Oprah takes Bush to woodshed. Rips president over WMD fibs

>Archive - PWW Print Edition Archive - 2006 Editions - Feb. 4, 2006


 

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey’s vengeful side was very much on display as she used her popular TV program to take President George W. Bush to the woodshed over falsehoods about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.

Winfrey devoted an entire hour-long episode of her show to excoriating the president, who sat on her sofa and felt the full force of her wrath.

What inspired the talk show legend’s ire was Mr. Bush’s 2003 State of the Union Address, in which Bush claimed that the Iraqi dictator possessed weapons of mass destruction, claims that later proved false.

The president, devoid of his usual swagger, seemed like a student who had been called into the headmistress’s office as Winfrey repeatedly scolded, “You lied to me.”

Bush claimed that he had originally intended to call his 2003 address a work of fiction, but at the suggestion of Vice President Dick Cheney he changed that designation to nonfiction in order to make the weapons claims more compelling.

But Winfrey would have none of it, demanding to know if the president’s claim that Saddam was developing nuclear weapons actually happened.

“No,” the President said, to the gasps of the audience.

“You made that up, didn’t you?” Winfrey said.

“I - I - I - I” Bush stammered.

In her final act of punishment, Winfrey removed Bush’s favorite book, “My Pet Goat,” as an official selection of her book club.

Elsewhere, in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Bush listed a series of accomplishments of his administration, including that the United States is warmer than it has ever been.

Andy Borowitz writes a daily humor column at borowitzreport.com