Facing the Nation

I don't envy Secretary Rumsfeld's situation on CBS's Face the Nation recently. And I must say, he's got guts.

MoveOn has a video clip.

In it, Bob ScheifferSchieffer [shame on me!] is evidently surprised by Rumsfeld's claim that nobody in the administration ever claimed Iraq to be an imminent threat. And another reporter (for shame, I can't recall his name; I'm rusty)Tom Friedman [whom I denote as 'X' below, since I didn't know his name at the time] has specific quotes to refresh Rumsfeld's memory.

Here's my catch on what was said. It starts with Secretary Rumsfeld speaking.

R: You and a few other [pause] critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase 'imminent threat'. I didn't. The President didn't. And, uh, it's become kind of [hand waving] folklore that that's, that's what's happened. The President went...

S: You're saying that nobody in the administration said that?

R: [shaking head] I can't speak for [hand waving] nobody, everybody in the administration and say nobody said that...

S: The Vice-President didn't say that?

R: Not, if, if you have any citations, uh, I'd like to see them. I...

X: We have one here. It says, 'Some have argued' -- This is you speaking --

Some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent, that Saddam is at least five to seven years away from having nuclear weapons. I would not be so certain.

R: Mmm hmm. [long pause] And, and, uh, uh,...

X: That's close to imminent.

R: Well, umm, I, I've tried to be precise, and I've tried to be accurate. I'm so...

X continues with a second quote:

No terror state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stablility of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

R: [scowling] Mmm hmm. [nodding] Uhh, [looking down at the table] it it it, my view of the, the situation was that [right hand held out] he, he had, we, we believed the best intelligence...

And with that the video and sound fade away.

Update: Got Schieffer's name spelled wrong. Learned that the second reporter at the table was Tom Friedman. Got the info I needed from this post on kuro5hin. That post also has a link to the CBS transcript of the show.

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