McClellan: I'm "Intrigued" By Obama

Ex-WH Press Secretary Tells CBS News Obama's Message Is Like Bush's In 2000

(CBS)  CBS News anchor Katie Couric interviewed former White House press secretary Scott McClellan about his explosive new book - and the criticism it is stirring. What follows is a transcript of the interview.

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Couric: Do you support John McCain?

McClellan: I haven't made a decision yet. I have a lot of respect and admiration for Sen. McCain. He is certainly someone who has governed from the center, and that's where I come from; I am pretty much a centrist who believes in working together to solve problems and get things done and putting the country ahead of partisan politics. I also am intrigued by Sen. Obama's message (smiles). It's a message that is very similar to the one Gov. Bush ran on in 2000, and won on, promising to bring bi-partisanship and honesty and integrity to Washington.

Couric: So you could see yourself actually voting for Barack Obama?

McClellan: I just said I haven't made a decision, but I do think, you know, McCain talked about ending the permanent campaign recently, Sen. Obama talks about changing the way Washington works. They better have a specific plan for doing that if they're gonna actually be the president of the United States, because it is difficult to do.

Couric: While you were press secretary, you were famous for denying access to reporters who asked tough questions. And now you're criticizing the press for not being tough enough. So isn't that the height of hypocrisy.

McClellan: Well in the buildup to the war, and … in the national press corps as a whole, there could have been more done to ask the tough questions. What happened, this is again, how the press becomes complicit enablers in this permanent campaign culture by focusing on the march to war rather than the necessity of war, that's where the emphasis and focus was and I think the emphasis and focus should have been more on finding out the truth. And, you know, I talk a lot about that in the book.

Katie Couric: Weren't you the ultimate complicit enabler, though? I asked a tough question before the Iraq War and you personally called an executive at NBC News and you threatened to deny access to us.

McClellan: I did?

Couric: Yes, you did, once the war began.

McClellan: Me personally? I don't, I don't remember that.

Couric: But did you strong-arm people into not questioning the administration?

McClellan: My style usually wasn't that way.

Couric: Well, it was you who made the call.

McClellan: I just, I just don't remember that. That may be but I certainly don't remember that incident. In terms of my style of working with reporters, it was usually straightforward when we were dealing with each other; I think I had that reputation with White House reporters. I just don't recall that specific incident.

Couric: Scott, the New York Times editorial page today said your book belongs in the genre of "I knew it was a terrible mistake, but I didn't mention it until I got a book contract." Why didn't you come forward with these criticisms earlier?

McClellan: Well, first of all, I think when you're inside the White House bubble, some of the larger truths can sometimes be obscured. You are working for someone that you have a lot of affection for, you're working 24/7, and sometimes it's hard to step back from what's going on and reflect upon it.

Couric: Do you feel any sense of guilt that the Iraq war, which you helped sell to the American people, has resulted in the loss of life for thousands of American soldiers?

McClellan: Well, I … do want to make sure that we learn from what happened and that we don't repeat the mistake of rushing into war again, unprepared. I do believe now, looking back and reflecting and knowing what I know now … a lot of which we didn't know at the time, that this was a war of choice. The intelligence was what it was but we took that intelligence, and then portrayed is it. And packaged it in a way to make it sound more grave and more urgent and more ominous than it was.

Couric: While you were press secretary, you were famous for denying access to reporters who asked tough questions. And now you're criticizing the press for not being tough enough. So isn't that the height of hypocrisy?

McClellan: In the build-up to the war. And it's the national press corps as a whole, that there could have been more done to ask the tough questions. What happened is, again, how the press becomes complicit enablers in this permanent campaign culture by focusing on the march to war rather than the necessity to war. That's where the emphasis and focus was when I think the emphasis and focus should have been more on finding out the truth.

Couric: Did you ever challenge the message you were being instructed to deliver or did you simply swallow it whole?

McClellan: Katrina is another example where I talk about how I advocated the president not do the fly-over which became - the policy was the more problematic issue there - but I thought it made the president look too detached from what was happening on the ground when people were still being rescued off of rooftops.

Couric: And yet the response was appropriate.

McClellan: There were times I would bring things up, but in the end, when the decision was made, my job was to go out there and advocate for the president, someone I still have great personal affection for.

Couric: In the run-up to the Iraq war, as you know, the administration linked Iraq to 9/11, to the point where the majority of the American people believed there was, in fact, a connection, even though none actually existed. Did the White House intentionally promote the notion of this connection in order to bolster support for the war?

McClellan: I don't think so. I think there was an impression left because of the connections we were making to al Qaeda in terms of Iraq, that there are contacts there. The vice president as he tended to do, got a little more out front than others …

Couric: He did make that suggestion.

McClellan: Yes, he did, but the president always avoided that, and I believe my predecessor, as well as … me, always avoided making that connection as well.

Couric: Why did the vice president do so?

McClellan: You know, I don't know. He is ... someone who … sometimes does things his own way, and i think that this president probably too often has shown him too much …

Couric: On your last day the president said this about you, let's take a listen.

(From video of President Bush speaking): One of these days he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas talking about the good old days.

Couric: Can you envision that ever happening now?

McClellan: I don't want plan on it at this point.

Couric: Do you feel as if you're biting the hand that fed you? Do you feel any sense of disloyalty writing this?

McClellan: I don't look at it that way. There's a loyalty much higher than my loyalty to my past public service and that's a loyalty to understand the truth and the loyalty to the way I was raised, the values I was raised upon. I was raised in a political family that believed very deeply in public service and the importance of speaking up and making a positive difference. Hopefully I've done that with this book

Couric: Scott McClellan. Scott, thanks very much.

McClellan: Thanks, Katie.

[jadedreaper]

I hope with every fiber of my being Obama doesn''t get the presidency.

[lvwoman]

I guess someone whose specialty is high-flying rhetoric with nothing to back is up is ''intriguing?'' All Mr. Hope and Change has done is mimic HRC, with little or no ''change.''

And GreatDriveW, if you truly believe what you posted, you are in for a rude awakening... Barack Obama is a politician and will do and say anything to be elected. Just study his tactics in Chicago...

[roach9703]

Obama better set a weasel trap. Could he do a show and tell on you?

[greatdrivew]

Can you imagine a White House that communicates openly and honestly with We the People?

Seriously, imagine it: no more secrets, cover ups or treating We the People as the enemy.

I can imagine it, and it''s one of several reasons why I''m voting for Obama in November!!

You are "intrigued?" I am "disappointed." If your assessment of Bush is as a politically centered animal, I have to wonder how your assessment of Obama could be any different. I think what happened, Scott, was that you didn''t start with a very good set of touchstones for determining values and merit, these worked to perfection, and they failed you. They still do.

[eddynewhope]

"Scotty McClellan is a little boy. He is not a man. Men make their own decisions and show loyalty to their friends and family."

Posted by S_Temper at 06:35 PM

Bwaaaaah - Loyalty to the bosses that lied to his face, sent him out to pander their lies, destroyed his credibility, then sent him packing because "he was no longer credible"? So you saying that he should have showed his loyalty to those people? Based on your logic, the Bushies are the little boys (big surprise there), and McClellan is the man who obviously decided to make his own decisions. LOL You''re not so smart, are you?

[ioweign]

Scotty McClellan is a little boy. He is not a man. Men make their own decisions and show loyalty to their friends and family. An immature little boy like McClellan makes up stories about his own family member molesting him, just to become the center of attention.

Posted by S_Temper at 06:35 PM : May 30, 2008


You are missing "truth", "honor", "integrity" - oh yea - this IS the Bush Administration...

[klyphan1]

I AM HAPPY TO SEE WHITE AMERICANS ARE LOSERS! DID I SAY AMERICANS ARE NOT READY FOR BLACK PRESIDENT? WOMEN IS THE BEST.
Guess what I meant?
Good LUCK!

[bulabob]

The liberal bias of Couric was just too much this time...and CBS management endorses it apparently. I''m on my way to the middle (?), either of the other two ....... maybe even to Fox. Just can'' handle her anymore.....CBS and Katie are in the same boat.....and its sinking!

[j-whitman]

seah5,,,, Funny isn''t it ??? -- Rupert Murdoch is impressed by Obama, he says, "McCain has too many problems"

[seah5]

So Obama is Just like his cousin.

Yep, a space cadet, with out a clue.

[j-whitman]

S_Temper,,, It takes a man to put patriotism for country over party politics

[rob416]

Posted by S_Temper:

I guess you must be a republican. Tow the Party line regardless of right or wrong. It dosen''t seem to matter to you that just maybe much of what McClellan said in the book is true. I know republican first, American second.

[drgnsnplnts]

'' .. if we let normal people do all the corrections, they''ll get whacked in the stomach with a big fine buffet of free food and medicine and EVERYONE will get away with contraversial vibrations .. ''

[drgnsnplnts]

'' .. once upon a time, all the 30 to 60 year olds got to go to real prisonet of dare camps to be shockt and awet into peace and prosperity and liberatedness, thanks to modern medicine: it''s a luxury most of them are too frail to afford? .. ''

[drgnsnplnts]

'' .. real men dont whoop and hollar i dared shocked awed you to stay of drugs and terror i dared shocked awed you to stay off drugs and terror, but real girls do .. ''

[drgnsnplnts]

'' .. all the folk around at the start of the airplane and the factory car are almost gone, a few brief years more and they''ll dirt farms, then everyone will want one .. ''

[drgnsnplnts]

'' .. i saw a naked girl once, on the side of a road, i crashed my nerf ball and got out and paddled her behind, old ancient folk tried to arrest me for her murder, but i pointed out she''d been bloody and dead long before i got to her *** .. ''

[drgnsnplnts]

'' .. i met a village once what claimed to have infinite flowers and swamps of food and medicine yet to discover, and they got squished by a normal village what claimed to have infinite terds left to step on and in and through and all over and all in .. ''

[drgnsnplnts]

'' .. how much more difficult than virtual infinite divergence is realtime infinite divergence? virtual infinite divergence is a three dimensional 3-D digital photograph or sequence what can be smeared and marred and splattered and pixilated and smeared and marred and splattered and pixilated and otherwise ''destroyed'' until a all new image or sequence emerges, and that image or sequence can be again ''destroyed'' until another all new one emerges, and this goe on forever, also virtual infinite divergence is a game piece with infinite directions in which to move or infinite decisions which to make, ever able to step backward and begin again forward in a new direction .. ''

'' .. as long as babys refuse to hold hands and weave bouquets of free food and medicine for each and all forever and ever more in the bus traffic circles and street cornets, and as long as they keep all the market share and tax money and fruits and wines and alcohols and parades to themselfs, there will be raped dead starved barbequed 3060s: support the folk not the favored! people are animals too! .. ''