Transcript: Laura Bush on the Today Show

First lady Laura Bush, traveling in Africa, discussed her trip and her thoughts on President Bush's upcoming Supreme Court nomination with Ann Curry of NBC's Today Show. Here is a full transcript of the interview.

COURIC: Now to First Lady Laura Bush's tour across Africa to bring attention to the fight against AIDS and the struggle for women's rights.

Our own Ann Curry is traveling with the first lady all week, and this morning they're in a classroom at a widely respected center serving families outside of Cape Town, South Africa.

Ann, good morning.

CURRY: Katie, good morning to you.

First of all, let me say thank you, Mrs. Bush, for allowing...

BUSH: Thank you, Ann.

CURRY: ... for allowing us to accompany you on this trip.

And good morning to you.

BUSH: Well, thanks for coming with me on this trip.

CURRY: Well, it's been a pleasure so far. I look forward to the rest.

Well, I guess the biggest question that people are wanting to know is what is the goal that you have here in Africa?

BUSH: Well, when we left the G-8, I really wanted to come to show the people of Africa -- these three countries that I'm going to have the privilege of visiting while I'm here -- that Americans really do care, that Americans are committed to helping the people of Africa, to working with the people of Africa as they face poverty and disease and all of the things that the G-8 members talk about and that all those people who either went to a Live 8 concert or watched it on their computers -- just so people here know that we really are very interested in standing with them.

CURRY: And we are sitting in a center that specifically deals specifically with children and their needs. And some 12 million children in Africa are orphaned because of AIDS. Your husband has significantly contributed to AIDS in Africa and specifically to any kind of aid in Africa. But there is debate -- and you've heard the criticism, the American people have heard the criticism -- that he's not done enough to truly make a difference.

What is your...

BUSH: Well, I think we're really seeing a difference, and not just from money that comes from the United States government and from the taxpayers, but also from many other governments that are committed to working with governments in Africa. And not only other governments but also individuals, individual foundations.

This center where we are today is funded by the Swedish government, by the South African government and then by two American foundations, the Kellogg Foundation and the Kaiser Foundation. And then when we go later and see the big loom where the women are weaving, that was funded by a grant from the U.S. government.

So we're working with everyone. We want to work with governments particularly with these governments in Africa as they face the challenges that they face.

CURRY: You make this visit to Africa in the wake of the bombings in London just last week while you were at the G-8 summit in Scotland.

What was going through your mind during those bombings? And what did you and your husband talk about as you watched the horror unfold?

BUSH: Well, of course, what it reminded both of us of is what happened in our country on September 11th.

But there was a really terrible irony in the fact that we were there at the G-8 with leaders of the G-8 as well as leaders from many other countries talking about the way we can work together to alleviate poverty, to work on diseases -- trying to eradicate diseases that cover Africa and many, many other parts of the world, and then the juxtaposition of that constructive dialogue, that willingness to be constructive and to try to work with each other and try to help each other with the meaningless and brutal terrorists attack really in a lot of ways, I think, turned people's eyes from Africa and back to terrorism.

And one of the reasons that I'm really glad I had this trip planned is because we can continue to talk with ways we can be constructive and not the destruction of terrorism.

CURRY: Let me shift for a moment to a subject that a lot of Americans care a lot about, and that is what will happen in the wake of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor retiring. Do you want your husband to name another woman to the Supreme Court?

BUSH: Sure, I would really like for him to name another woman. And I admire and respect Sandra Day O'Connor so much. She's been a friend that I've loved seeing whenever I had the chance when I'm in Washington.

But I know that my husband will pick somebody who has a lot of integrity and strength. And whether it's a woman or a man, of course, I have no idea.

But I'm proud that Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman on the Supreme Court.

CURRY: Do you have they concerns that his choice might result in an overturning of Rowe v. Wade?

BUSH: Well, I hope that when he makes a pick -- and I know he will pick somebody who is really, really terrific -- that that person, whoever it is, gets a fair hearing and that we have a very dignified process in the United States and in the United States Senate as that person gets a hearing.

That's what I think is most important, besides, of course, picking somebody who will interpret the laws and the Constitution of the United States with a great deal of integrity and intelligence. And I know he'll pick somebody who does that.

CURRY: You've been traveling in Africa with your daughters...

BUSH: That's right.

CURRY: ... both of them. And there is a report that one of your daughters has been working in Africa to help children, volunteering, which must make your heart so proud.

BUSH: It does. I'm very proud of my girls, but I'm also really proud of their generation. And one of our daughters has been volunteering here at a children's hospital. And she'll be coming home later this month. And, of course, I'm glad to have her home, but I'm very proud that she wanted to do that.

And I know that so many of their friends -- of my girls' friends also have volunteered at home in the United States and around the world. And I'm really proud of the American young people.

CURRY: You know, people are seeing -- they feel they see a new Laura Bush in you. There is a sense that you have become so active. I mean, I understand from your staff you visited something like 15 countries in the last four months. You've been working for the rights and the opportunities for women and specifically for children.

Some people think you're becoming an activist. Are you an activist?

BUSH: I'm an activist, sure.

But actually it's my privilege to be able to represent the people of the United States. And to let people around the world know how good the people of the United States are and how concerned the people of the United States are with all parts of the world. I hear it wherever I go. I see it wherever I go.

This morning in the Mothers to Mothers to Be program that I visited, that encourages mothers who are HIV positive to counsel other mothers who are pregnant and who help them learn how to use the treatments that keep their children from having HIV when they're born. And that makes me very, very proud that those kinds of programs are started with money from the United States taxpayers, with American individuals who are visionaries and who want to help people worldwide. And that's what I get to see and get to highlight, and that's really a privilege.

CURRY: Well, Mrs. Bush, it's such a pleasure to speak to you. Thank you for spending this time with us.

END