European Mission

MARGARET WARNER:

The President's week- long trip took him to Germany, Russia, France, and Italy. Among the reporters covering it was Anne Kornblut, the White House correspondent for The Boston Globe. She joins from us Rome.

Well, Anne, welcome. Tell us, what do the President's aides think he accomplished on this trip?

ANNE KORNBLUT:

Well, they left Rome tonight very pleased with the trip. Secretary of State Powell told us that it was a success. It was an "historic trip," in his words, because of the arms reduction treaty that was signed in Moscow, because of the successful speech they felt that he gave at the Bundestag in Berlin last week; the speech at Normandy on Memorial Day, and then coming here to Rome today to be here for the formation of the Russian NATO Council, which is a first for NATO. So all in all, they feel like they did what they set out to do to shore up their friendships in Europe and to sign this pact with Vladimir Putin.

MARGARET WARNER:

Do they think they came any closer with the Europeans on some of the differences that have cropped up, over everything from trade, the environment, the war on terrorism?

ANNE KORNBLUT:

I'm not sure they've argued that they've come any closer on those issues. What they would say is that those are minor issues in a much broader and very healthy relationship. They said repeatedly throughout this trip that the transatlantic alliance has never been stronger; that the trade issues, for example, are only a minor percentage of all the trade that is done between the United States and the EU. And they would even argue that the protestors were not that big a deal. So I don't know that they'd raise the bar very high for themselves on this trip. I don't think anyone expected them to come away with a new position on steel tariffs or the Kyoto Treaty, but they do feel like it's been overblown in the media, both in the U.S. and in Europe.

MARGARET WARNER:

And you wrote in your article– I think it was yesterday– that the President himself expressed some annoyance when asked about this at a press conference over the weekend.

ANNE KORNBLUT:

Yes, President Bush does not enjoy talking about the protestors. He doesn't enjoy the protestors. He doesn't enjoy talking about the protestors. And to be honest, he didn't see the protestors. Everywhere we went, the barricades were set up, especially in Berlin, where there were tens of thousands of protestors. He never saw them. He feels like his relationships with these European leaders are very strong, and that what's going on in the streets is not meaningless, but not really to the heart of the matter, and doesn't reflect what the rest of the population here feels.

MARGARET WARNER:

All right. Now, tell us about the other meetings, the non-Russia-NATO meeting today, which was the meeting with the Pope.

ANNE KORNBLUT:

That's right. President Bush did meet with Pope John Paul II today. Before this meeting, his advisers had said, when asked about the ongoing scandals in the Church, that it wasn't likely, or actually not at all… that there was no chance that President Bush was going to raise this very uncomfortable topic with the Pope, especially given that he's 82 and, as everyone knows, very frail. And then this morning, to everyone's great surprise, President Bush said that in fact he would be mentioning this issue. And we were told after the meeting that he did, in fact. What he said, the transcript of that conversation, the White House did not release to us, but we know the topic was raised.

MARGARET WARNER:

Did they… was there any explanation for the turnaround, for the decision to talk about this, when at first they had said flatly that he wasn't going to?

ANNE KORNBLUT:

The only explanation that we were given was that the President reserves the right at all times to change his mind about what he's going to discuss with other people. There was a sense– and it's complete speculation– that perhaps it would be difficult for the President to meet with the Pope, given what's going on in the United States and in the Church and not mention this issue. That might be seen as insensitive or turning a blind eye to the scandals, which is what the hierarchy is being accused of having done. So from a political standpoint, it could have been difficult for Bush to not raise it. On the other hand, they haven't told us what the reasons were, so we really don't know.

MARGARET WARNER:

He said this morning when he was talking to you all and explaining what he was going to tell the Pope, he said, "I'm going to tell him I'm concerned about the Catholic Church in America. I'm concerned about its standing." Did anyone you talk to explain what he meant by that?

ANNE KORNBLUT:

Not really, no. We've had a lot of questions for the past few months about where he comes down on this issue — not that anyone expects President Bush to weigh in wholeheartedly about this. He's the President. He's not a member of the Church. But we've not been able to get a clear picture of whether he's fully supportive of the hierarchy, how he thinks it should be resolved, I think in large part because it's an extremely delicate matter, and a delicate political matter.

MARGARET WARNER:

He only spoke about this once before, as I remember, in March. And he had kind of a different tone, wouldn't you say?

ANNE KORNBLUT:

It was quite different. In his March 13 press conference, just as the scandal was really starting to form and gel, at that point, Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law had just turned over some of the names of the accused priests. And at that point, I think in part President Bush was caught off guard, and his response was a fairly defensive one. He said, "Well, you know, I know a lot of these Cardinals."

In fact, that day, March 13, he had met with Cardinal Egan of New York. And he said, "I know these Cardinals. I know some of the hierarchy there." I think the words he used to describe Cardinal Law were "he's a man of integrity." That was certainly not the tone we heard today. A lot has happened since then as well.

MARGARET WARNER:

Well, Anne Kornblut, thanks very much.

ANNE KORNBLUT:

Thank you.