Members of the US Congress last night demanded to know if the US government had enough information to head off the September 11th attacks.
The White House admitted Mr Bush had a pre-September 11th warning about possible hijackings by followers of Osama bin Laden only after CBS Newsrevealed it on Wednesday night.
Pressure is building in Congress for an independent commission to investigate what the government knew in advance of September 11th and whether there was a failure among various federal agencies to respond adequately.
"Was there a failure of intelligence? Did the right officials not act on the intelligence in the proper way? These are the things we need to find out," said House of Representatives Democratic leader Richard Gephardt.
"Why did it take eight months for us to receive this information? asked South Dakota Democrat Mr Daschle.
But Vice President Mr Dick Cheney said Democratic criticism was irresponsible at a time when a more devastating act of terror could be on the way.
He said suggestions by some Democrats the attacks could have been prevented were "thoroughly irresponsible and totally unworthy of national leaders in a time of war."
The White House said intelligence given to President Bush in August about a possible hijack plot was too general to act upon. "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon," national security adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice, said.
Mr Bush told Republicans in a meeting on Capitol Hill that "there is a sniff of politics in the air" in the fact Democrats were attacking him on the issue, sources said.