RICE - A Question of Credibility (washingtonpost.com)

A Question of Credibility (washingtonpost.com):

"Here is the complete transcript. And here, specifically, is the text of that Boxer-Rice exchange. (NOTE - FOLLOW LINKS TO ALL TRANSCRIPTS FROM ARTICLE)

Boxer started off: 'Now, perhaps the most well-known statement you've made was the one about Saddam Hussein launching a nuclear weapon on America with the image of, quote, quoting you, 'a mushroom cloud.' That image had to frighten every American into believing that Saddam Hussein was on the verge of annihilating them if he was not stopped.'
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Boxer continued: 'On July 30th, 2003, you were asked by PBS NewsHour's Gwen Ifill if you continued to stand by the claims you made about Saddam's nuclear program in the days and months leading up to the war.

'In what appears to be an effort to downplay the nuclear-weapons scare tactics you used before the war, your answer was, and I quote, 'It was a case that said he was trying to reconstitute. He's trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Nobody ever said that it was going to be the next year.' '
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And, Boxer said: 'On October 10th, '04, on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, three months ago, you were asked about CIA Director Tenet's remark that prior to the war he had, quote, 'made it clear to the White House that he thought the nuclear-weapons program was much weaker than the program to develop other WMDs.'

Your response was this: 'The intelligence assessment was that he was reconstituting his nuclear program; that, left unchecked, he would have a nuclear weapon by the end of the year.' '

Boxer concluded: 'So here you are, first contradicting the president and then contradicting yourself. So it's hard to even ask you a question about this, because you are on the record basically taking two sides of an issue. And this does not serve the American people.'

So did Rice clear it all up? MORE...