ABC's Moran Hits Bush About “Resources” for Iraq Over Hurricane Victims

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ABC's Terry Moran this afternoon put politics at the forefront in hurricane disaster coverage when, on a storm-ravaged Biloxi street, he confronted President Bush about how “one of the things you hear here is people saying 'there's a lot of resources being devoted to Iraq. Now this country needs them.' And they're frustrated about that. What do you say to the people who say there's too much money being spent on Iraq and it's time to bring it home?” ABC News led its 1:22pm EDT special with anchor Dan Harris insisting that spending on Iraq is “a common complaint -- what we're hearing from many people about the resources being spent in Iraq.”

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Complete transcript follows. UPDATE: Friday's World News Tonight featured Moran's question.

[On Friday's World News Tonight, Moran asserted: "Throughout the gulf coast region, part of Mr. Bush's political base, you hear a lot of criticism."

Hurricane survivor John Unger then charged: "I'm sorry. I love my country, I love the President, but my God, he's not doing it right."

Moran soon showed himself asking Bush on a Biloxi street: "What do you say to the people who say there's too much money being spent on Iraq and it's time to bring it home?" Bush answered: "I just completely disagree. We've got a job to defend this country in the war on terror, and we've got a job to bring aid and comfort to the people of the gulf coast, and we'll do both."]

Dan Harris, at ABC in New York, opened an ABC News Special Report at 1:22pm EDT:: “We're going to go back to Biloxi, Mississippi where President Bush has been taking questions from reporters on the ground. He took a question, in fact, about a common complaint -- what we're hearing from many people about the resources being spent in Iraq. Let's listen.”

Viewers the heard audio of ABC News White House correspondent Terry Moran, with distant video of media crews and others around Bush, outside in a Biloxi neighborhood:

“Mr. President, one of the things you hear here is people saying 'there's a lot of resources being devoted to Iraq. Now this country needs them.' And they're frustrated about that. What do you say to the people who say there's too much money being spent on Iraq and it's time to bring it home?”

[ABC had an audio and video jump and missed a couple of words near the end of Moran's question, but I caught the missed words in NBC's later 1:48pm EDT playback of the same q and a.]

Bush answered Moran: “I just completely disagree. We've got a job to defend this country in the war on terror and we've got a job to bring aid and comfort to the people of the Gulf coast and we'll do both. We've got plenty of resources to do both...”