Your sustaining gift is matched 3X today!

Make a monthly gift during our June member drive to power our local newsroom.
Logged in as
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen
  • Listen Now Playing Listen
NPR News

Author Had Rare Access to Bush for 'Dead Certain'

This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, make a donation to power our newsroom today.

Listen 0:00

There are some perhaps unintended bursts of candor from President Bush in the new book Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush. Mr. Bush told author Robert Draper, for instance, that the administration "didn't spend a lot of time planning" for widespread sectarian violence in Iraq.

The president said he believed post-war violence would be minimized by removing Saddam Hussein and by "the idea of people being in a position to be kind of free — the universality of freedom concept."

Draper was granted rare access to the president — six interviews, each about an hour long, between December 2006 and May 2007.

Draper, also a national correspondent for GQ magazine and formerly a reporter for Texas Monthly, talks with Melissa Block.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our connected community. We are free to tell the full truth, to hold power to account without fear or favor, and to follow facts wherever they lead. Our only loyalty is to our audiences and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen our community.

Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive from readers like you will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.

If this story helped you today, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.

Your tax-deductible donation keeps LAist independent and accessible to everyone.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Make your tax-deductible donation today