Brit Hume interviewed Ari Fleischer on Special Report March 8, 2005. I have just finished transcribing it.
[Videotape]:
Helen Thomas: Why then is a family grudge included in official papers States Acquisition on war and peace?
Ari Fleischer: Helen, if you’re referring to, form, an attempt to assassinate a former United States President which Iraq tried to do when former President Bush went to Kuwait.
Helen Thomas: that’s why we’re killing thousands of people in Iraq?
Ari Fleischer: Helen I also think it’s why former President Clinton responded to that assassination attempt with four days of cruise missile strikes against Iraq.
Helen Thomas: People are acting like this is a conversion to democracy by the sword. How can you, I mean, are you going to kill all these people to get democracy?
[Live]:
Brit Hume: That is what daily press briefings were like in the first years of the Bush Administration and that’s pretty much what they’re like today. Briefers come and go, but the press, and some of its prominent members seem to be forever. Why is this? Well who better to ask than the man who, as you just saw endured the slings and arrows for most of President Bush’s first term, his former press secretary, Ari Fleischer, author of Taking Heat the new book about his experiences on the job. Ari, welcome.
Ari Fleischer: Thank you Brit.
Brit Hume: So what causes, in your judgment, the atmosphere, that intensely adversarial atmosphere which has existed for some time in the White House briefing room?
Ari Fleischer: Well part of it is the healthy way every democracy should be carried out with press holding the government accountable and asking the tough questions. But I also happen to think that in the modern media, particularly live TV coverage, it’s almost now become a performance in that briefing room, half by reporters, half by the press secretary, it’s just a new era.
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