made and wished I'd made it in a different way." Almost every world leader — I mean even General Eisenhower, on the eve of D-day confessed to some doubt. You never have doubts?
PRESIDENT BUSH If I do I'm not going to air them on national TV.
WALTERS Do you tell Mrs. Bush?
PRESIDENT BUSH Of course we…
WALTERS I should ask you.
FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH (Laughs)
WALTERS Does he ever have doubts?
MRS. BUSH (Inaudible) No.
PRESIDENT BUSH I'm confident that we're doing the right thing Barbara. You know, when I first started commenting about this new war, I reminded people that the farther we get away from September 11…
WALTERS Yeah.
PRESIDENT BUSH …The human psyche is such that they'll want to forget the terror and the tragedy, they'll want to move on.
But I'm not moving on, because I understand that we're in a fight for civilization itself. And now is the calling, now is the time for leaders to stand up and to fight terror wherever we find it. And you know, America may tire of a president that is insistent that we rout out terror, but I know this is the right thing to do. It's the calling of our time; it may sound corny to you, but it is. And we must succeed in order for us to realize the freedoms that we have taken for granted up to now.
WALTERS You're going to be a target for years and years and years of threats, are you ever afraid?
MRS. BUSH I really am not ever that afraid. I mean, of course I'm anxious sometimes; but I'm not physically afraid.
WALTERS What have you said to your girls who must be very worried?
MRS. BUSH They're worried I think… (Clears Throat) But they're also off away from us; they're not in Washington, they're living their own lives. And I actually just have a certain confidence… I have a confidence in our government, I'm very proud of my husband and president. I also know that things happen in life that we can't control certainly; and I just have a sense of peace, I guess I should say.
WALTERS Your sense of peace and your composure has been very helpful to many people during these last months. You originally did not want to come out and be that public of a figure, I remember when we talked earlier. And it has happened. Was it a conscious decision?
MRS. BUSH Well sort of, I think. I think also, it was just what happened; just, you know, really what happened.
When after September 11 — the day after, on September 12 — I called my staff together, because a lot of them had been with me that day in the secure location, the ones that hadn't literally been told to run from the White House. They were afraid, they were anxious — a lot of young women work for me. But I also told them that we have an opportunity and a responsibility that was forced upon us. None of them got their job, their so called "very glamorous job" at the White House thinking they were going to be told to run from the White House. But I said because of what's happened, we have the responsibility and the opportunity to be constructive. We have an unbelievable and extraordinary chance to be constructive for our country.… I wanted everyone on my staff, no matter what their job is, to think about what we can do. What I can do, what the president can do, what they can do to be constructive. And they've done that I think.
So it was not a role I expected by any means, but I'm glad I was prepared for it. And in many ways I was prepared for it because I've been a teacher, I've worked with children That's what I've done my whole life.
WALTERS Mr. President, on the domestic side,when we talk about coping, a lot of our viewers wrote that they're very concerned about the economy. And they say they understand that you've said we should return to a normal life and travel and shop and spend money, and then they say, "But how can we do this when the economy is in recession and we're losing jobs?"
PRESIDENT BUSH Well, I share that same concern, Barbara. I'm very worried about those citizens who have lost work, those families that have been affected by lay-offs. And I'm working with Congress to put a stimulus package in place that I think will be part of…
WALTERS Do you think they're gonna do it?
PRESIDENT BUSH I do. I really do. I think there's in an attitude in Washington that is kind of a can-do attitude, that wants to get something done. I've certainly spent time giving them a blue print and a way to get to pass a stimulus package.
I had lunch yesterday with your friend and mine Alan Greenspan, who handles monetary policy very well. Interest rates are low, energy prices are reasonable, tax policy is very effective in my judgment, fiscal policy is good. We've got to make sure we hold the line on spending so as not to create extensive large, looming deficits, which could slow growth. And therefore the ingredients for recovery are in place, we've just got to make sure that the American psyche, as best as we can, has recovered from the Sept. 11 attack.
Listen, the economy slowed down last March.… That's why I made the case for tax relief then. It looked like it was beginning to recover some; and then the attack, obviously, has deeply affected the American psyche and it has affected corporate America and has affected the economy. And we just must recover from it, and that's what we're going to do. Part of recovery, by the way, is an effective homeland defense strategy. It's protecting the American people from another attack.
WALTERS Final question: Faith is very important to both of you. Do you think there is a reason why you were president at this time?
PRESIDENT BUSH No, I don't think so… I don't think so. Somebody said, "Well you know, gosh, God put you here." I don't believe God picked who was going to be the president.
I do believe that in God we can find great strength and great solace and great comfort. And one of the things that I am most grateful about — I know Laura shares this — is the amount of prayer that occurs in this nation for our safety, for our children, for the government and for our country. It is such a comforting feeling, and I feel the prayers of the American people. People say, "How do you know that?" Well, it's hard to define faith, but I feel it. The people just have to take my word for it.
WALTERS You're nodding Mrs. Bush.
MRS. BUSH That's right, people come up everywhere and tell us they're praying for us, and they're praying for our country. And we really see that, we see it all over our country. It's amazing, since Sept. 11, how people no longer take for granted how great our country is and how appreciative we all are and thankful we all are to be Americans.
WALTERS I thank you for your time and this special interview.
PRESIDENT BUSH Thanks.
And yes, they're a class act, indeed.
Impossible. The show airs tonight...
God BLess George and Laura Bush.
Sounds as though this is going to be great! I was reading the guild thread as they were watching it on east coast and they loved it!
Have my pound cake in the oven to take out just as it comes on! Party! LOL
hehehe!
Now they are sitting down. Here we go.
Thank you God for George and Laura Bush.
Thank you John!!!!!!
who keeps calling me to see if i'm watching it.
Beautiful couple....so glad they are being guided by the One who matters most.
I hope all of you are praying for them daily...
I LOVE President Bush and Laura !!!!!!!!!
Couldn't agree with you more.
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