John King: His interview with President Bush

President Bush during an interview with CNN's John King on Wednesday, April 25

Q: How does the Bush we saw today compare to the Bush we saw during the campaign and just after the inauguration?

KING: He is clearly very relaxed, very comfortable in his suit, if you will and he said he is enjoying the job and he is loving the job. During the campaign there was not much talk of international policy from then-governor Bush. Obviously in his first hundred days, he has had to deal with a number of international issues; the surveillance plane stand off with China, the Middle East and - obviously - the issue of arms sales to Taiwan in the news today and his comments about whether or not he would defend Taiwan. So he has had an interesting early moment in his presidency - a number of international policy challenges and certainly a very delicate moment in terms of the domestic agenda with the negotiations about the tax cut and spending levels. Governing is very different than campaigning and you get a taste of that when you spend time with him these days.

VIDEO Bush talks about Taiwan and China in the first part of the interview (April 25) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Part two of CNN's interview with Bush, in which he talks about various issues and his first 100 days (April 25) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) An analysis of the effects of Bush's statement, from CNN's Mike Chinoy (April 25) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Former U.S. State Department spokesman Jamie Rubin says Bush is 'throw[ing] away two decades of American policy (April 25) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)    IN-DEPTH U.S. and China: Eagle meets dragon    AUDIO CNN's Senior Asia Correspondent Mike Chinoy says President Bush is walking a tightrope 1.53M/2:26 mins. AIFF or WAV sound    MESSAGE BOARDS China-U.S. relations Taiwan    ALSO 'Pretty darn good,' Bush calls his first 100 days Taiwan media hail U.S. arms package Chinese generals call for tougher U.S. policy Poll shows Americans think less of China after spy plane incident

Q: President Bush stated that he would do "whatever it takes" to defend Taiwan from any Chinese attack. Do his comments reflect a change in U.S. policy toward Taiwan?

KING: He says it is no major change, but certainly it is unprecedented for a U.S. president to explicitly say that. For twenty years now, including in his father's administration, there has been deliberate ambiguity. So that the Taiwanese don't know exactly when and if and how the United States would respond militarily if China attacked and so that Beijing doesn't know exactly what the circumstances would be. This is a one-China policy and it is very complicated. We recognize Beijing, mainland China, as the country, as the state, but yet we have obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act to defend and to assist Taiwan militarily and allow it to purchase U.S. arms so that it is not at a gross imbalance with mainland China militarily. The ambiguity is for a reason and during the campaign then-Governor Bush did say he thought the US should be more candid and more open. But there are eyebrows raised not only here in Washington, but around the world, especially in Asia.

There is some consternation that if he is to publicly commit the U.S. military to defend Taiwan, should he be doing that in television interviews or in a major foreign policy speech after consultations with The Congress and key allies, such as Japan and South Korea. So for a president to be so explicit is indeed a dramatic shift from what had been an implicit policy. He tried to temper his remarks a little bit in the CNN interview today by making clear that he was not trying to encourage pro-independence forces in Taiwan and that he would be very disappointed if they took that as a ticket to be more vocal in pushing for independence which, again, would be inconsistent with the one-China policy. But he did stand by the gist of his comments and said that he believed that it was a message the Chinese needed to hear.

Q: What did the president say about his decisions not to interfere in the Cincinnati riot situation and not to greet the newly-released crew from Hainan upon their homecoming?

KING: It is clear and he is very open in saying that he has a very different approach to the bully pulpit than his predecessor, Bill Clinton. In the case of traveling to Washington State to welcome the crew members home, the President said that he thought his presence would have a negative impact and would delay the reunion of those families and take away attention from the crew members. That would put a politician in the middle of what he said should be an emotional family moment.

In the case of Cincinnati, that is the one case where it is absolutely clear that Clinton would have spoken out. It was an issue that he spoke out frequently on. There's no question in my mind that Bill Clinton would have spoken out, probably even more than once. This President says that he should choose his moments carefully. He thought the mayor was doing a good job and that for him to say anything publicly would actually undermine the local officials on the scene because the President speaking would lead to the inference that the national government thought the local government wasn't doing a good job. He clearly has a much different philosophy and strategy about when he believes to use the bully pulpit of the presidency is appropriate. In that regard it is a very sharp contrast with Clinton.

Q: With his first hundred days nearly completed, the president seems to be making himself very visible with high-profile television interviews. How are he and his administration viewing this milestone? What message are they hoping to convey?

KING: It is very ironic because this administration initially rejected the 100-day benchmark and said that it would not cooperate with media organizations that wanted to use it for report cards. Then they realized, however, that CNN and just about everyone else in the business was going to focus on the 100-day mark and there would be report cards assessing how successfully he was advancing his agenda and how successfully he had made the transition from governor to president. So they decided a little over a week ago that if this was inevitable that they might as well try to dominate it. So, they made the president and senior administration officials available to get out and make the case that, in their view, the President is off to, what he called "a pretty darn good start."

It is true in this regard they are right that the second hundred days will be a lot more instructive than the first hundred days in terms of how much of his agenda he can actually enact into law. They have made progress in the tax debate, but the final product is still not clear yet. They are negotiating right now on education, another priority item where the final product is still not clear. There is a pretty sharp fight over the spending levels of education right now.

So, the administration initially rejected the first 100 days as an arbitrary and unfair benchmark because they do not feel that it is fair to judge a president so soon. They say it is so hard to get things done, especially in this environment with the Congress so evenly divided and the President having won a contested election. So, when they realized it was going to happen whether they liked it or not, they decided that they were going to actively and aggressively jump in and try to put their stamp on the assessments that were under way.

Bush pledges whatever it takes to defend Taiwan
April 24, 2001
Lee's Japan visit hailed as 'breakthrough'
April 23, 2001
Anger, elation over visa for former Taiwan leader
April 21, 2001
Taiwan holds wargames ahead of U.S. arms decision
April 20, 2001
China protests as Lee wins Japan, U.S. visas
April 20, 2001

See related sites about Politics

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.