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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK

President Bush Defense on Iraq's WMD

Aired August 1, 2003 - 06:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Can President Bush really have a relaxing vacation? Probably not. So, what does a president do to relax?
Let's head live to the White House and senior correspondent, John King.

I guess the president will be thinking a lot about weapons of mass destruction himself, won't he?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, much more this year than in years past. The president will take his August in Crawford, and instead used Crawford more as a hotel room, not necessarily a vacation all of the time.

The president will travel quite a bit, and he acknowledges this week he will spend a lot of time talking to the American people about two issues: The economy, No. 1, but also the war on terrorism and the post-war period in Iraq. And one of the big questions, of course, about that post-war period is: Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Mr. Bush continues to insist that he is confident ultimately the evidence will be found, that Saddam Hussein had active chemical and biological programs.

And the president conceded this week that he must find that evidence -- U.S. forces must find that evidence for him to quiet the many skeptics. But the president insisted the American people and his many skeptics need to be patient.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's going to take time for us to gather the evidence and analyze the mounds of evidence, literally the miles of documents that we have uncovered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: His new point man on this is David Kay. He used to be a U.N. weapons inspector. He's now working with the CIA and Pentagon teams inside Iraq, looking for the weapons programs. He's here in Washington this week, testified on Capitol Hill yesterday. David Kay saying he is beginning to get more cooperation from Iraqi scientists, beginning, in his view, to find some of the evidence of those weapons programs. But David Kay says none of this evidence will be released until they can pull it all together in a comprehensive way.

Carol, you know the president is waiting for some sort of presentation, hoping -- hoping he can quiet the many skeptics. Those skeptics continue to say, though, 90 days since major hostility stopped, where are the weapons? -- Carol.

COSTELLO: John King reporting live from the White House this morning.

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