RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
BLITZER: "Was general Kelly today politicizing this issue?"
PANETTA: "Well, you know, he’s chief of staff to the president. He’s doing damage control. I think in the end, when you engage with a congresswoman, one way or the other, it becomes politics. That’s the reality."
BLITZER: "Do you think the president pushed him to go out into the briefing room and do this?"
PANETTA: "I’m not so sure. Look, I — I understand where John’s coming from and I think he probably, in many ways, was saddened by the fact that this whole debate began from the beginning. I believe that he really does understand that this is the wrong place and the wrong time to kind of raise these kinds of issues. But the fact is, it happens. And I — I honestly believe that John probably did this pretty much on his own. But again, he did it as chief of staff to the president. A president who began this issue by commenting on what past presidents did or did not do in talking to the loved ones of those that had lost their heroes in battle. I think that was the wrong thing to say at the time and very frankly, I think we ought to drop it, move on and deal with the real issues that involve the national security of this country."
BLITZER: "But would any — I think you would agree, none of this would have been discussed if president Trump hadn’t tried to compare himself to previous presidents and actually it was the president who brought up general Kelly’s own loss, right?
PANETTA: "Yeah. I think that was the problem here. I think this president has a habit of when he feels like he’s on the spot and he’s being asked something uncomfortable, looks to scapegoat to somehow excuse his behavior and that causes trouble and it caused trouble in this situation and now it’s been politicized and I really do think that we ought to go back to the main focus which ought to be our men and women in uniform that bravely put their lives on the line. That’s what we ought to think about. And to some extent I’ll tell you, this whole controversy, I don’t particularly like this controversy because of the way it’s handled and the kind of accusations that are being made. But in the end, if it makes Americans understand that there are men and women fighting and dying and we have to realize that — sometimes we forget that — that probably is a good thing."