President Bush was interviewed by Diane Sawyer of ABC News on December 16, 2003. “She pressed him as no journalist yet had, repeatedly asking him about the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, the [Iraq Survey Group leader David] Kay report [which concluded there were no WMD in Iraq], the sixteen retracted words [in the 2003 State of the Union address] about ‘yellow cake in Niger.’ …’Well, you can keep asking the question,’ the president said, ‘and my answer’s gonna be the same. Saddam was a danger. And the world is better off because we got rid of him.’ When Sawyer tried to draw a line between Saddam actually having ‘weapons of mass destruction as opposed to the possibility that he could move to acquire those weapons,’ Bush snapped back, ‘So what’s the difference? …If he were to acquire weapons, he would be the danger. That’s, that’s what I’m trying to explain to you. A gathering threat, after 9/11, is a threat that needed to be dealt with. And it was done after twelve long years of the world saying the man’s a danger. And so, we got rid of him. …Diane, you can keep asking the question. I’m telling you, I made the right decision for America.’ ”
– Frank Rich, The Greatest Story Ever Sold, Pages 110-111