Bush quote from The Daily Show-- where did it come from?

[John_Mace]

Supposedly Jon Stewart showd a clip this week on The Daily Show with Bush saying, on 3/13/02:

“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority”

Where did that come from? It’s not from the press conference he gave that day in which he famously said:

So I don’t know where he [ObL] is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you.

and…

…again, I don’t know where he is. I – I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him

[Revenant_Threshold]

I’ve had a look through both the Daily Show site and YouTube, but I can’t find a clip with either the first or the press conference quote in, as of yet.

[Dr_Paprika]

I remember reading a piece in The Atlantic about the FBI and Osama bin Laden, in June 2001 before the attack. At that time, he was hardly the US’s highest priority. Maybe it’s a pre-9/11 quote?

Interesting reading: The Counterterrorist Myth - The Atlantic

[commasense]

It’s at least a year or two old, but it’s definitely post-9/11.

Sorry I can’t be more specific.

[John_Mace]

I don’t watch TDS, but I know the format is that of a humorous, fake news show. Do they ever doctor up quotes to enhance their humor value? The quote given is similar, but a bit exagerted from what Bush said in his press conference. Could they have spliced it together from other interviews, or would that be considered a no-no for that show?

[commasense]

No, he really said it.

[Snarky_Kong]

@John Mace

I don’t watch TDS, but I know the format is that of a humorous, fake news show. Do they ever doctor up quotes to enhance their humor value? The quote given is similar, but a bit exagerted from what Bush said in his press conference. Could they have spliced it together from other interviews, or would that be considered a no-no for that show?

They don’t do that. At least I’ve never seen it, they take things out of context a ton, but that’s about it.

[Revenant_Threshold]

@John Mace

I don’t watch TDS, but I know the format is that of a humorous, fake news show. Do they ever doctor up quotes to enhance their humor value? The quote given is similar, but a bit exagerted from what Bush said in his press conference. Could they have spliced it together from other interviews, or would that be considered a no-no for that show?

They wouldn’t actually splice together lots of words from one speech - without making it very obvious they were doing so. Likewise, they may show part of a speech, to which Jon then adds an extra ending, but again, they make it so obviously outrageous that it’s obvious they’re taking the piss. They have, on occasion, taken quotes out of context in order to enchance humour value - but that isn’t what we’d be dealing with here, assuming it was on the show, since context isn’t likely to make what Bush said (again, if he said it) any different.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

It was a real clip, nothing edited or patched together. TDS doesn’t really do things like that anyway but when they do they make sure to CLEARLY identify it as fake. Faking up a clip and then commenting on it as if it’s real is not something I’ve ever seen them do.

[A.R.Cane]

Here you go:
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/2002/11/13_Laden.html

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

Here it is. From a WH press conference in March, 2002.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

Here’s the context for the whole exchange (from the whitehouse.gov link)

Q Mr. President, in your speeches now you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden. Why is that? Also, can you tell the American people if you have any more information, if you know if he is dead or alive? Final part – deep in your heart, don’t you truly believe that until you find out if he is dead or alive, you won’t really eliminate the threat of –

THE PRESIDENT: Deep in my heart I know the man is on the run, if he’s alive at all. Who knows if he’s hiding in some cave or not; we haven’t heard from him in a long time. And the idea of focusing on one person is – really indicates to me people don’t understand the scope of the mission.

Terror is bigger than one person. And he’s just – he’s a person who’s now been marginalized. His network, his host government has been destroyed. He’s the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match. He is – as I mentioned in my speech, I do mention the fact that this is a fellow who is willing to commit youngsters to their death and he, himself, tries to hide – if, in fact, he’s hiding at all.

So I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you. I’m more worried about making sure that our soldiers are well-supplied; that the strategy is clear; that the coalition is strong; that when we find enemy bunched up like we did in Shahikot Mountains, that the military has all the support it needs to go in and do the job, which they did.

And there will be other battles in Afghanistan. There’s going to be other struggles like Shahikot, and I’m just as confident about the outcome of those future battles as I was about Shahikot, where our soldiers are performing brilliantly. We’re tough, we’re strong, they’re well-equipped. We have a good strategy. We are showing the world we know how to fight a guerrilla war with conventional means.

Q But don’t you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won’t truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I say, we haven’t heard much from him. And I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don’t know where he is. I – I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.

But once we set out the policy and started executing the plan, he became – we shoved him out more and more on the margins. He has no place to train his al Qaeda killers anymore. And if we – excuse me for a minute – and if we find a training camp, we’ll take care of it. Either we will or our friends will.

[Jimmy_Chitwood]

Every attribution of that quote that I can find is to the 3/13/02 press conference. Kos’ wiki lists the full quote and a link to the cached transcript, but the transcript doesn’t include the quote, as you say. I’d be interested to see if there really was a video clip of him saying it.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

The clip of Bush saying he doesn’t care about finding Bin Laden would have made a great campaign commercial for Kerry. too bad he didn’t use it.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

@Jimmy Chitwood

Every attribution of that quote that I can find is to the 3/13/02 press conference. Kos’ wiki lists the full quote and a link to the cached transcript, but the transcript doesn’t include the quote, as you say. I’d be interested to see if there really was a video clip of him saying it.

The quotes are in the whitehouse.gov transcript. Is that what Kos links to?

[Jimmy_Chitwood]

The Whitehouse transcript you linked to actually doesn’t contain the quote John Mace is asking about:

“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority”

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

@Jimmy Chitwood

The Whitehouse transcript you linked to actually doesn’t contain the quote John Mace is asking about:

My mistake. I searched for what he had in the quote boxes and missed the other one. He said that one too, though, they showed the clip.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

I can’t find it either. It’s attributed to the same date as the press conference which makes me wonder if it was edited out of the transcript. The WH has done that before, IIRC.

[Revenant_Threshold]

Could someone give more context on that part of the show? Was there a topic that the quote was used in?

[neutron_star]

The best place (and only .gov top level domain source) that I’ve been able to find for the OP’s quote is from the website of Congressman Jim McDermott:

@Representative Jim McDermott (WA-D)

Our Real Enemy: Two days after 9/11, President Bush declared: “The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our No. 1 priority, and we will not rest until we find him.”

Six months later, laying political groundwork for the Iraq war, the president said: “I don’t know where he is. I have no idea and I really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.”