Obama: I would “immediately review” potential Bush crimes
Attytood’s Will Bunch asks Senator Obama the question that’s on everyone’s mind:
I know you've talked about reconciliation and moving on, but there's also the issue of justice, and a lot of people --
certainly around the world and certainly within this country -- feel that crimes were possibly committed?
Here's his answer, in its entirety:
What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information
that's already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can't prejudge that because we don't
have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be
investigated. You're also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of
Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve.
So this is an area where I would want to exercise judgment -- I would want to find out directly from my Attorney General
-- having pursued, having looked at what's out there right now -- are there possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed
to really bad policies. And I think it's important-- one of the things we've got to figure out in our political culture
generally is distinguishing betyween really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity. You
know, I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I've said that is not something I think would be
fruitful to pursue because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for exceptional circumstances.
Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups
of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law --
and I think that's roughly how I would look at it.
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