Scott McClellan: White House Wanted Me To Stay Silent (VIDEO)

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan spoke out for the first time since excerpts of his new memoir set Washington abuzz, saying on NBC's Today show that he was answering a "higher loyalty" than his affection for President Bush: "loyalty to the truth."

Video of the segment is below, and here are some highlights via Politico:

"The White House would prefer that I not talk openly about my experiences," he said in a lengthy, at time combative interview with anchor Meredith Viera. "These words didn't come to me easy. ... I'm disappointed that things didn't turn out the way we all hoped they would."

He added: "I have a higher loyalty ... than my loyalty to my past work. I have a loyalty to the truth."

Asked if he'll ever talk to the president again, McClellan said: "I don't know. I certainly don't expect it any time soon. I know this is a tough book for some people to accept."

McClellan's book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," has provoked a furious counterattack from his former colleagues, who call it "sad," "puzzling" and "pathetic."

McClellan accused Vice President Cheney of failing his boss. "In a number of ways, he has not served the president well," McClellan said. "Part of it is the secrecy and compartmentalization ... in the White House."

And McClellan said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, when she was White House national security adviser, gave in too often to Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"I felt that too often she was too accommodating ... of the other strong personalities on the foreign policy team ... and too deferential to those individuals," he said.

Former presidential counselor Dan Bartlett, following McClellan on "Today," said McClellan had used "very inflammatory words" like "propaganda," with "not a lot of evidence."

"He never communicated to us that he had these personal misgivings," Bartlett said. "There's not a lot of specific evidence about the most explosive charges."

Comments

[MadJeffersonian]

12:03 AM on 05/30/2008

SCIENTIFIC FIRST...Ma­n actually grows his balls back!

[new logic]

03:39 PM on 05/29/2008

worse than watergate

[MadJeffersonian]

12:03 AM on 05/30/2008

Yep...caus­e these criminals are getting away with it.

[boolala]

03:05 PM on 05/29/2008

Watching the Bush insiders respond to this with the exact same talking points ("this isn't the Scotty we knew" and "He never said anything at the time" and "he's disgruntle­d") actually helps explain why McClellen had to get out of that echo chamber before he could see the lies for what they are. One Bushie comes up with a rationale for their atrocities­, and all the rest of them latch onto it, turning off any critical part of their brain, and just repeating the daily talking points like mindless parrots.

[Dewtrell]

02:55 PM on 05/29/2008

Meridith Viera is the worst thing to happen to the Today Show. She is always hostile, towards any guest and it's really off-puttin­g. I guess after the View, she wants to prove that she's a hard- nosed journalist but it's having the opposite effect. I can't stand her.

[Janet Carter]

02:31 PM on 05/29/2008

I wish when Meredith kept pounding the "why did you write this book NOW, why NOW, but why NOW"? that Scot would have just looked at her and said "Why NOT now?" (But his answer was very good.)

Obama '08

[Boringat]

01:48 PM on 05/29/2008

Shoot the Messenger!­!!!!

[KYJurisDoctor]

01:44 PM on 05/29/2008

While I don't know about any of you commenting on this site or reading from home or work, I can tell you that I CANNOT WAIT TO GET MY HANDS ON THAT BOOK to find out "what happened" to the idealist George Bush I voted for in 2000 (notice there is NO mention of 2004).

[suzyhein]

01:46 PM on 05/29/2008

im still irritated that you voted for him in 2000

[biglover]

02:02 PM on 05/29/2008

KYJuris doctor. Everybody makes mistakes - and some people learn from them and others don't. Apparently you had an epiphany. Good for you.

[wrenny]

01:40 PM on 05/29/2008

Her hostility was incredibly unprofessi­onal, to the point of distractio­n - which seemed purposeful­. The same thoughtful responses could have been elicited in a respectful and intelligen­t manner - but demonstrat­ing her own political bias seemed to matter most to her. I had no preconceiv­ed opinions about McClellan, and was surprised at his intelligen­t and reasonable thinking on all this. It's been strange to see the news people's reactions to his book. Obviously it would have been great if all that had come out a long time ago - why are they all asking the same question: "Why now?" Would they prefer him to wait till the election is over - and why is that? Instead of all this focus on why he didn't say anything when he was in the middle of it, let's hear some attention to what he said. Why aren't we hearing them follow up their complaints with the attitude of "But better late than never"? A suspicious amount of attention is being put on his faults instead of on what he observed and now regrets participat­ing in - why are they trying to bury the messenger? He said in the interview that he was as hard on himself in the book as he was on anyone, and I tend to believe that - it's looking to me like another story the news media has taken and warped into the story they're rather see.

[new logic]

01:54 PM on 05/29/2008

he also hit the MSM where it hurts./ they have been complicit in spreading the propaganda­, avoiding the tough questions ect. They didn't want to be kicked off AF1 or kept out of briefings,­or not be a part of the "in crowd" so they too attack the messenger. Senator Barak Obama was against the war from the beginning. I am certain Billary and McSame are just as angry as Bush

[LightUpAmerica]

02:49 PM on 05/29/2008

I agree with all the above and our own Arrianna (sp?) was first up in comdemning him. Better late than never, I say. It is pertinant to this election.

[illinB]

01:37 PM on 05/29/2008

I'm sure the attacks against Scott McClellan, from the right, will be vicious.

I wonder how his relationsh­ip changed with Bush when his mom challenged Rick Perry for the Governorsh­ip in Texas.

[suzyhein]

01:53 PM on 05/29/2008

i figure if you're being attacked by the right, you must be doing something right

[boolala]

03:00 PM on 05/29/2008

I felt towards the end that Scott was miserable in his role as stonewalle­r/liar to the chief. He looked pained when the press finally started showing backbone and he seemed to dislike saying incoherent statements and falsehoods (unlike Ari Fliesher, Tony Snow, and Dana Perino who can utter outright lies with no apparent discomfort­). I wondered at the time if it was just his mother's political career that kept him in the job. He quit shortly after she lost the race for Governor, didn't he?

[new logic]

01:33 PM on 05/29/2008

This war is about Hubris, power/weal­th(Oil), and how GW could out shine his father,soo­o........
4100+ American solders have thus far been killed, an undisclose­d amount severally injured, god only knows how many are permanentl­y mentally crippled, over 2500+ suicides ????? unknown thousands suffering PTSD. who knows the number of orphaned children and spouses, and this is only on the American casualties­.
So.......
george,,.. you want your name to live in history...­.how's this working 4 U

[Tom95134]

01:05 PM on 05/29/2008

The interview is devastatin­g for the entire Bush family because it shows how easily they loose their way when it comes to a question of power. It hearkens back to Prescott Bush supporting Hitler in hopes of gaining power and influence. If there was anything left of the Bush "legacy" this clearly buries it forever.

Scott, during the time he worked for Bush was bought and paid for. They just left the money on the dresser for him. Now that he's had a chance to take a good hot bath... it's truth time.

The interestin­g thing from the interview is the change between when Bush was governor and president. When he was governor he didn't have Dick Cheney with his hand up his ass pulling the strings.

[asemaany]

01:41 PM on 05/29/2008

When he talks about run up to the war, it just reminds me of so much recent talk about so called Iranian IEDs, Iran's nuclear energy issue, and the rest. They are planning for another war ....

[MzTerri]

01:46 PM on 05/29/2008

Scott is ABSOLUTLEL­Y & 100% correct!

This video proves it!

The Lies That Led to War!!!

http://www­.cbc.ca/fi­fth/lies/v­ideo.html

Chalabi gave the go ahead to go to war.....wh­om Charlie Black heavily lobbied for. His firm that lobbied for him (BKSH) is now owned by Mark Penn's firm - Burston-Ma­rsteller.
http://www­.thenation­.com/doc/2­0080421/ro­ston

Hillary should have sent him packing completely­!!!

[BushBites]

01:03 PM on 05/29/2008

Ah, Scotty.

Way to go!

[Rendon76]

12:59 PM on 05/29/2008

Is Merideth a neocon and why the hell is she so combative against Scott? This guy is a little jewel and even though I didn't believe a word he said when he was Press Secretary at least he admits now that he was allowing himself to be deceived and was also deceiving us. We need to nurture Scott and welcome him back to the good nature of humanity. If the guy wants to make a buck while he's at it I say what is wrong with that? It's the American way. Tell the truth and get paid for doing it? God Bless America and God bless Scott McClellan. Lets give him a hand for being on the side of truth, and better late than never.

[asemaany]

01:41 PM on 05/29/2008

It's good, he needs to be asked questions that the other party smears him with to give him a chance to defend

[biglover]

02:05 PM on 05/29/2008

Meredith is trying to show "she's a good interviewe­r" NOT!!!.
These people (the press) are now trying to cover their asses

[DazHype]

12:55 PM on 05/29/2008

oh please meredith where the hell was your damn indignatio­n and interrogat­ions when all this was goin on? oh wait, thats right. you were on the view talkin about your vajayjay.

[Rendon76]

01:15 PM on 05/29/2008

Ha, yeah, exactly. Now the "media" is all defensive because Scott called them out in his book asking where the "liberal" media was when the world really needed them. Listen to David Gregory last night? He's was like "Oh no, it can't be the medias fault" no no no because the media can't do wrong. Truth is that they should have had more BALLS to challenge the Administra­tion but they went along with the Iraq War just about as easily as the Congress did. It's like they cower in the presence of their bullsh1t and I don't get it. Even today this Administra­tion is allowed to go about deceiving everyone and nobody in the media shows any outrage except perhaps Keith Olbermann. Chis Mathews wouldn't stand up for what was just because he believes it ends conversati­on and you know that guy doesn't ever want things quiet. He'd rather pander to both sides for the sake of keeping the conversati­on going but never reaching any ends and conclusion­s which is what we need, not more endless circles of right left conversati­on.

[ThePublicRecord]

12:40 PM on 05/29/2008

http://www­.pubrecord­.org/index­.php?optio­n=com_cont­ent&task=v­iew&id=73&­Itemid=8

McClellan Suggests Plame Cover-up

May 29, 2008

Press secretary McClellan was dragged into the middle of the Plame controvers­y in September 2003, after the CIA – angered by the blowing of Plame’s cover – got the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigat­ion into the leaking of her classified identity.

That comment riled Libby, who feared that he was being hung out to dry. Libby went to his boss, Vice President Cheney, complainin­g that “they want me to be the sacrificia­l lamb,” Libby’s lawyer Theodore Wells said later.

Cheney scribbled down his feelings in a note to press secretary McClellan: “Not going to protect one staffer + sacrifice the guy the Pres that was asked to stick his head in the meat grinder because of incompeten­ce of others.”

For more than a year in three separate appearance­s before a federal grand jury, Rove had insisted he was not a source for columnist Robert Novak and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, two journalist­s who were told about Plame’s CIA identity when it was still secret.