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Bush calls Hillary Clinton 'formidable'
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-28 14:24
President Bush said Friday that Sen. Hillary Clinton, a potential candidate
for the Democratic presidential nomination, is "formidable," but he declined to
speculate on which Republicans might run for the White House in 2008.
New York State
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at Montante Cultural Center at
Canisius College in Buffalo, New York on January 31, 2005. Clinton was
speaking about the role of government in healthcare. Earlier in the
afternoon, Senator Clinton fainted due to a reported illness wile giving a
speech on social security. [Reuters] |
"This
is an unusual year because this is the first time there hasn't been a kind of
natural successor in the party," Bush said in an interview with "CBS Evening
News." "Two wide-open primaries with no sitting vice president running in either
primary, so this is — I can't remember a time when it's been this open."
In a wide-ranging interview at the White House, Bush also took a hard-line
stance against the Hamas party, which swept Palestinian elections on Wednesday.
He said he'd emphasize the development of alternative fuels in his State of the
Union address on Tuesday and shared his views on presidential powers.
On foreign issues, Bush said the United States would cut aid to the
Palestinian government unless Hamas abolishes the militant arm of its party and
stops calling for the destruction of Israel.
"If they don't, we won't deal with them," Bush told CBS anchor Bob Schieffer.
"The aid packages won't go forward. That's their decision to make, but we won't
be providing help to a government that wants to destroy our ally and friend."
He declined to predict whether the United States would still have large
numbers of troops in Iraq when his successor takes office in 2009 but discussed
the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Graib prison.
"We were disgraced," he said.
"I know it caused a lot of people that want to like us to question whether
they should, and equally important it gave the enemy an incredible propaganda
tool — no question," Bush said.
Bush defended his order permitting the National Security Agency to listen in
on phone calls and read e-mails of Americans suspected of communicating with
terrorists. Critics claim the program violates civil liberties and say the
government is circumventing the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
"I have looked at this program from all angles, and my dilemma and my problem
is I can't explain to you how it works in order to justify your question without
telling the enemy what we are doing," he said.
Asked if he thinks there is anything a president cannot do if he considers it
necessary in an emergency, Bush said he thought there were "clear red lines" a
president cannot cross.
"I don't think a president can ... order torture, for example," Bush said
about his presidential powers under the Constitution. "I don't think a president
can order the assassination of a leader of another country with which we're not
at war."
On a personal note, Bush said that after he leaves office, he may be
interested in setting up a think tank where young scholars could write and think
about freedom and liberty. He also said he didn't think he'd have become
president had he not married his partner of 28 years, Laura Bush.
"I don't know what I'd have been like if I hadn't married her," Bush
said.
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