Andrea Mitchell: Iran Was America’s Ally Until Bush Referred to the ‘Axis of Evil’

MITCHELL: “Let me challenge you on that because that speech arguably turned this country in a direction on foreign policy. Now I know that tonight will not be about foreign policy and traditionally it's not, but those words, axis of evil, and I was standing right here in Congress, and when I heard those words I called the control room and I said this is a big deal. The State Department, with all due respect, Colin Powell and the State Department did not focus enough on those words and get them taken out of the State of the Union because up until that moment Iran was cooperating with the United States on the border of Afghanistan, it was post 9/11, Iran was more or less an American ally. By being included in the axis of evil, it turned the Iranian government in a completely different direction. It was a turning point in American politics and in foreign policy.”
CILLIZZA: “Andrea, I would agree with you. My point was not that. I would say that one was the exception, not the rule. Not that that speech didn't matter, it in fact quite did. There are some speeches as you look back through the last century or so of State of the Union's that did matter. That's clearly one. I would say that is the exception.”