Bush's own 'smoking gun'

2005-02-21 11:14

Washington - Private discussions before George W Bush became US president suggest he used marijuana but would not admit it for fear of setting a bad example.

The conversations, which took place between 1998 and 2000 when Bush was governor of Texas, were recorded without his knowledge by Doug Wead, a former aide to his father and a family friend.

Wead has now revealed some of the recordings, which have been reported by the BBC and by ABC News in Washington.

In the tapes, Bush mocks Al Gore, his opponent in the 2000 elections, for admitting to smoking the drug.

The White House has not disputed the authenticity of what a spokesperson said were "casual conversations", and voice analyst Tom Owen says the voice is that of the president, according to the ABC news report with John Shovelan.

On the tape, the future president discusses his reasons for refusing to answer questions about using marijuana.

"I wouldn't answer the marijuana question," he says. "'Cause I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."

"Do you want your little kid to say 'Hey daddy, President Bush tried marijuana, I think I will'?"

"You gotta understand, I want to be president, I want to lead," he says.

" I don't think they're going to find anybody who will dare say, you know, I screwed somebody or that I used drugs," Bush tells Wead.

"These were casual conversations that then Governor Bush was having with someone he thought was a friend, and that's what they are," White House spokesperson Scott McClellan said on Monday.

Wead says he recorded the conversations because he viewed Bush as a historic figure.

"I believed if he became president he would be a pivotal figure in history, and it was very natural for me, I never expected or wanted the tapes to become public."

And naturally Wead insists the release wasn't engineered to gain publicity for a book he's written on presidential childhoods.

- News24