[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/01/ridge.tom.cnn.art.jpg caption="Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge says he was not second-guessing his colleagues."]
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge became the very first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security after the attacks of 9/11. And in his new book, "Test of our Times: America Under Siege… And How We Can Be Safe Again," he opens up about the Bush White House.
The book is generating a lot of heat these days over implications that politics may have played a role in a proposal to raise the terror alert level before the 2004 presidential election.
Tom Ridge joined John Roberts on CNN’s “American Morning” Tuesday. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
John Roberts: The particular area in the book that's generating a lot of controversy, a lot of conversation, is the part where you talk about in the days after Bin Laden released that videotape, just before the election of 2004, I guess it was five days before, you wrote of that – and this was the discussion of whether or not to raise the terror alert level – you say, “Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level and was supported by Rumsfeld. There was absolutely no support for that position within our department. None. I wondered, ‘Is this about security or politics?’” Walk us through your thought process when you wrote the book. Why did you even raise the issue of is this about politics or security?
Tom Ridge: Obviously, I'm musing in the book. I'm not speculating about my colleagues' motives, but this is a dramatic weekend. It is a weekend before a national election. This is the only time I really discuss a process that we used throughout my entire time as secretary when we decided…
Roberts: But why did you think it might be about politics?
Ridge: Well, at that time, as the individual who is responsible for the overseeing if we went up in the general threat level, I'm just saying in there, we were universally opposed to raising it in the department. And I'm kind of musing and scratching my head and I've got two people whose opinions I respect immensely, I’m not second guessing them, but I just say in the book, “Is it politics?” Perhaps the sentence should have been in a paragraph later – we wouldn’t be having a conversation. But I just want to make it very clear, I'm not second-guessing my colleagues, because I worked with them every single day.
Roberts: But was there a thought, that here we are, five days before the election, you had done some analysis, which is cited in the book here, finding that any time the terror threat alert level was raised, the president's approval rating would tick up two, three points.
Ridge: That was some research we discovered after…
Roberts: It was a tight election…
Ridge: Well that’s not anything I knew at the time. We discovered it during the research for the book. But the end of the line that I'm trying to describe, more importantly, a process that we went through on – not a frequent basis – but you never report the times that we meet and decide not to go up. It's a tough judgment call, but there's never been any doubt in my mind whether any of these individuals – Secretary Powell, Attorney General Ashcroft, Secretary Rumsfeld, the FBI Director Mueller – they always had the security of America as the number one reason they would say, “Let's go up” or “Let's not go up.”
Roberts: You don’t think they ever played politics with it?
Ridge: I don't think it ever was politics, but in the political environment a lot of people were thinking it was generated by that. But the president himself created and oversaw the creation of a process that even he couldn't influence, because he set up a Homeland Security Cabinet, about two-thirds of his Cabinet agency, and we rendered opinions. And if there wasn't a consensus, we didn't go up. So at the end of the day, whether we went up or didn't, I think we always made the right decision.
Roberts: We tried to get in touch with you when we first learned about the quote in the book. You were not available, but Fran Townsend came on and she wondered why you even raised the issue at all. She said, “Not only do I not think that it – politics played any part in it at all, it was never discussed. Not only did he never say this at that time – that he thought political influence was involved in raising or lowering the threat level – he's never said it since when I've spoken to him.” Donald Rumsfeld and Andy Card also questioned why you even raised the issue. John Ashcroft's spokesperson said, “Now would be a good time for Mr. Ridge to use his emergency duct tape.” You’re taking some heat from your former colleagues who took offense to it.
Ridge: Well, you know, perhaps they did. I regret that they did. We had good relationships with all those individuals. We had a lot of tension. Remember, we were like the new Cabinet agency and there were a lot of people in the Cabinet who probably thought we shouldn't exist, but the tensions that exist were not personal, they were institutional. And so at the end of the day, I've written a book about hopefully a historical reflection of what we did and what we need to do. People choose to focus on that. I mean, Fran Townsend was there at the discussion. At some point, I am told, that she has actually said there was a political discussion at that meeting. I don't recall that to be true. It may be true. She recollected it, not yours truly, but I just muse in the book, “Was it politics or was it security?”
Roberts: But reinforcing the notion though, a couple of pages later you say, “I consider that episode to be not only a dramatic moment in Washington's recent history, but another illustration of the intersection of politics, fear, credibility, and security… After that episode, I knew I had to follow through on my plans to leave the federal government.” It sounds like it was, at least the way you write it, some kind of trigger point for you when you say, “I've got to get out of here.”
Ridge: Oh no, no. The president knew when I accepted the opportunity to serve as secretary of homeland security that I would do it through the first term. It was a natural time of transition. But let’s put it in context…
Roberts: But why did you put it that way?
Ridge: I talk about the intersection of fear, security, politics, and credibility. Credibility was something that everybody in the department was always worried about. Listen, frankly there were commentators, journalists who were commenting that weekend going up given the fact that in Spain earlier that year there had been an incident before an election. There was a lot of political concern. And frankly, everybody blamed – the critics of the Bush administration constantly referred to the threat level as a means to manipulate public approval. It was never used to manipulate public approval.
Roberts: I’m just wondering why you wrote it that way. You say, after that episode, I knew I had to follow through on my plans to leave.
Ridge: It was a period of transition. I wrote it in the book, I was planning on leaving…
Roberts: It sounds like you were fed up.
Ridge: Oh no. I had a great run. My political capital was expended. Time to move on.