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The Associated Press first used the Mayfield quote about water overflowing the levees to criticize Bush for saying the levee breaches were not predicted.

"Bush declared four days after the storm, 'I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees' that gushed deadly flood waters into New Orleans," the AP reported. "But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility."

The DNC echoed the AP's claim.

"Just days later," the DNC press release continued, "the President misled the American people when he claimed that no one anticipated the failure of the levees that flooded New Orleans."

And MMFA criticized The Washington Post and USA Today for not including the accusation in their initial articles.

"But none of these reports mentioned that these new tapes further contradict the claim Bush made on ABC's "Good Morning America" several days after the storm hit that 'I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees,'" MMFA complained.

The first mention of possible levee breaches came during the Aug. 29 briefing, after Katrina had made landfall. The statement was not a warning about potential levee breaches but, rather, an assurance that none had occurred.

"We keep getting reports in some place that maybe water is coming over the levees. We heard a report, unconfirmed," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco told participants in the teleconference. "I think we have not breached the levee. We have not breached the levee at this point. That could change ..."

Numerous broadcast and print media outlets also criticized President Bush for not asking questions during the Aug. 28 briefing, based on the AP's initial story.

"Bush appeared from a narrow, windowless room at his vacation ranch in Texas, with his elbows on a table," the AP reported. "[White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe] Hagin was sitting alongside him. Neither asked questions in the Aug. 28 briefing."

But in the Aug. 29 transcript, which was in the AP's possession when it wrote the initial article, then- Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown described the president as, "obviously watching the television a lot, and he had some questions about the Dome, he's asking questions about reports of breaches.

"He's very engaged, and he's asking a lot of really good questions I would expect him to ask," Brown said.

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