Contradicting Bush, Rumsfeld Claims He Was Replaced Because Of ‘The Outcome Of The Election’
Contradicting Bush, Rumsfeld Claims He Was Replaced Because Of ‘The Outcome Of The Election’
Yesterday on Hannity and Colmes, outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that he was removed as a direct result of the “outcome of the election.” Watch it:
On November 8, Bush said explicitly that, regardless of the outcome of the election, Rumsfeld was out:
BUSH: And so he and I both agreed in our meeting yesterday that it was appropriate that I accept his resignation. And so the decision was made — actually, I thought we were going to do fine yesterday. Shows what I know. But I thought we were going to be fine in the election. My point to you is, is that, win or lose, Bob Gates was going to become the nominee.
Someone isn’t telling the truth.
Transcript:
HANNITY: What happened this time, though?
RUMSFELD: I think that this time the outcome of the election, just to put it right up on the table, created a situation where I personally believe, and the president agrees, it is better for someone else to be leading this department with that new Congress. And it’s better for the military; it’s better for the department; and it’s better for the administration. And I feel comfortable with that.
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59 Responses to “Contradicting Bush, Rumsfeld Claims He Was Replaced Because Of ‘The Outcome Of The Election’”
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I tend to believe the guy who’s on his way out.
December 12th, 2006 at 9:55 amDon, Donny, Donneleh, it is not about you. It’s about all the people you killed. You are not more important than any one of them.
December 12th, 2006 at 9:55 amSomeone isn’t telling the truth.
Always a safe assumption when you’re talking about Bush & Rumsfeld.
December 12th, 2006 at 9:57 amBUSH: And so he and I both agreed in our meeting yesterday that it was appropriate that I accept his resignation. And so the decision was made — actually, I thought we were going to do fine yesterday. Shows what I know.
No. All the missteps, miscalculations, abuse of the English language, utter disaster of leadership during Katrina, the Iraq War, 9/11, etc have shown what you know. Nothing…….and unfortunately you refuse to learn anything from it.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:06 amoh goodie, ‘who told the lie’ is my favorite republican game…there’s just so many lying republicans that lie virtually ALL THE TIME, you can never, never tell.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:06 am.
It would be interesting to see the breakdown of how many times Bush officials gave interviews with FOX vs. all other networks.
As I understand it on his trip to Iraq Hannity was the only reporter (loosely defined here) allowed to go along.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:08 amWait a minute here. Bob Gates was talked to days before the election to find out if he was interested in he job. That’s the only way that bush could be certain that ates would be the nominee. So how could Rumsfeld have been let go as a direct result of the election, when it was decided well before the eleciton that he would be leaving?
That’s right. Someone isn’t telling the truth. (Or someone didn’t tell the truth before.)
Can we get a constitutional amendment that requires all federal government officials to tell the public the truth unless it directly relates to national security secrets? I mean, why do we as a society condone lying by our elected officials? It’s gotten to the point where most of the WH press corps just assumes that any official statement from this administration is unlikely the truth. I don’t see how a democracy can survive a government like this. They have to go. These people exemplify why “truth and justice” have little to do with “the American way” these days.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:08 amThis is a real conundrum. If either GDumbya or Rumsfailed is not telling the truth, does this mean that one of them is telling the truth?
That’s the real news in this story! In this one case, either GDumbya or Rumsfailed is telling the truth for once in their life.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:11 amIs the utter dysfunctionality that is the Bush administration, I’d suggest they were probably both lying. One of them just didn’t realize it.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:11 amBush gets caught again. Remember, Rumsfeld supposedly tried to resign twice before and Bush wouldn’t accept. So on the eve of an election that Bush thinks the GOP is going win, he decides to accept Rummy’s resignation after sticking with him for years? Doesn’t smell right.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:13 amThe Whitehouse knew they were going to lose the election so they started orchestrating Rummy’s retirement. All that claptrap about being confident that they would retain the Congress was BUNK! THEY COULD SMELL WHAT THE ROCK WAS COOKING!
December 12th, 2006 at 10:19 amPoliticians not telling the truth? I’m shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you! ;-)
December 12th, 2006 at 10:22 amIf only we were more civilized, we’d send the lot of them to the Hage for trial.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:24 amIt’s lame Duckya season…everyones contradicting him openly now…I mean ppl next to him…he’s got no respect no more….he’s finished
poor wittle Dukya…..
December 12th, 2006 at 10:30 amBest guess: everybody is lying. It is what they do.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:31 amWe are trying to figure out between Bush and Rumsfeld who isn’t telling the truth?!? WTF! Whatever comes out of their mouth doesn’t have any creditibility, period. Just the fact that they are turning on each other should be reinforced. There may be loyalty among thieves but there aren’t among war criminals. We need to keep exposing them and somehow find a way to put them behind bars if we want some creditibility back in the eyes of the world.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:34 am16. You hit the nail on the head. I don’t care what type of “truthiness” they spew. It all is an attempt to obscure the utter failures (and crimes) this administration has ochestrated.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:40 amWhy doesn’t Bush do as his foe in Venezuela (Hugo Chavez), who submitted himself to a referendum after a reelection ?? Let’s see who is more democratic and willing to listen to the voice of the people …
December 12th, 2006 at 10:42 amListening to Dems and assorted Leftists wax poetically about their devotion and love for “the truth” is so refreshing…..and so NEW…..
December 12th, 2006 at 10:47 amSomeone isn’t telling the truth.
Oh no! Not another contradiction!! This sounds like a job for Phoney McSnowjob. There’s no lie too big that it can’t be spun into utter gibberish by our intrepid press secretary and his atomic spin machine.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:47 amGWB: And so the decision was made — actually, I thought we were going to do fine yesterday. Shows what I know.
This the phrase that tells us GWB is the liar here.
Not that there was any doubt…
December 12th, 2006 at 10:55 am#19 MA
Listening to Dems and assorted Leftists wax poetically about their devotion and love for “the truth†is so refreshing…..and so NEW…..
It must be. After being BSed by Bush and the GOP non-stop for six years, I would think it would be a breath of fresh air to start hearing people trying to get the truth out for a change.
Do you feel sort of like a mushroom that just started to push its cap out from the manure and into the open air?
December 12th, 2006 at 10:56 amSomeone isn’t telling the truth.
You’re implying that someone is telling the truth?
December 12th, 2006 at 10:58 amRumsfeld is telling the truth for once in his damn stinking life! Rummy was pushed out once the results of the election became known! If Repubs had kept the House and Senate, then Rumsfeld would have remained in his position and Iran would have been bombed before Christmas too!
December 12th, 2006 at 10:59 amListening to Dems and assorted Leftists wax poetically about their devotion and love for “the truth†is so refreshing…..and so NEW…..
Comment by mighty aphrodite
Weak, Hagette, so incredibly weak. You can do better than that.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:10 amAgain….”we have not done anything questionable or wrong, no mistakes were made …it is only the elections .”
December 12th, 2006 at 11:20 amZooey sez:
It’s difficult when reality is so obviously against you…at least MA has the good sense to attempt to assassinate Kofi’s character, rather than attempt to flaty contradict reality like our buddy Bill-O.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:24 amWho would have thought that Bush lied? The 25% or so of the population that still supports him must be very concerned….
December 12th, 2006 at 11:26 amNo one is lying. Rumsfeld is just being, you know, emotional.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:31 amI tend to side with the folks who have said that Rummy was let go before the Dems in Congress could get their hands on him during any investigations (you know they are going to happen).
I think Bush is trying to head off as much political damage as he can; we’ll be investigating a FORMER Sec. of Defense as comparted to a CURRENT Sec. of D.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:36 amTruth telling is not a natural response for many polatician’s….Blessings
December 12th, 2006 at 11:38 amCaption comment…” at this senior residence do I get a droll bib with my pablum?”..To bad this old man wasen’t put away 20 year’s ago, 2,900 + 100,000 of thousand’s of lives may have been saved…. Blessings the world need’s them
December 12th, 2006 at 11:45 amSharon it does appear all of the sudden Rummy is sittin in his assisted living center waiting for a snack.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:48 amOne of them is a liar? One of them?
December 12th, 2006 at 11:48 amRummy is tired, he needs to just relax and let the competent folks handle it. Rummy needed to take off the tie, and unbutton that top button.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:49 amTheir are no voices here to “listen to” MA, it’s all reading. Maybe you have voices in your head?
December 12th, 2006 at 11:50 amAnyone else notice how relaxed Rummy looks?
December 12th, 2006 at 11:52 amAlso he looks like he’s about 90 years old, but lying through your teeth with 25,000 wounded and nearly 3,000 dead Americans, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dead and injured Iraqis on your conscience might do that to you…
Whhooops, forgot, Rummy has no conscience, which is why he looks so relaxed.
Caption Contest:
“Somebody stole my dentures! Where are my damned teeth?!?!”
December 12th, 2006 at 11:55 amGASP! Someone isn’t telling the truth???
December 12th, 2006 at 11:56 amGet outta here!
So we have a choice of listening to Bush lie to us or Rumsfeld lie to us.
I’ll pass thank you. Bush is still trying to keep his job and Rumsfeld is trying to have a carreer after the Whitehouse. You think either of them is going to tell the truth about what happened, why Rummy was fired or even their favorite color if they don’t have to? I got better things to do than listen to two evil people try to convince me which is the bigger d**k wad.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:59 am[…] Watch Video […]
December 12th, 2006 at 12:12 pmHow am I not surprised? I don’t think Bush has ever told the truth in his life, so I’ll go with Bush lying on this one.
December 12th, 2006 at 12:16 pmMEMO
TO: Herr Feldmarshal Von Rumsfeld
FROM: The People of US
YOUR WERE FIRED
This was necessary because we knew you would be facing an international tribunal for the crimes you have committed.
Since you were going to be a defendant, and always were confused about the situation, details of which we will not discuss here but are widely known, we needed someone else to tell the Shrub-In-Chief about the reality of the mess you and he got this nation into with your desire for oil.
Please refrain from characterising your firing as anything but.
December 12th, 2006 at 12:22 pmCaption Contest:
“Sean,YES,that feels so good”!
December 12th, 2006 at 12:24 pmThere are lies, damn lies, and then the Bush administration.
December 12th, 2006 at 1:48 pmFor once, I side with Rumsfeld.
December 12th, 2006 at 3:13 pmSince they are both serial liars, the correct answer must be that they are both lying. Most lie-ly scenario is that Bush knew in October he was at least going to lose the House, ergo committee investigations would begin.
So, at minimum, Bush lied on Nov. 8th that he thought they were going to keep both the House and Senate. Rummy obviously lied in the interview because his story required Gates to be asked and to say yes to Sec. of Defense all during morning of Nov. 8th.
LIES LIES LIES LIES.
December 12th, 2006 at 3:48 pm[…] - Permalink - Digg it! 1 Comment so far Leave acomment […]
December 12th, 2006 at 4:39 pmSomebody isn’t telling the truth? In the Republican party?
I am shocked!! Shocked, I say!! LOL!!!
December 12th, 2006 at 4:50 pmIn Bushworld, they are BOTH telling the truth…
December 12th, 2006 at 5:13 pmDon’t forget, Bush lied outright to the press just days before the election when he insisted to them on the record that Rumsfeld would stay on the job. Eric Alterman discusses this in the 12/11 issue of The Nation.
Bush defended his lie after the election by saying, “I didn’t want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign. And so the only way to answer that question, and to get you on to another question, was to give you that answer.”
Alterman raises the interesting point that “Bush’s revealed contempt–both for the truth and for the reporters whose job it is to find it–has created a kind of existential crisis for reporters and their bosses: ‘If the Presdient is willing to call himself a liar, how can we go on pretending it isn’t so?’”
So, as we might have expected, now that Rumsfeld is out of a job, he is calling the President a liar. That didn’t take long.
December 12th, 2006 at 5:27 pmit is better for someone else to be leading this department with that new Congress.
Surely better for Rumsfeld, anyway, not to be around for the kind of beating he’d get, yes, precisely from this new Congress. What it is is the chickensh**t running away from any accountability. Hopefully, he’ll get his (and I don’t mean a Medal of Freedom, I mean some metal that will severly limit his freedom.)
December 12th, 2006 at 5:52 pmAs if we needed further evidence of how supremely detached from reality Bush is, he thought they’d “be fine in the election!” Yup, he’s got his finger on the pulse of the nation, alright.
December 12th, 2006 at 7:48 pmI just want to see the inevitable Errol Morris documentary on Rumsfeld, it’s gonna be great.
December 12th, 2006 at 9:37 pmThe logic these people use is quite stunning. They are clearly doing everything they can to confuse the already nimble minds of AmericanTs. The outcome of the election had nothing to do with it. What caused the outcome? Right, a fraudulent war, based on false evidence from the US ‘intelligence’ (!) community, eagerly started by Bush who just loves a photo-op in military uniform. Quit your lying.
December 13th, 2006 at 4:54 amOnce the election’s over, what’s the difference? Symbolically replacing Rummy earlier in the year might have saved a few red seats. Thanks for you sticktoitiveness, Dub.
December 13th, 2006 at 6:11 pm[…] Think Progress ” Contradicting Bush, Rumsfeld Claims He Was Replaced … Hard-hitting research and analysis that advances progressive ideas and policies … Think Progress. Hot topics: Iraq Ethics Administration International … […]
April 8th, 2007 at 3:10 ambb king blues club
Man i just love your blog, keep the cool posts comin..
March 17th, 2008 at 4:48 amretirement 12
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March 20th, 2008 at 2:39 pm