Interview of the President and Former President Bush by Brit Hume, Fox News
January 7, 2009
10:32 A.M. EST,Q Mr. President, thank you for doing this. ,THE PRESIDENT: Yes, sir. ,Q Welcome back to FOX News Sunday. ,THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, sir. ,Q Less than two weeks to go -- how do you feel? ,THE PRESIDENT: You know, I've got mixed emotions. I'm going to miss being the Commander-in-Chief of the military. Earlier the past week I had the honor of having a military parade that said goodbye to the Commander-in-Chief and it was an emotional moment for me and Laura. ,Q Why? ,THE PRESIDENT: Just because I've got such great respect for the men and women who wear the uniform and I've been through a lot with them. I have called upon them to do hard tasks. I have met with the families of the fallen. I have been to Walter Reed to see the wounded. And I have been incredibly inspired by their courage, their bravery, their sacrifice. ,And I'm going to miss all the folks who have made our life so comfortable here in the White House. ,On the other hand I am looking forward to going back to Texas. I love Texas. I love my wife. And I'm excited about the next chapter in my life. And so all three of those things, you know, are the sweet part of the -- what's going to take place on January the 20th. ,Q People who come to see you here and meet with you, from the outside, are continually taken by surprise by your evident good humor and good mood and the fact that with low poll ratings and various troubles besetting the country and all you've been through, that you're not down -- that you're fine. And everybody remarks on it. How do you explain that? ,THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm better than fine. I am proud of the accomplishments of this administration. I am thankful for the people that have worked so hard to serve our country. I know I gave it my all for eight years. And I did not sell my soul for the sake of popularity. And so when I get back home and look in the mirror I will be proud of what I see. ,Q You have said that you did not compromise your principles in the interest of popularity. How would you describe those principles? ,THE PRESIDENT: Well, one principle is I believe in the universality of freedom; that there is an Almighty, and a gift of that Almighty to every man, woman and child is freedom. And therefore it's incumbent upon those of us with influence to act upon that principle. ,And I'll give you a classic example. During the darkest days of Iraq people came to me and said, you're creating incredible political difficulties for us. And I said, oh, really, what do you suggest I do? Some suggested, retreat, pull out of Iraq. But I have faith that freedom exists in people's souls and, therefore, if given a chance, democracy -- an Iraqi style democracy could survive and work. I didn't compromise that principle for the sake of trying to bail out my political party, for example. ,Q Talk to me about the presidency as you found it -- its powers, its prerogatives, and how you feel you're leaving it. ,THE PRESIDENT: My presidency was defined by the attack on the country, and therefore used the powers inherent in the Constitution to defend this country. ,Q Did you find them intact? ,THE PRESIDENT: I found -- yes, I did find the presidential powers intact. I have at times used those powers in ways that people had not anticipated. For example, the idea of, within the law, being able to have our folks question known killers about their intention. Now, many of the decisions I made are being adjudicated. And of course I have lived by and future Presidents will live by the decisions of the Supreme Court. But as a wartime President -- what remained intact, by the way, was the Constitution, which we have honored. ,Q It has been argued that what you sought to do is exactly expand the powers of the presidency, or in the eyes of some -- perhaps in the eyes of the Vice President -- to restore them. How do you see that? ,THE PRESIDENT: I see the relationship between the presidency and the judiciary and the legislative branch as constantly changing throughout the history of the country. And the key thing that's important is that there still be checks and balances. And so however I interpreted the Constitution, I kept in mind what the Constitution said, the legality of what my decisions were; but I also fully understood the checks and balances inherent in our system. ,Q Now, you've spoken of the tools that you believe you put in place and which your successor will now inherit. How worried are you -- if at all -- that those tools will be corroded, relinquished in the -- because some of them have been -- ,THE PRESIDENT: Slightly criticized. (Laughter.) ,Q Well, to say the least. ,THE PRESIDENT: I would hope that the team that is -- has the honor of serving the country will take a hard look at the realities of the world and the tools now in place to protect the United States from further attack. I would hope they would take a sober assessment -- and I believe they will. ,Q And what will they find? ,THE PRESIDENT: Well, they will find that with a considerable amount of care and concern for civil liberties, for example, that I have put in place procedures that will enable the professionals to better learn the intentions of al Qaeda, for example. They will realize, I think when they really study the issue carefully, that we have gone from an administration that was accused of not connecting dots to an administration that is connecting dots, you know, linking pieces of information to better protect the country, with the civil liberties of our citizens in mind. ,Q Now, the enhanced interrogation techniques, as some call them -- torture, as others call them-- are being argued over to this hour. Some are saying you never get any good information by rough stuff, and others have said -- more than once -- that if we hadn't used these techniques we wouldn't have had vital information and attacks could have been or would have been carried out on this country. Your view of that. ,THE PRESIDENT: My view is that the techniques were necessary and are necessary to be used on a rare occasion to get information necessary to protect the American people. One such person who gave us information was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He was the mastermind of the September the 11th, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on our soil. ,And I'm in the Oval Office and I am told that we have captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the professionals believe he has information necessary to secure the country. So I ask what tools are available for us to find information from him, and they gave me a list of tools. And I said, are these tools deemed to be legal. And so we got legal opinions before any decision was made. And I think when people study the history of this particular episode they'll find out we gained good information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in order to protect our country. ,Q Well, how good and how important? And what's the -- ,THE PRESIDENT: We believe that the information we gained helped save lives on American soil. ,Q Can you be more specific than that?
10:32 A.M. EST,Q Mr. President, thank you for doing this. ,THE PRESIDENT: Yes, sir. ,Q Welcome back to FOX News Sunday. ,THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, sir. ,Q Less than two weeks to go -- how do you feel? ,THE PRESIDENT: You know, I've got mixed emotions. I'm going to miss being the Commander-in-Chief of the military. Earlier the past week I had the honor of having a military parade that said goodbye to the Commander-in-Chief and it was an emotional moment for me and Laura. ,Q Why? ,THE PRESIDENT: Just because I've got such great respect for the men and women who wear the uniform and I've been through a lot with them. I have called upon them to do hard tasks. I have met with the families of the fallen. I have been to Walter Reed to see the wounded. And I have been incredibly inspired by their courage, their bravery, their sacrifice. ,And I'm going to miss all the folks who have made our life so comfortable here in the White House. ,On the other hand I am looking forward to going back to Texas. I love Texas. I love my wife. And I'm excited about the next chapter in my life. And so all three of those things, you know, are the sweet part of the -- what's going to take place on January the 20th. ,Q People who come to see you here and meet with you, from the outside, are continually taken by surprise by your evident good humor and good mood and the fact that with low poll ratings and various troubles besetting the country and all you've been through, that you're not down -- that you're fine. And everybody remarks on it. How do you explain that? ,THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm better than fine. I am proud of the accomplishments of this administration. I am thankful for the people that have worked so hard to serve our country. I know I gave it my all for eight years. And I did not sell my soul for the sake of popularity. And so when I get back home and look in the mirror I will be proud of what I see. ,Q You have said that you did not compromise your principles in the interest of popularity. How would you describe those principles? ,THE PRESIDENT: Well, one principle is I believe in the universality of freedom; that there is an Almighty, and a gift of that Almighty to every man, woman and child is freedom. And therefore it's incumbent upon those of us with influence to act upon that principle. ,And I'll give you a classic example. During the darkest days of Iraq people came to me and said, you're creating incredible political difficulties for us. And I said, oh, really, what do you suggest I do? Some suggested, retreat, pull out of Iraq. But I have faith that freedom exists in people's souls and, therefore, if given a chance, democracy -- an Iraqi style democracy could survive and work. I didn't compromise that principle for the sake of trying to bail out my political party, for example. ,Q Talk to me about the presidency as you found it -- its powers, its prerogatives, and how you feel you're leaving it. ,THE PRESIDENT: My presidency was defined by the attack on the country, and therefore used the powers inherent in the Constitution to defend this country. ,Q Did you find them intact? ,THE PRESIDENT: I found -- yes, I did find the presidential powers intact. I have at times used those powers in ways that people had not anticipated. For example, the idea of, within the law, being able to have our folks question known killers about their intention. Now, many of the decisions I made are being adjudicated. And of course I have lived by and future Presidents will live by the decisions of the Supreme Court. But as a wartime President -- what remained intact, by the way, was the Constitution, which we have honored. ,Q It has been argued that what you sought to do is exactly expand the powers of the presidency, or in the eyes of some -- perhaps in the eyes of the Vice President -- to restore them. How do you see that? ,THE PRESIDENT: I see the relationship between the presidency and the judiciary and the legislative branch as constantly changing throughout the history of the country. And the key thing that's important is that there still be checks and balances. And so however I interpreted the Constitution, I kept in mind what the Constitution said, the legality of what my decisions were; but I also fully understood the checks and balances inherent in our system. ,Q Now, you've spoken of the tools that you believe you put in place and which your successor will now inherit. How worried are you -- if at all -- that those tools will be corroded, relinquished in the -- because some of them have been -- ,THE PRESIDENT: Slightly criticized. (Laughter.) ,Q Well, to say the least. ,THE PRESIDENT: I would hope that the team that is -- has the honor of serving the country will take a hard look at the realities of the world and the tools now in place to protect the United States from further attack. I would hope they would take a sober assessment -- and I believe they will. ,Q And what will they find? ,THE PRESIDENT: Well, they will find that with a considerable amount of care and concern for civil liberties, for example, that I have put in place procedures that will enable the professionals to better learn the intentions of al Qaeda, for example. They will realize, I think when they really study the issue carefully, that we have gone from an administration that was accused of not connecting dots to an administration that is connecting dots, you know, linking pieces of information to better protect the country, with the civil liberties of our citizens in mind. ,Q Now, the enhanced interrogation techniques, as some call them -- torture, as others call them-- are being argued over to this hour. Some are saying you never get any good information by rough stuff, and others have said -- more than once -- that if we hadn't used these techniques we wouldn't have had vital information and attacks could have been or would have been carried out on this country. Your view of that. ,THE PRESIDENT: My view is that the techniques were necessary and are necessary to be used on a rare occasion to get information necessary to protect the American people. One such person who gave us information was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He was the mastermind of the September the 11th, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on our soil. ,And I'm in the Oval Office and I am told that we have captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the professionals believe he has information necessary to secure the country. So I ask what tools are available for us to find information from him, and they gave me a list of tools. And I said, are these tools deemed to be legal. And so we got legal opinions before any decision was made. And I think when people study the history of this particular episode they'll find out we gained good information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in order to protect our country. ,Q Well, how good and how important? And what's the -- ,THE PRESIDENT: We believe that the information we gained helped save lives on American soil. ,Q Can you be more specific than that?
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