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 Turning Down the Lights - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 1/15/09 — Thursday, January 15, 2009 —  MS. PERINO: Jennifer. Q Can you talk just a little bit -- nuts and bolts -- about the next two days? I think you've said that the Press Office is going to get pared down to basically Stuart. MS. PERINO: Yes, a little bit. Q Can you talk a little bit about the whole apparatus that will be around the President, say Monday and Tuesday? It will be pretty pared down, right? MS. PERINO: Yes. So we'll have -- the President will be fully staffed to the extent that he needs help. There will be those of us around to do it, there just might be fewer of us, because there is quite an elaborate checkout system. You have to turn in all of your equipment. There is the ethics debrief. You have to turn in any keys that you might have, your parking pass. You have to go through all of that process. And so in order to make sure that that's done in an orderly fashion, some people will have to start checking out. And that really started around Monday of this week. We're going to say good-bye to three of our staffers tonight, although it's not good-bye forever -- they're going to be tomorrow for the press briefing -- but Carlton Carroll, being one of them, who has been fantastic, and he has really -- rose to the occasion. A lot you knew him when he just started out as a press assistant, and now he is a fantastic on-the-record spokesperson. We couldn't be more proud of him. Q Which one is he again? (Laughter.) MS. PERINO: We needed Ken Herman to get us through that moment. But Anthony Warren and Matthew Drummond will also check out this afternoon, a few more tomorrow. Stuart Siciliano and I will be here through -- and I think Gordon, because he checks out through NSC, will be here on Tuesday. Ben Chang, thankfully, will be here for you and help the Obama team transition, as previous deputy national spokesmen have done before. And so you'll have some continuity. But we'll be available, Tony Fratto and Stanzel and I, through the weekend. So the President will do the farewell address tonight. Tomorrow he'll leave for Camp David. It will be a small group at Camp David. I expect that he'll have his daughters there. Secretary Rice usually heads up; the Hadleys; Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. But it won't be a large affair. They had that at Christmas time. And we're going to allow -- I believe we're going to allow that final departure and the final arrival on Sunday, when they come back from Camp David, to be taken live for those of you who care about that. And he'll have his radio address on Saturday; I think he'll tape that in the morning. And then Monday -- we'll be here to provide you some information. I think there are some requests for some world leaders to be able to call and say good-bye to President Bush. We'll let you know about that. So, Olivier, who -- but only if you shave those things off by Monday. (Laughter.) Q No guarantees. I'm the decider. (Laughter.) MS. PERINO: You can make that decision if you'd like. Q And the other offices in the White House that are going to be pared down, too, just like -- MS. PERINO: Yes. Everybody -- everyone has to go through that same process. The Chief of Staff made sure that everything was done in a systematic fashion. We're not going to be running around here like chickens with our heads cut off on Tuesday morning. We're going to try to do this in a real good way. Then there will be some staff that goes out -- as many staff as possible -- go out to Andrews Air Force Base where they will be able to say good-bye to the President. The President will probably make some closing remarks to them, but they will be not open to the press. It will just be a private moment. Then he'll get on the plane and head to Midland, where he will give an -- he'll give remarks at an open press event in the town square there, and then head to Waco, and then on to Crawford. And that'll be it. Q What do you mean by debriefing? You said for debriefing. Can you give us -- MS. PERINO: Oh, those are things that you have to do in terms of making sure that you sign off, that you haven't -- that you know you have to keep the secrets that you were told, and things like that. Q (Inaudible.) MS. PERINO: No. (Laughter.) Bush Administration | Dana Perino | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps | White House Press Secretary Labels: Bush Administration, Dana Perino, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps, White House Press Secretary
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:38 PM
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