May 29, 2008 10:16 am US/Central
McClellan Defends Book, Says Bush Was 'Misled'
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
-
-
President Bush listens as then-Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, announces his resignation at the White House April 19, 2006, in Washington, D.C.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday morning that his view on the Iraq war changed in the years since it began, and that he "trusted the president's foreign policy team" when making the case for war.
"You get caught up in the White House bubble," McClellan said.
Speaking on NBC's "Today" show, McClellan offered reaction to the intense administration response his book "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception" has received. McClellan again asserted that Bush was "misled" by his advisers.
McClellan also clarified his position regarding his use of the term "propaganda" to describe the run-up to the Iraq war. McClellan said there was no "deliberate, conscious" effort to manipulate or deceive the American people. Instead, McClellan said the Bush administration "got caught up in the permanent campaign culture" of Washington. McClellan said that culture is all about "trying to manipulate the narrative" in a "battle over power and influence."
Part of that "permanent campaign culture" involved integrating some pieces of information that were less credible than others into the narrative to sell the war. After a while, McClellan said, it simply became part of the case for war.
"You get caught up in trying to sell this war to the American people," McClellan said. "As we accelerated the buildup, we… made the threat sound more urgent than it was."
The book vaulted to No. 1 on Amazon.com's best-seller list Wednesday. Republican critics dismissed him as a turncoat, a sellout and a disgruntled former employee.
Dan Bartlett, former counselor to President Bush, told CBS's "The Early Show" that he was "very disappointed" by McClellan.
"A lot of things we are now reading in this book... come as a complete surprise. The views that he apparently holds now are ones he didn't share with any of his colleagues," Bartlett said.
Barlett called some of the allegations in the book "quite offensive."
"I'm just perplexed by the fact that he never shared these views with anybody when there was actually an opportunity to do something about it," Bartlett said.
McClellan also said Vice President Dick Cheney "has not served the president well" in a number of ways. McClellan pointed to the secrecy which pervaded the White House, citing Cheney's influence.
McClellan said Bush is privately a "gut player," who makes his decisions on instinct. He added that he was "disappointed" by Bush's failure to unite the country as he had promised.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
CBS News Interactive: Bush Presidency
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
