Following are excerpts from Bill O'Reilly's interview with President George W. Bush. Watch the exclusive three-part interview on "The O’Reilly Factor" beginning on Monday September 27th at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. The second and third installments will run Tuesday and Wednesday at 8:00 PM ET/PT.
In the interview, President George W. Bush states that he wants to use diplomacy and international pressure versus military force to resolve the nuclear situation in Iran, but all options are on the table; He has no knowledge if Karl Rove was involved with the Swift Boat ads; And that he would don a flight suit and deliver his “mission accomplished” speech again if he had to do it all over. Other topics the President addresses in this wide-ranging interview include his National Guard service, Iraq and Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction, tax cuts and the economy, immigration and border control, and the political divide currently in the United States. Excerpts from the interview are below:
“All options are on the table” in dealing with Iran
BILL O’REILLY
"Iran, uh, said yesterday, hey, we’re going to develop this nuclear stuff, we don’t care what you think. You ready to use military force against Iran if they continue to defy the world on nuclear?"
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
My hope is that we can solve this diplomatically.
BILL O’REILLY
But if you can’t.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Well, let me try to solve it diplomatically first. All options are on the table, of course, in any situation. But diplomacy is the first option.
BILL O’REILLY
Would you allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
We, we are working our hearts out so that they don’t develop a nuclear weapon, and the best way to do so is to continue to keep international pressure on them.
BILL O’REILLY
Is it conceivable that you would allow them to develop a nuclear weapon?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Uh, no, we’ve made it clear, our position is that they won’t have a nuclear weapon.
On Karl Rove and the Swift Boat Ads
BILL O'REILLY
You didn't know anything about the Swift Boat ads before they went on the air, did you?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
No. I didn't.
BILL O’REILLY
Did Karl Rove know anything about it?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
I don't think so.
BILL O’REILLY
Um,
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
In other words, you're asking if anybody coordinated this in our campaign?
BILL O’REILLY
No, whether they’d give you a heads up they were going to do it.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Not to my knowledge.
On The President’s “Mission Accomplished”/Flight Suit Speech
BILL O’REILLY
The mission accomplished statement in May 2003, if you had to do it all over again, would you not have done it? …go in there with the flight jacket?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Absolutely.
BILL O’REILLY
You would?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Of course. I’m saying to the troops, on this carrier and elsewhere, thanks for serving America. Absolutely.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
And by the way, those sailors and airmen, loved seeing the Commander in Chief.
BILL O’REILLY
Oh, that's [INAUDIBLE]
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
These kids had been on a very long cruise. They’d been on a cruise to both, in two theaters of war now, Afghanistan and Iraq. I flew out there, and said, thanks. Thanks on behalf of a grateful nation. You bet I’d do it again.
On Fallujah
BILL O'REILLY
[The] "Wall Street Journal" says that the Defense Department and the Pentagon wasn’t aggressive enough in getting al-Sadr (search) and then crushing Fallujah (search).
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Yeah.
BILL O’REILLY
Is the "Journal" wrong?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
I, I think this uh, I think that the, government of Iraq, Allawi (search), did a good job in Najaf (search) with Sadr. In other words, they now control the shrines, and they did so in a way that he, Allawi, thought would be best for the political process. In other words, there's a dual track here. There's a political process going forward, and a security operation going forward. And the two must be parallel, and uh, Allawi made the decision that the best operation in Najaf uh would be to, the way we handled it, and uh, if they're saying that maybe last fall we should have moved on Sadr, it’s a judgment call that you know, history will have to look back on.
BILL O'REILLY
Fallujah? Should we have crushed it when we could have?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Well, there again, there was a dual track with uh, a political process going forward, a lot of people on the ground there thought that if we’d have gone into Fallujah at the time, the uh, interim government would not have been established, and if the government would not have been established, we wouldn't have been able to transfer sovereignty. I happen to think the transfer of sovereignty is a key moment in this, history of a free Iraq. The reason I believe that is that the Iraq people are going to follow Iraqi leadership, not U.S. leadership….
Watch the exclusive three-part interview on "The O'Reilly Factor" September 27, 28 and 29 at 8 and 11 p.m. ET/PT only on The FOX News Channel.
Other topics the President addresses in this wide-ranging interview include his National Guard service, Iraq and Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction, tax cuts and the economy, immigration and border control, and the political divide currently in the United States.
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