The White House shed more light on its objections to an edited recording of an interview with President Bush conducted by Richard Engel of NBC News and aired on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and The Today Show. In response to a question at today's daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said that the Administration had received no response from NBC News to a letter sent to them yesterday by Counselor to the President Ed Gillespie, adding, "I think it's quite telling that they have been silent."

In his letter to NBC News President Steve Capus, Gillespie charged NBC with "deceitful editing" in airing the president's answer to a question about his remarks to Israel's parliament last week. The White House is upset that the broadcast interview seemed to leave the impression that the president was agreeing with Engel's characterization of his remarks about the foolishness of appeasement, especially with respect to terrorist groups like Hamas and their state sponsor Iran, as being focused at Sen. Barack Obama. Ms. Perino clarified today that the White House was concerned that the media would attempt to take routine policy statements from the president in his waning days in office and try to put them in the context of the presidential campaign. Ms. Perino said that the White House was, "not going to allow the President's policies to be dragged into the '08 election unnecessarily and unfairly."

The White House sent an open letter to NBC News today calling for that organization to play in its entirety an unedited recording of a recent interview conducted by Richard Engel in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt at the close of the President Bush's five-day trip to the Middle East. Counselor to the President, and former head of the Republican National Committee, Ed Gillepsie said that the White House objects to what it called mis-characterizations of the president's remarks in the version of the interview aired on last night's NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and this morning on The Today Show. Mr. Gillespie charged that the interview was, "deceptively edited." The interview as it aired can be seen below. The disputed question and answer begins at 1:02.

Engel: "You said that negotiating with Iran is pointless, and then you went further. You said that it was appeasement. Were you referring to Senator Barack Obama?"

Bush: "You know, my policies haven't changed, but evidently the political calendar has. And when, you know, a leader of Iran says that they want to destroy Israel, you've got to take those words seriously.

The White House says that NBC's editing of the president's full answer leaves the false impression that he was referring to Sen. Barack Obama when he spoke to Israel's parliament last week.