'IT'S ALL A BIG LIE"

That summarizes The Donald's take on the Bush Administration. CNN has the transcript and the video.

Excerpts:


BLITZER: John Edwards.
TRUMP: I don't know him. People like him. I know people that like him very
much, but I really don't know.
BLITZER: Even though he was the vice presidential nominee last time
around.
TRUMP: Well, I think that's a huge negative, because that was a shame that that race was lost, because look what we have right now.
It's a disaster.

[snip]

BLITZER: You're upset because you dislike the current --
TRUMP: Well, I think Bush is probably the worst president in the history of the United States, and I just don't understand how they could have lost that election.

[snip]


BLITZER: Last time we spoke in this room, you were thinking of running for the presidency -- remember that?
TRUMP: No, I was never thinking of running. I was -- I think -- by the way, I think I'd do a very good job. You wouldn't be in the mess that you're in right now.

[snip]


BLITZER: The war is hovering over politics right now, as it should -- this is the dominant issue, at least right now, of our time. Give us your assessment. Is there a way out?
TRUMP: The war is a total disaster. It's a catastrophe, nothing less. It is such a shame that this took place. In fact, I gained a lot of respect for our current president's father by the fact that he had the sense not to go into Iraq. He won the war and then said, Let's not go the rest of the way. And he turned out to be right.
And Saddam Hussein, whether they liked him or didn't like him, he hated
terrorists. He'd shoot and kill terrorists. When terrorists came into his country, which he did control and he did dominate, he would kill terrorists. Now it's a breeding ground for terrorists.
So, look, the war is a total catastrophe.


BLITZER: Who do you blame?
TRUMP: And they have a civil war going over there.
BLITZER: Who do you blame?
TRUMP: Well, there's only one person you can blame, and that's our current
president. I mean, obviously Rumsfeld was a disaster, and other people that are
giving him advice have been a disaster. And Condoleezza Rice, who's a lovely woman but she never makes a deal -- she doesn't make deals, she waves. She gets off the plane, she waves, she sits down with some dictator -- 45 degree angle, they do the camera shot. She waves again, she gets back on the plane, she waves -- no deal ever happens.
So, I mean --


BLITZER: You got to close the deal at some point.
TRUMP: Got to make deals. The world is dying to make deals. And we don't have the right people doing it.

BLITZER: The vice president, Dick Cheney.
TRUMP: Well, he's obviously a very hawkish guy on the war. He said the war
was going fantastically, just a few months ago. And you know, it's just very sad.
I don't know if they're bad people, I don't know what's going on, I just know that they got us into a mess, the likes of which this country has probably never seen. It's one of the great catastrophes of all time.

[snip]


BLITZER: How does the United States get out of this situation? Is
there a way out?
TRUMP: You know how they get out? They get out. That's how they get out. Declare victory and leave. Because I'll tell you, this country is just going to get further bogged down. They're in a civil war over there, Wolf. There's nothing that we're going to be able to do with a civil war.
They are in a major civil war, and it's going to go to Iran, and it's going to go to other countries. They are in the midst of a major civil war, and there's nothing -- and by the way, we're keeping the lid on, a little bit. But the day we leave anyway, it's all going to blow up.
And Saddam Hussein will be a nice person, compared to the man -- and
it will be a man, it will not be a woman, that we understand. People say, Oh, gee, you didn't give the women a chance -- it will be a man.
Compared to the person that takes over for Saddam Hussein, he will be
considered a nice person. This guy will be the meanest, the worst guy,
and he'll have one thing -- one thing -- he will hate America, and he'll use that to flame.

So, I mean, this is a total catastrophe, and you might as well get out now because you're just wasting time, and lives.

[snip]


TRUMP: Now, President Bush says he's religious, and yet 400,000 people, the
way I count it, have died, and probably millions have been badly maimed and injured. What's going on? What's going on? And the day we pull out, it's going to explode. We're keeping the lid on a little bit; it's still a catastrophe. But the day we pull out, because they're in a civil war -- whether we want to admit it or not, they are in a civil war.


BLITZER: What do you think of some of these scandals that are unfolding in Washington? As we speak, the attorney general is under fire, Alberto Gonzales -- what do you make of this, as an executive, trying to watch an administration?
TRUMP: Look, everything in Washington has been a lie: weapons of mass destruction -- that was a total lie. It was a way of attacking Iraq, which he thought was going to be easy and it turned out to be the
exact opposite of easy. He reads 60 books a year, he reads a book a week -- that's -- do you think that's -- do you think the president reads a book a week? I don't think so. He doesn't watch television. Now, one thing I know is that, when I'm on television, I watch, or I try. Because you do -- your own ego says, you know, Let's watch, let's see, whether it's good or bad, you want to watch, right? He doesn't watch television. So he's on television, being interviewed by you or somebody else, he doesn't watch. Does anybody really believe that? Now they're doing this whole scandal with the U.S. attorneys. Now they're finding e-mails, and it's proven to be a lie. Everything's a lie. It's all a big lie.