Bannon Delivers Blistering Attack On George W. Bush; President Obama, Bush Take Swipes At The Successor
GALLAGHER: President Trump's former chief strategist delivering, really, just a blistering takedown of former President George W. Bush.</s>SAVIDGE: Yes. We're talking about Steve Bannon, who spoke at the California GOP Convention last night and bluntly questioned President Bush's intelligence, and whether even understood his own speech.</s>STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: President Bush, to me, embarrassed himself. Speechwriter wrote a high</s>BANNON: I want to apologize up front to any of the Bush folks outside, in this audience, ok? Because there has not been a more destructive presidency than George Bush's.</s>SAVIDGE: All right, that leads to a discussion. And with us now to do just that, Eugene Scott, Political Reporter for The Washington; and Kelly Jane Torrance, Deputy Editor of The Weekly Standard. And Kelly Jane, let me start with you. What do you make of Bannon's remarks there? They were just scathing.</s>KELLY JANE TORRANCE, DEPUTY EDITOR, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: They were. You know, it's a little bit rich for Steve Bannon to talk about people using speechwriters, it's not as if Donald Trump doesn't make full use of them himself, and high-flouting? I mean, what were the high- flouting words that George Bush use? Humanity, freedom, humility? Look, these certainly are words that you don't hear coming out of Bannon's mouth or President Trump's mouth very much. So, you know, perhaps that was the problem, is that George W. Bush was talking about the kind of things that inspire people, and talk about values that Americans have held ever since the founding. And these are not values that are held by Bannon or President Trump.</s>SAVIDGE: And that kind of folks, in which he tried to connect with his audience with onto. Eugene, his attacks, of course, follow President Bush and Obama. And they are taking a very thinly veil swipes at Trump on the same day. So, how rare is it for former president to criticize his successor?</s>EUGENE SCOTT, POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON: We don't see it happen often, but, I mean, if this administration has been anything, it's been unprecedented. And I don't think it's a surprise, though, to see people like -- people familiar with the Obama administration and Bush administration to want to come out and defend their legacies and their efforts to make the world a better place. Because the Trump's administration's so regularly and aggressively attacks what they've done. And I think when we this right there with Steve Bannon where called Bush as one of the worst administrations in history which was quite shocking --</s>SAVIDGE: What do you think -- what do you think Bannon was trying to do? What was he trying convince that audience?</s>SCOTT: Well, I'm not surprised that Bannon came out and attacked the Bush, because, One, you're not going to attack Trump and not get a response from Trump -- I guess, unless you're the rapper, Eminem. And second, I mean, the reality is that we saw Bush attacked Trumpism, which is bigger than Trump. And many people are saying that Steve Bannon is the man behind Trumpism. And so, I feel like Steve Bannon was personally attacked by Bush, and so he went and attacked him in response.</s>SAVIDGE: Kelly, we're going to switch gears here. And Kelly Jane, this was for you, at least, to begin. Another controversy, and when pressed about false statements that were made by the Chief of Staff General John Kelly about Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said it's inappropriate to question a four-star general, here.</s>SANDERS: If you want to get into a debate with a four-star marine general, I think that that's something highly inappropriate.</s>SAVIDGE: The freedom of speech seems to have been lost here. But Sanders later did backtrack slightly. Although, it seems like more she was just re-deburden, and she release a statement saying, "Of course, everyone can be questioned but after witnessing General Kelly's heartfelt and somber account, we should all be able to agree that impugning his credibility on how best to honor fallen heroes is not appropriate." So, what's your reaction about it?</s>TORRANCE: Well, we're not allowed to criticize four-star generals or people of that rank. Then, why is Donald Trump -- he's threatened to take out the commander from Afghanistan because he thought he wasn't doing a very good job. And you know, I'm sorry, when a four-star general gets into political life and takes on a political job, he becomes fair game in terms of talking about politics. And you know, I will say, I was really, really moved by General Kelly's speech and his remarks; he talked about -- you know, he got really emotional. So, why is my son back there? And it was totally moving, and then at the end, he completely ruined it by attacking Congresswoman Wilson. And it was totally unnecessary if he had just left it where it was, I think everybody would have said wow, this guy is -- you know, he's a very, serious man who's, you know, helping keep us from chaos, as Bob Corker might say. Or by taking cheat shop like that, and one that it turned out to be untrue. He just, you know, totally ruined everything good that that he said in that speech.</s>SAVIDGE: I agree. We were all deeply moved. But I wonder, Eugene, you know, in doing just as he did, it kind of -- Kelly looks bad because of it?</s>SCOTT: No, absolutely. I mean, I think it's really important not to let the conflation that we saw in that release of Sarah Huckabee Sanders stands. No one is attacking his story about what he experienced as a Gold Star father, everyone was moved by that. People are pushing back on the story that he told about Representative Wilson that had absolutely nothing to do with Niger, that ended up being inaccurate. I think what's most interesting is that we a couple of weeks ago: General Kelly came out and say that it was not his job to control the chaos in the White House. To some people this week, it's looking like he is a part of the chaos, and so that's perhaps why he can't control it. I think what all Americans want to do moving forward is focus on figuring out why these four soldiers and more were in Niger, and what can be done to prevent situations like this from happening again.</s>SAVIDGE: Kelly Jane Torrance and Eugene Scott, thank you both for joining us this morning.</s>SCOTT: Thank you.</s>TORRANCE: Thank you.</s>GALLAGHER: Well, the EPA says chemicals coming from a Louisiana factory is putting nearby residents at the highest risk in the country of developing cancer from air toxins. State regulators, though, say the threat is not imminent.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got to live here to try and breathe the air, drink the water, see the children so sick and watch your people die. If you don't live in the area, you cannot say anything and everybody is supposed to believe that.</s>GALLAGHER: CNN investigation looks at how local people are fighting for relief</s>SAVIDGE: Plus, a landmark moment on the war on terror. ISIS's de facto capital has been liberated. CNN takes you to Raqqa, Syria. See inside one of the terrorist prison or captives tried to do what they could to not be forgotten.