Hosni Mubarak - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Hosni Mubarak Index / People Transcripts Tawakkol Karman ...guess [Muhammad] Husni [al-Sayyid] Mubarak , when Husni Mubarak leave, also, th... ...Husni [al-Sayyid] Mubarak, when Husni Mubarak leave, also, the Yemeni people wer... ...al-] Qaddafi, from Ben Ali, from Hosni Mubarak , from Ali Saleh, and then later fro... Robert Gates ...the military get involved, not to let [Hosni] Mubarak use the military to put down thi... ...the way, as the pressures continued, Mubarak was making concessions. He had finall... ...it was probably too little too late for Mubarak . But where we parted company in th... ...were all saying, “You can't just throw Mubarak under the bus.” And the argument that ... ...boiled down to the president's call to Mubarak , and the debate was what he shoul... ...of the issue said he needed to tell Mubarak he needed to leave immediately. Th... Show more... William Taylor ...two in particular. Ben Ali was out. [Hosni] Mubarak was out. There were excited crowd... ...oppressed for this long time. But when Mubarak finally left, the people supported th... ...the Egyptians that had developed under Mubarak . So the relationship between ou... ...with, and she had been there under Mubarak . And she knew the US assistanc... ...was the way it had been done under Mubarak . We had provided assistance during th... ...We had provided assistance during the Mubarak time, for the reasons that I talke... Show more... Michael Posner ...a highly authoritarian state under [Hosni] Mubarak , had nonetheless allowed a number o... ...source that said that President Mubarak had serious health issues. So what ha... ...Tahrir Square was taken over. And until Mubarak resigned, the fate of the country wa... ...as Obama weighed whether or not to back Mubarak or to encourage him to step aside, a... ...for the US to push on somebody like Mubarak or to aid protestors. I wonder if yo... ...to a new conclusion in Obama pushing on Mubarak to step aside as it considered what t... ...and let's do whatever we can to support Mubarak and not let this protest overturn him... ...objectives. There was a moment after Mubarak left, or as he was leaving, where ther... Show more... Jake Sullivan ...when it came to the question of [Hosni] Mubarak 's ultimate destiny. They had simila... ...telling her, “Egypt is not Tunisia. Mubarak is going to weather this, for the earl... ...happening and a feeling that in fact Mubarak was not going to be able to simply wai... ...willing to step up on the question of Mubarak 's departure and so forth. On the othe... Michael Mullen ...broader US relationship with Egypt. As [Hosni] Mubarak came under fire—this was in lat... ...when the protests began and when Mubarak is out of power. My recollection was... ...and the decision that Obama made on Mubarak was all—this is my view—very tightl... ...was made that they were going to let Mubarak go, tell him he had to go, one. Now... ...that the decision was made to urge Mubarak to leave. Obviously, these are al... ...didn't mean we agreed with Mubarak . He had a lot of things he did, on th... ...it was the wrong decision to push for Mubarak 's oust, or agree to Mubarak's oust? O... ...to push for Mubarak's oust, or agree to Mubarak 's oust? Or was it the process at whic... ...making the decision to say, “Okay, Mubarak has got to go.” And I hate that. I hat... ...at some time before this, met with Mubarak , met with—I think his name was [Omar... ...job for years and who obviously, when Mubarak fell out, sort of took control of th... ...his boss, a general—it was a longtime Mubarak guy that essentially brokered th... Show more... William Burns ...with [Muhammad] Husni [al Sayyid] Mubarak , whereas Tunisia was consequential i... ...for change or in conversations with Mubarak , for example, that Obama had? What di... ...that you witnessed between Obama and Mubarak . I would love to get your thoughts o... ...diplomacy as he's talking to Mubarak about just this thing, how to respon... ...orderly a transition as possible from Mubarak . But what was clear is that there ha... ...a transition, and that the history of Mubarak in dealing with the pressures in earl... ...He was mindful of the fact that Mubarak tended to think, I think, not just tha... ...that. But he was also very direct with Mubarak . In that February first conversatio... ...he was pretty direct about the need for Mubarak to move much more quickly to make clea... ...Egyptian political system up gradually. Mubarak , I remember, his side of th... ...he was by that point in his eighties, Mubarak was pretty stubborn in his convictio... ...role that the United States played in Mubarak 's exit was limited. I'd love to get ... ...How did you explain what did lead to Mubarak 's exit? What do you think was th... ...be better served without Husni Mubarak . So it's when the Egyptian militar... ...going to fire on protesters and that Mubarak had to go, which was, again, prompte... ...traveled to Egypt shortly after Mubarak 's fall and you were the first officia... ... How would you characterize after Mubarak 's fall what the US goals were? We'v... ...Square demonstrations had worn off and Mubarak had departed, a lot of especially th... ...Gulf Arab critique that Obama threw Husni Mubarak under the bus is just fundamentall... ...just fundamentally flawed in my view. Husni Mubarak was halfway under the political bu... Show more... Anne Patterson ...too. There was this narrative that [Hosni] Mubarak had stolen seventy billion dollars... ...and they were throwing a lot of Mubarak 's associates into jail. One of th... ...the military wasn't sorry to see Mubarak go, at all, because they were afrai... ...the military. They weren't sorry to see Mubarak go. There was a lot of unrest. Ther... ...The military in Egypt—they got rid of Mubarak , they got rid of [Mohamed] Morsi. I... Samantha Power ...focused on [Muhammad Husni al-Sayyid] Mubarak , who had anointed his son, Gama... ...going to be much more contested by Mubarak . He was not at all persuaded that hi... ...whether there was a universe in which Mubarak would embrace political transition... ...which had not happened in the Mubarak era. But President Obama, ver... ...human rights; then wanting Mubarak , I think, to commit to certai... ...opposition force. And certainly Mubarak , the leader of Egypt, telling Obama... ...ultimately, when it became clear that Mubarak was not being sufficiently responsive... ...want to achieve. And the options for Mubarak are now shrinking, insofar as he's lef... ...had really difficult conversations with Mubarak in that period where—and not many. ... ...in on a couple of them. And just Mubarak 's level of denial, his detachment, th... ...aren't going away,” and commending Mubarak for not turning the tanks on hi... ...most likely. But ultimately, I think, Mubarak sensing the world closing in on him... ...again, articulated the choice before Mubarak , in terms that I think he would hav... ...reason to believe would resonate with Mubarak . Namely, “Look, you're the father o... ...the team in the Situation Room watching Mubarak 's speech. I saw in that picture a lo... ...this behind-the-scenes discussion with Mubarak . I wonder, as you saw him make tha... ...about the US decision to call on Mubarak to step down, how difficult was it fo... ...in my head, but when Obama talked to Mubarak on one of these occasions, in this ver... ...in this very compressed time period, Mubarak left Obama, and the rest of us wh... ...States was occurring at the time that Mubarak was speaking to his nation. And CNN—... ...this speech, this vaunted speech, where Mubarak had led us to believe that he was goin... ...and it was just more of the same, of Mubarak seeing himself as the father to th... ...more peaceful protests, more time for Mubarak to consider his options. The crossroad... ...to was one where the question before Mubarak was, clear the square––or step down... ...others would have wished to stand with Mubarak through thick and thin, and this wa... ...concerned about what would happen if Mubarak stepped down. But on the other side o... ...made a mistake in that phone call with Mubarak , urging him to take account of realit... ...they talk about the alternative of Mubarak staying, as if the crowds didn't exist... ...as if the decision weren't before Mubarak about what to do with the tanks, and a... ...in accordance with US interests, where Mubarak could have stayed. In other words, it'... ...lose that long-time relationship with Mubarak , and the mil-mil [military t... ...use US leverage to even encourage Mubarak to stay in power. But the mil-mi... ...that never happened, because Mubarak stepped down, and the protestor... ...elected, decided to govern much the way Mubarak had governed, in a winner-takes-all... ...to you, and you're being briefed that Mubarak 's only way of maintaining powe... ...in their revolution, come to see Mubarak step down—they were really starting t... ...and prone to bloodshed than Ben Ali and Mubarak , that knowledge was overwhelmed by th... ...with the opposition, in the way that Mubarak had sort of—not really done, but a... ...that might have, in the end, gotten to Mubarak , and certainly Ben Ali did not want t... Show more... Ryan Crocker ...army behind them. They may get rid of [Muhammad Hosni El Sayed] Mubarak , but boy, it's not the dawn of a ne... 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