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 Surge of Doubletalk - White House Press Gaggle by Robert Gibbs 2/27/09 — Monday, March 02, 2009 —  Q The former NSC spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, today said that this only was possible -- this plan laid out today was only possible because of the surge, and that in fact this plan is in keeping with basically the rough outlines of what the Bush administration had thought of doing itself. How would you characterize that? And does the President believe the surge was necessary to get to this point?MR. GIBBS: Well, I think as the President said in the campaign, that the security situation has gotten better in the -- over the past couple years in Iraq; the political situation hasn't always followed as quickly. And insofar as the Status of Forces Agreement dictated an end to our involvement in Iraq, there may be certainly some consistency with the SOFA, but I think what the President laid out was something that was -- today was consistent with what he pledged to do in the campaign, to do so in a way that was responsible, do so in a way that was in keeping with his commitment to protect our troops and to speak with commanders on the ground and at the Pentagon in order to make it happen. Obviously we've got a long way to go in Iraq. And I think the President enumerated that a military drawdown is but one of many functions that have to continue to take place in order to have the, as I think the President said, the hard opportunity the Iraqis now have to take their country and govern and protect it effectively. Obviously the President outlined a series of strategies, including renewed diplomatic efforts in the region in order to bring Iraq into sort of the community in the region, but also to ensure that there's continued political improvement with the election scheduled this year, and still some hard decisions that have to be made on things like an oil law. Q Did he call any other ex-Presidents to tell them what was going on? MR. GIBBS: I don't believe he called any ex-Presidents. I know that members of the team -- of our national security team were reaching out to many of their counterparts. Q Why did he call Bush and not Clinton or the senior Bush? What informed this -- MR. GIBBS: Well, again, I think obviously this was something that was a pretty big issue for the most previous President, and because of that, felt it important to call and let him know. Q I'm sorry, but I didn't hear an answer to Anne's specific question of whether President Obama thinks the surge worked. I heard him talk about improved security and I heard him thank the military. But what about the strategy? MR. GIBBS: Well, but remember that -- go back and read the very beginning, the stories of what the surge outlined. The surge was quite clearly an effort to add more troops that would ultimately bring about a change in the political reconciliation and dynamic in the country. And while the security situation did show improvement, we still -- there still lacks some political reconciliation and certainly facets of what would ultimately be the agreements necessary for the country to prosper in the long term. So I think that, again, while the security situation improved, there still is some political improvement that can and must take place in order for Iraq to be stable. Q Just to give it one more try. Does the President think that if were it not for the surge -- does the President think that the surge allowed him to make the decision he did today, made it more likely that it will end successfully? MR. GIBBS: Again, I think the President believed that the surge -- (laughter) -- I mean -- Q Believed that the surge -- MR. GIBBS: Again, the surge helped improve the security situation, as he said, but I think, remember, again -- and again, please go back and read, the goal of the surge was to change the security situation so that a political reconciliation could be brought about. But let me pivot a little bit by saying, and the President said this after the speech in an interview later on, which is, you know, the situation in Iraq and in the region is it's far less important for us to turn back and look backwards -- we could debate about whether we should have been there; the President was on one side and some people were on another; we could debate about how long we stayed; we could debate about the surge; we could debate about recommendations from the Baker-Hamilton commission. But all of that is somewhat moot given the situation of where we are today and what has to happen and what the President believes should happen between now and the end of August of 2010, and ultimately the end of December in 2011. Iraq | President Bush | President Obama | Press Gaggle | Robert Gibbs | War on Terror | White House Press Corps Labels: Iraq, President Bush, President Obama, Press Gaggle, Robert Gibbs, War on Terror, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:54:00 PM  What a Secretary of State Does - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 1/14/09 — Wednesday, January 14, 2009 —  Q Okay. On Gaza, I'm assuming that the President is not trying to wrap or push for a resolution before he leaves office, but, I mean, is he okay with this conflict continuing as he leaves office or is there any kind of sense within the White House that he'd like to wrap things up or at least achieve a resolution before -- MS. PERINO: This is not -- President Bush didn't want the situation to arise in the first place. But given where we are I think that he has exercised the appropriate authority that he can over what the United States can do. And the United States is not there pulling any triggers. But what we have done, the United States has done is tried to work with the Israelis to provide more aid for the humanitarian crisis that's occurring. And we'd like to see a durable cease-fire established as soon as possible, but we're not -- I know there's a lot of countdowns that are going on around here, but when it comes to protecting innocent people and caring about the people of the Palestinian Territories, especially those in Gaza, the President has no time limit on that. Q Dana, on that, the President has said numerous times that he's sprinting to the finish in these final days and weeks. On that point, then, when's the last time he was working the phones on this situation? MS. PERINO: President Bush every morning is working with his intel advisors, and obviously works with Steve Hadley every morning at 7:00 a.m., and Secretary Rice and he talk several times a day. And we keep you updated when appropriate on phone calls; we don't read all of them out to you. Q But when is the last time he had direct conversations with people brokering the Egyptian-French cease-fire -- MS. PERINO: The President isn't doing that; he has a Secretary of State who he has working on that and that's who should be -- that's absolutely appropriate, is to have his Secretary of State working on that. Condeleezza Rice | Dana Perino | Gaza | Israel | Middle East | President Bush |Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Condeleezza Rice, Dana Perino, Gaza, Israel, Middle East, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 6:39:00 PM Family Showdown - White House Press Briefing by Tony Fratto 1/13/09 — Tuesday, January 13, 2009 —  MR. FRATTO: Yes, Mark. Q Tony, the President-elect's decision, impending decision, to close Guantanamo -- the Vice President has just given an interview in which he says, "I think it's a bad decision." He says it's a first-rate facility, it's a good facility, there's a reason why it's there. I thought President Bush wanted to close Guantanamo. MR. FRATTO: When you say -- first, when you say "close Guantanamo," Guantanamo is a base. You're talking about the detention facility? It's obviously our position, you've heard the President say this many times, that over time it's a goal to close the Guantanamo facility also. I didn't see the interview that you're referring to. But I think what everyone has realized -- I've seen it in a lot of the reporting, some of it today and in recent weeks -- is the incredible complexity of actually closing Guantanamo, the legal and national security concerns that people are noticing now. It's complicated. And it would take a great deal of time to do it, and you do have the problem of what do you do with known and hardened and experienced terrorists. Where do you put them? I would agree with the Vice President that, for now, Guantanamo is the place to keep them until we can find other solutions. Q The President doesn't think it's a bad decision to close Guantanamo. He wants to do that. MR. FRATTO: Well, like I said, I don't know the context of Vice President's reaction with the -- whether it was referencing a time frame or something else. Dick Cheney | Guantanamo | President Bush | President-Elect Obama | Press Briefing | Tony Fratto | Vice President | War on Terror | White House Press Corps Labels: Dick Cheney, Guantanamo, President Bush, President-Elect Obama, Press Briefing, Tony Fratto, Vice President, War on Terror, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:49:00 PM George We Hardly Knew Ye - Press Conference by the President 1/12/09 — Monday, January 12, 2009 —  THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Tapper. We have been through a lot together. As I look through the room, I see Jake, Mike, Herman, Ann Compton. Just seemed like yesterday that -- that I was on the campaign trail and you were analyzing my speeches and my policies. And I see a lot of faces that travel with me around the world and -- to places like Afghanistan and Iraq and Africa. I see some new faces, which goes to show there's some turnover in this business. Through it all, it's been -- I have respected you. Sometimes didn't like the stories that you wrote or reported on. Sometimes you misunderestimated me. But always the relationship I have felt has been professional. And I appreciate it. I appreciate -- I do appreciate working with you. My friends say, what is it like to deal with the press corps? I said, these are just people trying to do the best they possibly can. And so here at the last press conference, I'm interested in answering some of your questions. But mostly I'm interested in saying thank you for the job. Ben. Q Thank you for those comments, Mr. President. Here's a question. I'm wondering if you plan to ask Congress for the remaining $350 billion in bail money. And in terms of the timing, if you do that before you leave office, sir, are you motivated in part to make life a little easier for President-Elect Obama? THE PRESIDENT: I have talked to the President-elect about this subject. And I told him that if he felt that he needed the $350 billion, I would be willing to ask for it. In other words, if he felt it needed to happen on my watch. The best course of action, of course, is to convince enough members of the Senate to vote positively for the -- for the request. And, you know, that's all I can share with you, because that's all I know. Q So you haven't made the request yet? THE PRESIDENT: Well, he hasn't asked me to make the request yet. And I don't intend to make the request unless he specifically asks me to make it. He's -- you know, I've had my third conversation with him, and I genuinely mean what I say. I wish him all the very best. I've found him to be a very smart and engaging person. And that lunch the other day was interesting, to have two guys who are nearly 85, two 62-year-olders, and a 47-year-old -- kind of the classic generational statement. And one common area, at least the four of us, we all had different circumstances and experiences, but one thing is we've all experienced what it means to assume the responsibility of the presidency. And President-Elect Obama is fixing to do that. And he'll get sworn in, and then they'll have the lunch and all the -- you know, all the deal up there on Capitol Hill. And then he'll come back and go through the inauguration and then he'll walk in the Oval Office, and there will be a moment when the responsibilities of the President land squarely on his shoulders. Toby. Yes, we'll get everybody. Q Thank you, Mr. President. Do you believe that the Gaza conflict will have ended by the time you leave office? Do you approve of the way that Israel has conducted it? And why were you unable to achieve the peace deal that you had sought? THE PRESIDENT: Remind me of the three points, will you, because I'm getting -- Q Will it end -- THE PRESIDENT: -- I'm getting a little older. Q Will it end by the time you leave office? Do you approve of the -- THE PRESIDENT: I hope so. I'm for a sustainable cease-fire. And a definition of a sustainable cease-fire is that Hamas stops firing rockets into Israel. And there will not be a sustainable cease-fire if they continue firing rockets. I happen to believe the choice is Hamas's to make. And we believe that the best way to ensure that there is a sustainable cease-fire is to work with Egypt to stop the smuggling of arms into the Gaza that enables Hamas to continue to fire rockets. And so countries that supply weapons to Hamas have got to stop. And the international community needs to continue to pressure them to stop providing weapons. Hamas, obviously, if they're interested in a sustainable cease-fire, needs to stop arming. And then, of course, countries contingent to the Gaza need to work to stop the smuggling. And it's a difficult -- difficult task. I mean, there's tunnels and, you know, great opportunities for people who want to continue to try to disrupt democracy to provide the weapons to do so. Second part of your question, please, ma'am? Q Do you approve of the Israeli conduct in this? THE PRESIDENT: I think Israel has a right to defend herself. Obviously in any of these kinds of situations, I would hope that she would continue to be mindful of innocent folks, and that they help, you know, expedite the delivery of humanitarian aid. And third, why haven't we achieved peace? That's a good question. It's been a long time since they've had peace in the Middle East. Step one is to have a vision for what peace would look like. And in 2002, on the steps of the Rose Garden, I gave a speech about a two-state solution -- two states, two democracies living side by side in peace. And we have worked hard to advance that idea. First thing is to convince all parties that the two states were necessary for peace. And one thing that's happened is, is that most people in the Middle East now accept the two-state solution as the best way for peace. Most Palestinians want their own state, and most Israelis understand there needs to be a democracy on their border in order for there to be long-lasting peace. The challenge, of course, has been to lay out the conditions so that a peaceful state can emerge -- in other words, helping the Palestinians in the West Bank develop security forces, which we have worked hard to do over the past years. And those security forces are now becoming more efficient, and Prime Minister Fayyad is using them effectively. The challenge is to develop -- help the Palestinians develop a democracy -- I mean, and a vibrant economy in their -- that will help lead to democracy. And the challenge, of course, is always complicated by the fact that people are willing to murder to stop the advance of freedom. And so the -- Hamas, or for that matter al Qaeda, or other extremist groups, are willing to use violence to prevent free states from emerging. And that's the big challenge. And so the answer is -- will this ever happen? I think it will. And I know we have advanced the process. Yes, Suzanne. Finally got your name right, after how many years? Six years? Q Eight years. (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT: Eight years. You used to be known as Suzanne. Now you're "Suz-ahn." Q "Suz-ahn." Thank you. (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT: I'm "Gahge." (Laughter.) Q In your 2002 State of the Union address, you identified U.S. threats as an axis of evil -- Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Iraq is relatively calm; North Korea is no longer on the terrorist threat list. How would you define, if, in fact, there is an axis of evil? And what is the greatest and most urgent threat when it comes to security that Barack Obama has to deal with? THE PRESIDENT: The most urgent threat that he'll have to deal with, and other Presidents after him will have to deal with, is an attack on our homeland. You know, I wish I could report that's not the case, but there's still an enemy out there that would like to inflict damage on America -- Americans. And that will be the major threat. North Korea is still a problem. There is a debate in the intel community about how big a problem they are. But one of my concerns is that there might be a highly enriched uranium program. And therefore it is really important that out of the six-party talks comes a strong verification regime. In other words, in order to advance our relations with North Korea, the North Korean government must honor the commitments it made to allow for strong verification measures to be in place, to ensure that they don't develop a highly enriched uranium program, for example. So they're still dangerous, and Iran is still dangerous. Yes. Q You said in an interview earlier this weekend, one of these, I guess, exit interviews, that -- THE PRESIDENT: This is the ultimate exit interview. Q -- that you think the Republican Party needs to be more inclusive. Who needs to hear that message inside the Republican Party? THE PRESIDENT: You see, I am concerned that, in the wake of the defeat, that the temptation will be to look inward and to say, well, here's a litmus test you must adhere to. This party will come back. But the party's message has got to be that different points of view are included in the party. And -- take, for example, the immigration debate. That's obviously a highly contentious issue. And the problem with the outcome of the initial round of the debate was that some people said, well, Republicans don't like immigrants. Now, that may be fair or unfair, but that's what -- that's the image that came out. And, you know, if the image is we don't like immigrants, then there's probably somebody else out there saying, well, if they don't like the immigrants, they probably don't like me, as well. And so my point was, is that our party has got to be compassionate and broad-minded. I remember the 1964 elections. My dad happened to be running for the United State Senate then and, you know, got landslided with the Johnson landslide in the state of Texas. But it wasn't just George Bush who got defeated; the Republican Party was pretty well decimated at the time. At least that's what they -- I think that's how the pundits viewed it. And then '66 there was a resurgence. And the same thing can happen this time, but we just got to make sure our message is broad-gauged and compassionate; that we care about people's lives, and we've got a plan to help them improve their lives. Jake, yes. How you doing? Q I'm good. How you doing, sir? THE PRESIDENT: So what have you been doing since 2000 -- never mind. (Laughter.) Q Working my way to this chair. THE PRESIDENT: So are you going to be here for President Obama? Q I will. I will. THE PRESIDENT: That's a pretty cool job. Q It's not bad. THE PRESIDENT: Yes. (Laughter.) Q Yours might be better. THE PRESIDENT: Yes -- what, retirement? (Laughter.) Q In the past, when you've been asked to address bad poll numbers or your own popularity, you've said that history will judge that you did the right thing, that you thought you did the right thing. But without getting into your motives or your goals, I think a lot of people, including Republicans, including some members of your own administration, have been disappointed at the execution of some of your ideals, whether Iraq or Katrina or the economy. What would your closing message be to the American people about the execution of these goals? THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, hard things don't happen overnight, Jake. And when the history of Iraq is written, historians will analyze, for example, the decision on the surge. The situation was -- looked like it was going fine and then violence for a period of time began to throw -- throw the progress of Iraq into doubt. And rather than accepting the status quo and saying, oh, it's not worth it or the politics makes it difficult or, you know, the party may end up being -- you know, not doing well in the elections because of the violence in Iraq, I decided to do something about it -- and sent 30,000 troops in as opposed to withdrawing. And so that part of history is certain, and the situation did change. Now the question is, in the long run, will this democracy survive? And that's going to be the challenge for future Presidents. In terms of the economy, look, I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession. In the meantime there were 52 months of uninterrupted job growth. And I defended tax cuts when I campaigned, I helped implement tax cuts when I was President, and I will defend them after my presidency as the right course of action. And there's a fundamental philosophical debate about tax cuts. Who best can spend your money, the government or you? And I have always sided with the people on that issue. Now, obviously these are very difficult economic times. When people analyze the situation, there will be -- this problem started before my presidency, it obviously took place during my presidency. The question facing a President is not when the problem started, but what did you do about it when you recognized the problem. And I readily concede I chunked aside some of my free market principles when I was told by chief economic advisors that the situation we were facing could be worse than the Great Depression. So I've told some of my friends who said -- you know, who have taken an ideological position on this issue -- why did you do what you did? I said, well, if you were sitting there and heard that the depression could be greater than the Great Depression, I hope you would act too, which I did. And we've taken extraordinary measures to deal with the frozen credit markets, which have affected the economy. Credit spreads are beginning to shrink; lending is just beginning to pick up. The actions we have taken, I believe, have helped thaw the credit markets, which is the first step toward recovery. And so, yes, look, there's plenty of critics in this business; I understand that. And I thank you for giving me a chance to defend a record that I am going to continue to defend, because I think it's a good, strong record. Jim. Q Thank you, Mr. President. I'd also like to ask you about your critics. THE PRESIDENT: Sure. You know any? (Laughter.) Q Well, a couple years ago, Charles Krauthammer, columnist and Harvard-trained psychiatrist, coined a term, "Bush derangement syndrome," to talk about your critics who disagreed with you most passionately -- not just your policies, but seemed to take an animosity towards you. I'm just wondering, as you look back, why you think you engendered such passionate criticism, animosity, and do you have any message specifically to those -- to that particular part of the spectrum of your critics? THE PRESIDENT: You know, most people I see, you know, when I'm moving around the country, for example, they're not angry. And they're not hostile people. And they -- we never meet people who disagree, that's just not true. I've met a lot of people who don't agree with the decisions I make. But they have been civil in their discourse. And so, I view those who get angry and yell and say bad things and, you know, all that kind of stuff, it's just a very few people in the country. I don't know why they get angry. I don't know why they get hostile. It's not the first time, however, in history that people have expressed themselves in sometimes undignified ways. I've been reading, you know, a lot about Abraham Lincoln during my presidency, and there was some pretty harsh discord when it came to the 16th President, just like there's been harsh discord for the 43rd President. You know, Presidents can try to avoid hard decisions and therefore avoid controversy. That's just not my nature. I'm the kind of person that, you know, is willing to take on hard tasks, and in times of war people get emotional; I understand that. Never really, you know, spent that much time, frankly, worrying about the loud voices. I of course hear them, but they didn't affect my policy, nor did they affect -- affect how I made decisions. You know, the -- President-Elect Obama will find this, too. He'll get in the Oval Office and there will be a lot of people that are real critical and harsh, and he'll be disappointed at times by the tone of the rhetoric. And he's going to have to do what he thinks is right, Jim. And if you don't, then I don't see how you can live with yourself. I don't see how I can get back home in Texas and look in the mirror and be proud of what I see if I allowed the loud voices, the loud critics, to prevent me from doing what I thought was necessary to protect this country. Mike. Q Mr. President, thank you very much. Since your philosophy is so different from President-Elect Obama's, what concerns you the most about what he may attempt to do? THE PRESIDENT: You know, Michael, I'm not going to speculate about what he's going to do. It's going to be -- you know, he's going to get in the Oval Office, he's going to analyze each situation, and he's going to make the decisions that he think is necessary. And the other thing is, when I get out of here, I'm getting off the stage. I believe there ought to be, you know, one person in the klieg lights at a time, and I've had my time in the klieg lights. You know, I'm confident, you know, you'll catch me opining on occasion, but I wish him all the best. And people say, oh, you just -- that's just a throwaway line. No, it's not a throwaway line. The stakes are high. There is an enemy that still is out there. You know, people can maybe try to write that off as, you know, he's trying to set something up. I'm telling you there's an enemy that would like to attack America, Americans, again. There just is. That's the reality of the world. And I wish him all the very best. And of course, he's going to have his hands full with the economy. I understand. It's tough for a lot of working people out there. The people are concerned about their economic future. You know, one of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people's money to help prevent there to be a crisis, and in so doing, some of that money went into Wall Street firms that caused the crisis in the first place. I wasn't kidding when I said Wall Street got drunk and we got the hangover. And -- but nevertheless, President-Elect Obama will find the problems and the situations surrounding problems sometimes cause people to have to make decisions that they, you know, weren't initially comfortable with. And there was such a decision when it came to Wall Street. I mean, I had a lot of people -- when I went out to Midland that time -- say, what the heck are you doing? Those people up East caused the problem. I said, I know, but if we hadn't worked to fix the problem, your situation would be worse. And -- anyway, I really do wish him all the best. Sheryl. Q Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, in recent days, there's been a fair amount of discussion in legal circles about whether or not you might give preemptive pardons, pardons in advance, to officials of your administration who engaged in anything from harsh interrogation tactics to perhaps dismissing U.S. attorneys. I'd like to know, have you given any consideration to this? And are you planning on it? THE PRESIDENT: I won't be discussing pardons here at this press conference. Q Can I have a follow-up? THE PRESIDENT: Would you like to ask another question? Q Yes, I would, sir. Thank you. Four years ago -- THE PRESIDENT: That's the spirit, isn't it? (Laughter.) Q I appreciate that. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Laughter.) Q Four years ago, you were asked if you had made any mistakes. THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Q And I'm not trying to play "gotcha," but I wonder, when you look back over the long arc of your presidency, do you think, in retrospect, that you have made any mistakes? And if so, what is the single biggest mistake that you may have made? THE PRESIDENT: Gotcha. I have often said that history will look back and determine that which could have been done better, or, you know, mistakes I made. Clearly putting a "Mission Accomplished" on a aircraft carrier was a mistake. It sent the wrong message. We were trying to say something differently, but nevertheless, it conveyed a different message. Obviously, some of my rhetoric has been a mistake. I've thought long and hard about Katrina -- you know, could I have done something differently, like land Air Force One either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge. The problem with that and -- is that law enforcement would have been pulled away from the mission. And then your questions, I suspect, would have been, how could you possibly have flown Air Force One into Baton Rouge, and police officers that were needed to expedite traffic out of New Orleans were taken off the task to look after you? I believe that running the Social Security idea right after the '04 elections was a mistake. I should have argued for immigration reform. And the reason why is, is that -- you know, one of the lessons I learned as governor of Texas, by the way, is legislative branches tend to be risk-adverse. In other words, sometimes legislatures have the tendency to ask, why should I take on a hard task when a crisis is not imminent? And the crisis was not imminent for Social Security as far as many members of Congress was concerned. As an aside, one thing I proved is that you can actually campaign on the issue and get elected. In other words, I don't believe talking about Social Security is the third rail of American politics. I, matter of fact, think that in the future, not talking about how you intend to fix Social Security is going to be the third rail of American politics. One thing about the presidency is that you can make -- only make decisions, you know, on the information at hand. You don't get to have information after you've made the decision. That's not the way it works. And you stand by your decisions, and you do your best to explain why you made the decisions you made. There have been disappointments. Abu Ghraib obviously was a huge disappointment during the presidency. Not having weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment. I don't know if you want to call those mistakes or not, but they were -- things didn't go according to plan, let's put it that way. Anyway, I think historians will look back and they'll be able to have a better look at mistakes after some time has passed. Along Jake's question, there is no such thing as short-term history. I don't think you can possibly get the full breadth of an administration until time has passed: Where does a President's -- did a President's decisions have the impact that he thought they would, or he thought they would, over time? Or how did this President compare to future Presidents, given a set of circumstances that may be similar or not similar? I mean, there's -- it's just impossible to do. And I'm comfortable with that. Yes, Mike. Q One of the major objectives that the incoming administration has talked frequently about is restoring America's moral standing in the world. And many of the allies of the new President -- I believe that the President-elect himself has talked about the damage that Gitmo, that harsh interrogation tactics that they consider torture, how going to war in Iraq without a U.N. mandate have damaged America's moral standing in the world. I'm wondering basically what is your reaction to that? Do you think that is that something that the next President needs to worry about? THE PRESIDENT: I strongly disagree with the assessment that our moral standing has been damaged. It may be damaged amongst some of the elite, but people still understand America stands for freedom, that America is a country that provides such great hope. You go to Africa, you ask Africans about America's generosity and compassion; go to India, and ask about, you know, America's -- their view of America. Go to China and ask. Now, no question parts of Europe have said that we shouldn't have gone to war in Iraq without a mandate, but those are a few countries. Most countries in Europe listened to what 1441 said, which is disclose, disarm or face serious consequences. Most people take those words seriously. Now, some countries didn't -- even though they might have voted for the resolution. I disagree with this assessment that, you know, people view America in a dim light. I just don't agree with that. And I understand that Gitmo has created controversies. But when it came time for those countries that were criticizing America to take some of those -- some of those detainees, they weren't willing to help out. And so, you know, I just disagree with the assessment, Mike. I'll remind -- listen, I tell people, yes, you can try to be popular. In certain quarters in Europe, you can be popular by blaming every Middle Eastern problem on Israel. Or you can be popular by joining the International Criminal Court. I guess I could have been popular by accepting Kyoto, which I felt was a flawed treaty, and proposed something different and more constructive. And in terms of the decisions that I had made to protect the homeland, I wouldn't worry about popularity. What I would worry about is the Constitution of the United States, and putting plans in place that makes it easier to find out what the enemy is thinking, because all these debates will matter not if there's another attack on the homeland. The question won't be, you know, were you critical of this plan or not; the question is going to be, why didn't you do something? Do you remember what it was like right after September the 11th around here? In press conferences and opinion pieces and in stories -- that sometimes were news stories and sometimes opinion pieces -- people were saying, how come they didn't see it, how come they didn't connect the dots? Do you remember what the environment was like in Washington? I do. When people were hauled up in front of Congress and members of Congress were asking questions about, how come you didn't know this, that, or the other? And then we start putting policy in place -- legal policy in place to connect the dots, and all of a sudden people were saying, how come you're connecting the dots? And so, Mike, I've heard all that. I've heard all that. My view is, is that most people around the world, they respect America. And some of them doesn't like me, I understand that -- some of the writers and the, you know, opiners and all that. That's fine, that's part of the deal. But I'm more concerned about the country and our -- how people view the United States. They view us as strong, compassionate people who care deeply about the universality of freedom. Roger. Q Thank you. Mr. President, you spoke a moment ago about using taxpayers' money for the TARP program. THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I did. Q The first $350 billion is out the door, it's been spent. Are you satisfied that it's been spent wisely? And for the second $350 billion that's under consideration, do you think -- are you supportive of Congress putting some restrictions on it? THE PRESIDENT: I'm supportive of the President-elect working out a plan with Congress that best suits him -- and Congress. That's what he's going to have to do. He's going to have to go up there and he's going to have to make his case as to why the $350 [billion] is necessary. And he knows that. This is nothing new. And in terms of the first $350 [billion,] I am pleased with this aspect of the expenditure, and that is that the financial markets are beginning to thaw. In the fall, I was concerned that the credit freeze would cause us to be headed toward a depression greater than the Great Depression. That's what I was told, if we didn't move. And so, therefore, we have moved aggressively. And by the way, it just wasn't with the TARP. If you think about AIG, Fannie and Freddie -- a lot of the decisions that were made in this administration are very aggressive decisions, all aiming at preventing the financial system from cratering. Q Mr. President, you spoke of the moment that the responsibility of the office would hit Barack Obama. The world is a far different place than it was when it hit you. When do you think he's going to feel the full impact? And what, if anything, have you and the other Presidents shared with him about the effects of the sometimes isolation, the so-called bubble of the office? THE PRESIDENT: Yes, that's a great question. He'll -- he will feel the effects the minute he walks in the Oval Office. At least, that's when I felt. I don't know when he's going -- he may feel it the minute he's -- gets sworn in. And the minute I got sworn in, I started thinking about the speech. (Laughter.) And so -- but he's a better speech-maker than me, so he'll be able to -- he'll be able to -- I don't know how he's going to feel. All I know is he's going to feel it. There will be a moment when he feels it. I have never felt isolated and I don't think he will. One reason he won't feel isolated is because he's got a fabulous family and he cares a lot about his family. That's evident from my discussions with him. He'll be -- he's a 45-second commute away from a great wife and two little girls that love him dearly. I believe this -- the phrase "burdens of the office" is overstated. You know, it's kind of like, why me? Oh, the burdens, you know. Why did the financial collapse have to happen on my watch? It's just -- it's pathetic, isn't it, self-pity. And I don't believe that President-Elect Obama will be full of self-pity. He will find -- you know, your -- the people that don't like you, the critics, they're pretty predictable. Sometimes the biggest disappointments will come from your so-called friends. And there will be disappointments, I promise you. He'll be disappointed. On the other hand, the job is so exciting and so profound that the disappointments will be clearly, you know, a minor irritant compared to the -- Q It was never the "loneliest office in the world" for you? THE PRESIDENT: No, not for me. We had a -- people -- we -- I had a fabulous team around me of highly dedicated, smart, capable people, and we had fun. I tell people that, you know, some days happy, some days not so happy, every day has been joyous. And people, they say, I just don't believe it to be the case. Well, it is the case. Even in the darkest moments of Iraq, you know, there was -- and every day when I was reading the reports about soldiers losing their lives, no question there was a lot of emotion, but also there was times where we could be light-hearted and support each other. And I built a team of really capable people who were there not to serve me, or there to serve the Republicans, they were there to serve the country. And President-Elect Obama will find, as he makes these tough calls and tough decisions, that he'll be supported by a lot of really good people that care -- care about the country, as well. John. Q You've talked a lot about your concerns over the rise of protectionism in the current -- THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Q -- economic environment. What do you think the future holds for that? Do you think the trend is a good one or a bad one? THE PRESIDENT: I hope the trend is bad against protectionism. A disappointment -- not a mistake, but a disappointment -- was not getting the three trade bills out of Congress on Colombia, Panama and South Korea. That was a disappointment. I actually thought we had a shot at one time, and then I was disappointed that they didn't move out of the House. And I am concerned about protectionism. In tough economic times, the temptation is to say, well, let's just throw up barriers and protect our own and not compete. That was the sentiment, by the way, that was in place during decent economic times. After all, we got CAFTA out of the Congress by one vote. And it would be a huge mistake if we become a protectionist nation. And that might be a good thing for the Bush center to do at SMU, is to remind people about the benefits of free and fair trade -- benefits for our own workers, benefits for workers overseas, and benefits when it comes to promoting development and helping lift people out of poverty, in particularly, third world countries. The best way to enhance economic growth in a third world country and to give people a chance to realize a better future is through trade. It's been proven, it's a fact. And I'm hopeful that the country doesn't slip into protectionist policy. April, yes, ma'am. Q Thank you, Mr. President. THE PRESIDENT: Yes. You were sound asleep back there, so I decided -- (laughter.) Q No, I wasn't. There was a whole clear row before me. I thought you were going to go there. But either way, thanks for the surprise. Mr. President, on New Orleans, you basically talked about a moment ago about the photo opportunity. But let's talk about what you could have done to change the situation for the city of New Orleans to be further along in reconstruction than where it is now. And also, when you came -- or began to run for the Oval Office about nine years ago or so, the James Byrd dragging death was residue on your campaign. And now at this time, 2009, we have the first black President. Could you tell us what you have seen on the issues of race, as you see it from the Oval Office? THE PRESIDENT: Sure, thanks. First of all, we did get the $121 billion, more or less, passed, and it's now being spent. Secondly, the school system is improving dramatically. Thirdly, people are beginning to move back into homes. This storm was a devastating storm, April, that required a lot of energy, a lot of focus and a lot of resources to get New Orleans up and running. And has the reconstruction been perfect? No. Have things happened fairly quickly? Absolutely. And is there more to be done? You bet there is. Q What more needs to be done? THE PRESIDENT: Well, more people need to get in their houses. More people need to have their own home there. But the systems are in place to continue the reconstruction of New Orleans. People said, well, the federal response was slow. Don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed. I remember going to see those helicopter drivers, Coast Guard drivers, to thank them for their courageous efforts to rescue people off roofs. Thirty thousand people were pulled off roofs right after the storm moved through. It's a pretty quick response. Could things have been done better? Absolutely. Absolutely. But when I hear people say, the federal response was slow, then what are they going to say to those chopper drivers, or the 30,000 that got pulled off the roofs? The other part of the -- look, I was affected by the TV after the elections -- when I saw people saying, I never thought I would see the day that a black person would be elected President, and a lot of the people had tears streaming down their cheeks when they said it. And so I am -- I am -- consider myself fortunate to have a front-row seat on what is going to be an historic moment for the country. President-Elect Obama's election does speak volumes about how far this country has come when it comes to racial relations. But there's still work to do. There's always going to be work to do to deal with people's hearts. And so I'm looking forward to it, really am. I think it's going to be -- it's going to be an amazing -- amazing moment. Michael Allen -- yes, Michael Allen. Q Mr. President -- THE PRESIDENT: Who would be you. Q Mr. President, often Presidents go -- leave here; they say they're going to decompress, and then pretty soon they're right back in their office. I wonder how quickly you think you're going to be back at it, whether it's writing your book, whether it's speaking, whether it's traveling, whether it's -- THE PRESIDENT: You know, Mike, I don't know. Probably the next day. I'm a Type A personality, you know, I just -- I just can't envision myself, you know, the big straw hat and Hawaiian shirt sitting on some beach. (Laughter.) Q No one else can, either. THE PRESIDENT: So -- (laughter.) Particularly since I quit drinking. Anyway, so I predict to you that -- first of all, I'm not sure what to expect. For the last eight years I've had a national security briefing every day but Sunday. And when you get a national security briefing, it is a reminder of the responsibilities of the job. It's just a daily reminder about what may or may not happen. The interesting thing about this job, by the way, is it's one thing to deal with the expected, what you anticipate; the real challenge is to be in a position to deal with the unexpected. And that's why those intel briefings are so important, because there is -- there's an awareness in the briefings by the analyst to try to help anticipate problems. And of course you hope they don't arise, but you better be prepared when they do. And that in itself creates a -- you know, gets your attention, when you start thinking about what could happen. And the key there, of course, is that -- to take these different analyses seriously, and then have a structure so that your team will be in a position to analyze and then lay out potential avenues for the President -- from which the President can choose. I say all that because that's -- this has been -- this notion about being briefed and thinking about this issue or that issue has been just a part of my life for eight years. People say, well, there you are in Crawford on vacation. You never escape the presidency. It travels with you everywhere you go. And there's not a moment where you don't think about being President -- unless you're riding mountain bikes as hard as you possibly can, trying to forget for the moment. And so I wake up in Crawford Tuesday morning -- I mean, Wednesday morning, and I suspect I'll make Laura coffee and go get it for her. And it's going to be a different feeling. And I can't -- it's kind of like -- I'll report back after I feel it. Last question. Ann -- since you've been there from day one. Q Thank you -- and I wanted to ask you about day one. You arrived here wanting to be a uniter, not a divider. Do you think Barack Obama can be a uniter, not a divider? Or is -- with the challenges for any President and the unpopular decisions, is it impossible for any President to be uniter, not a divider? THE PRESIDENT: I hope the tone is different for him than it has been for me. I am disappointed by the tone in Washington, D.C. I tried to do my part by not engaging in the name-calling and -- and by the way, needless name-calling. I have worked to be respectful of my opponents on different issues. There -- we did find some good common ground on a variety of issues -- No Child Left Behind, Medicare/prescription drugs, PEPFAR, in the end, the funding for troops in Iraq. Tax cuts, to a certain extent, got some bipartisan votes on them. There had been areas where we were able to work together. It's just the rhetoric got out of control at times -- Q Why? THE PRESIDENT: I don't know why. You need to ask those who -- those who used the words they used. As I say, it's not the first time it's ever happened -- as I think I answered that to Jim, there. It's happened throughout our history. And I would hope that, frankly, for the sake of the system itself, that if people disagree with President-Elect Obama, they treat him with respect. I worry about people looking at our system and saying, why would I want to go up there and work in that kind of environment? And so I wish him all the best. And no question he'll be -- there will be critics. And there should be. We all should welcome criticism on different policy -- it's the great thing about our democracy; people have a chance to express themselves. I just hope the tone is respectful. He deserves it -- and so does the country. It has been a honor to work with you. I meant what I said when I first got up here. I wish you all the very best. I wish you and your families all the best. God bless you. Bush Administration | Democracy | President Bush | Presidential Press Conference | White House Press Corps Labels: Bush Administration, Democracy, President Bush, Presidential Press Conference, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 3:00:00 PM Hamas Leadership by Rockets - Western White House Press Briefing by Gordon Johndroe 12/30/08 — Tuesday, December 30, 2008 —  MR. JOHNDROE: Patty. Q There are reports out today that the Israeli cabinet is considering a 48-hour ceasefire truce to allow humanitarian aid in. Has the Bush administration been told that they are considering that, and what would be the U.S. position on that? Would you urge Israel to allow the humanitarian aid in? MR. JOHNDROE: I would say that both Secretary Rice and National Security Advisor Steve Hadley have been in touch with Prime Minister Olmert and his staff. But beyond that, I'm not going to get into those discussions. As you said, the Israeli cabinet is supposed to meet tomorrow. Let's let the cabinet meet, and then go from there. Q Would you be in favor, though, of a truce to allow -- what is the humanitarian situation? What is the U.S. intelligence on the humanitarian situation? We've all seen the pictures. Would you be in favor of that? MR. JOHNDROE: Well, as I've said, as President Bush told Prime Minister Fayyad and President Abbas, the United States is concerned about the humanitarian situation. That's why we released $85 million today, although this money has been in the pipeline as part of our 2009 commitment -- but just a reminder of the U.S. commitment to helping the people of Gaza. The President is concerned about the citizens of Gaza, but not the Hamas terrorist leaders who are doing this to the people of Gaza. It's my understanding that dozens of truckloads have come in into Gaza in the last 24 hours to 48 hours to bring relief supplies, medical supplies and food. But we remain concerned about it. And we're going to keep on working with the U.N. agency and the ICRC to make sure that the innocent people of Gaza are able to get food and medical supplies. Q But will that concern translate into you pushing Israel toward the 48-hour ceasefire? MR. JOHNDROE: I'm not going to get into any private discussions, but our message to Israel has been the same that I've said here, our message to everyone, and that is that the only way this is going to stop is if Hamas stops firing rockets and everyone agrees to a sustainable ceasefire. Nelson. Q Given that Israel yesterday declared all out war on Hamas, would the administration object to the crippling of that organization? MR. JOHNDROE: I think that a Hamas that is unable to rain terror down on the people of Israel is probably a Hamas that is better, even for the people of Gaza. If Hamas is not able to carry out terrorist activities, hopefully they would see the light and start to serve the people of Gaza better. Instead, they have -- they bring them nothing but continued poverty. Gaza | Gordon Johndroe | Hamas | Israel | President Bush | Press Briefing | War on Terror | White House Press Corps Labels: Gaza, Gordon Johndroe, Hamas, Israel, President Bush, Press Briefing, War on Terror, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 3:23:00 PM The Secret About Presidential Press Conferences - White House Press Briefing by Tony Fratto 12/23/08 — Tuesday, December 23, 2008 —  Q Tony, obviously the President is not going to have any press conferences this year, for the remainder of the year. But in 2009 will he commit to having one before he leaves office? Can he at least -- MR. FRATTO: The truth is we get asked about this a lot, and I think I was asked about it yesterday and noted the number of interviews the President does, and he may do some additional interviews. The secret about presidential press conferences is we never make the final decision until the day of. There's always lots of speculation, I know, on the part of all of you when you see a day on the -- without public events, and we begin getting calls wondering if there's going to be a press conference. We'll make those decisions as we get into the new year, whether we see a good reason and an opportunity to do one. But those are game day decisions and so we'll have to wait until the day. President Bush | Presidential Press Conference | Press Briefing | Tony Fratto | White House Press Corps Labels: President Bush, Presidential Press Conference, Press Briefing, Tony Fratto, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:10:00 PM Dana's Shoe-venir - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 12/16/08 — Tuesday, December 16, 2008 — MS. PERINO: Ann. Q How is your eye? MS. PERINO: Fine. Q Does the President think that, had the gentleman thrown something other than a shoe, or thrown his shoe more accurately, that he was well enough protected, standing as he was, at that news conference? MS. PERINO: Well, it was just a shoe, and the President saw it from his vantage point. He felt fine about it. I think you saw he let the Secret Service know he thought he was okay, and the Secret Service jumped in as quickly as they thought they needed to. And then they were able to back off and let the Prime Minister of a duly -- the duly elected Prime Minister of a sovereign Iraq taking questions from journalists there who never would have been able to do that five years ago. And the President just thinks it was just a -- it was just a shoe. People express themselves in lots of different ways. Obviously he was very angry. I can't think -- I don't -- I can't tell you exactly what the shoe thrower was thinking, but I can tell what the President thought, was that he was fine. And he said immediately -- you saw his reaction was, don't worry about it; it was okay. So we hold no hard feelings about it, and we've really moved on. Q And he's satisfied with the -- satisfied with the protection -- had it been something other than a shoe? MS. PERINO: Look -- yes, he is satisfied that he was well protected by the Secret Service, as he always has been. Q Dana, specifically, does the President -- Q -- in the aftermath concerning the punishment? MS. PERINO: No, the only thing that he's -- what he said publicly is what he said privately to Prime Minister, was, don't worry about it, that he was fine. Q Why not worry about it? Doesn't it reflect the feelings of the people? MS. PERINO: I don't think that you can take one guy throwing his shoe as representative of the people of Iraq. And I will tell you that Prime Minister Maliki and the journalists who were there in the room, who apologized on behalf of the Iraqis, saying this is not how they would treat a guest -- I know that there are people in Iraq who are angry -- angry at their situation. It's been a very rough five years. What we were there talking about, though, is how much progress Iraq has made because of our troops and because of the wonderful work of the Iraqi security forces and their military, and how their economy is coming back. And they've grown in leaps and bounds, and so the country is on its way to becoming a wonderful country that can govern, sustain and defend itself, and they will be an ally of ours in the war on terror. Q But he wasn't a guest. It was occupied. MS. PERINO: No, we're not, Helen. We are absolutely a guest. Q It was occupied. MS. PERINO: We all went there and he signed the agreement, the status of forces agreement. If the Iraqis didn't want us there, we wouldn't have been signing that agreement that allows our troops to operate there for the next three years. Q -- a bunch of people self-picked by us who run the country. MS. PERINO: Are you suggesting that Prime Minister Maliki was not elected by the people of Iraq? That's preposterous. Q Why? MS. PERINO: Because there was an election and they -- he was elected. Q When you have an occupation, can you really have a free election? MS. PERINO: I have never once heard somebody suggest that that was not a free and fair election in Iraq. It was one of the highlights of the last several years that they were able to pull off an election like that, and how many people came out to vote. And absolutely, Prime Minister Maliki is their duly elected Prime Minister. Dana Perino | Democracy | Helen | Iraq | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Democracy, Helen, Iraq, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 6:02:00 PM MSNBC Finds a New Host - Presidential Press Conference in Baghdad — Sunday, December 14, 2008 — Iraq | President Bush | Presidential Press Conference | White House Press Corps Labels: Iraq, President Bush, Presidential Press Conference, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 6:47:00 PM Automakers Bailout Up in the Air - Air Force One Press Gaggle by Dana Perino 12/12/08 — Friday, December 12, 2008 —  Q Will you start using TARP money now? Are you going to direct the Treasury --MS. PERINO: I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I said that given the current state of the U.S. economy, we'll consider other options if necessary, and I said including use of some of the TARP; that's one of the options. Q How soon -- walk us through his thought process right now. Who does he need to talk to first? What decisions need to be made before he decides -- MS. PERINO: He's in regular contact with all of his economic advisors. And so we'll be weighing all of the options and making decisions as soon as we need to. Q How soon does he feel he needs to make a decision? MS. PERINO: We didn't discuss that. I mean, obviously we have talked about he urgency of the situation. We have been pushing to get this done; we wanted to get it done last night. Both Congress and the -- the House and the Senate had bipartisan majorities supporting our approach, but they didn't get it over the goal line. And so we have to consider what other options we would take. But I don't have a time frame on it. Q Are you basically saying that you are going to make the decision -- it's not Congress now? I mean, basically, you are going to make the decision on what to do -- MS. PERINO: Congress spoke. Congress spoke last night. They don't have the votes to do anything, despite having majorities in both the House and the Senate supporting a reasonable approach that we put forward. We thought that the legislation could have even been improved. We thought that senators were making good progress last night and talking about the Corker amendment. But again, it just -- it didn't get the votes that it needed to pass the Senate. They needed 60; I think they had 53. Q You mentioned the use of -- you mentioned TARP funds as one option. Are there any other options? MS. PERINO: We're going to weigh all options. I mentioned TARP, as that's been something that you all have been asking about for weeks. And it's just one of the options that's out there, sure. Q Can you describe the other options? MS. PERINO: No. Q Is the Federal Reserve -- cash from the Federal Reserve an option? MS. PERINO: I don't know. Q Will the decision be made this week? I mean, it's Friday today. Or is next week -- MS. PERINO: I don't know. Air Force One | Automobile Industry | Congress | Dana Perino | Legislation | President Bush | Press Gaggle | TARP | White House Press Corps Labels: Air Force One, Automobile Industry, Congress, Dana Perino, Legislation, President Bush, Press Gaggle, TARP, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 9:45:00 PM Facing Economic Facts - White House Press Briefing by Scott Stanzel — Friday, December 05, 2008 —  MR. STANZEL: Jim. Q Scott, when you enter a laundry list of things that the President had to deal with, it sounds like you're claiming victimhood, that the administration has had nothing to do with the blowup of our economy. Is that what you're trying to say, or do you admit that -- MR. STANZEL: I said nothing of the sort. It is a statement of fact that those are the challenges that this President has faced. We have faced the largest terrorist attack on our economy ever. We have faced the largest natural disaster in the last hundred years. We have faced the largest crisis in our financial markets in a hundred years. That's statement of fact. The President has taken on those big challenges and taken swift action to address them. So I don't think you can dispute any one of those facts, that they're -- they simply happened. Q But what did the President do that contributed to the current economic blowup? Nothing? MR. STANZEL: Well, the President has been working to address the economic situation for years. The President, I will remind you, put in place tax relief when he inherited a recession at the beginning of his first term. He put in place tax relief, the largest tax relief in a generation, that spurred 52 straight months of job growth. That is a record. That's a statement of fact, as well. The President has put in place policies to try to get our economy moving and try to make sure that people who want to find a job can find a job. So the President has worked hard to make sure that we can take action to keep our economy moving, but many of these problems that we have seen -- in the financial markets, in the housing markets -- are many, many years in the making. Bush Administration | Economy | President Bush | Press Briefing | Scott Stanzel | White House Press Corps Labels: Bush Administration, Economy, President Bush, Press Briefing, Scott Stanzel, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:29:00 PM The Consequential Presidency - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 12/4/08 — Thursday, December 04, 2008 —  Q Dana, to pick up on this a little bit, the President clearly is a little more reflective as you enter the final weeks of the presidency. Do you sense a different mood in him? And does that permeate the entire White House? MS. PERINO: I think that it has. I mean, it's inevitable that when you're getting towards the end -- and as I can tell you every day, I know how many days we have left -- and that's because we don't have a lot of time to get a lot of the important things done that we would like to be able to do, which is to make sure that we resolve the auto issue if we possibly can, and continue to work on the economy. You know, on Wednesday night, right before -- the day before Thanksgiving, as everyone is getting ready to spend time with family, we have a horrible terrorist attack in which six American citizens were killed. And so the work of the White House never really stops. But, yes, I would say the President and Mrs. Bush, as they start to realize that in just a month and a half they'll be saying good-bye to a lot of people who have helped make this house a home for them over in the Residence, senior staff who have been with them -- some for 14 years that the President has been in public office -- so I do think that he's thinking a little bit about saying good-bye. There's a lot of things that end up being your "last," like this will be the last time he participates at the National Christmas Tree lighting. There's that, and there's also the last time that you'll give your -- a speech at UNGA as President of the United States. And as we've been working through this transition, the President has set the tone for all of us that we will have a smooth, unprecedented, professional transition to make sure that the next President of the United States, President-Elect Obama, will be able to take the baton, keep running. And he's going to have a lot of issues to deal with. And if you look at what happened today, we finalized the Iraq agreement, which puts that in a better place for the Obama team when they take over. And on the economy, we're going to be continuing to work every single day that we can. There's no road map for the problems that we're dealing with, but the President is committed to trying to deal with them. But I think that you're right, he is a little bit more reflective now. And I think that's just because we're getting -- now we really can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Q In your day-to-day interactions with him, what's different? MS. PERINO: Not a lot. I think that we've been -- I'm fortunate to be able to see the President quite often, sometimes several times a day; sometimes I don't see him for a day. But we still have a lot of work to do. Q Join the club. MS. PERINO: Yes. Q Many days we don't see him either. MS. PERINO: I'll let him know you miss him. (Laughter.) Q Do you, when you walk out of the Oval Office, or when you conclude an interaction, do you sometimes think to yourself, he seems somehow -- his affect, his mood seems different? MS. PERINO: Well, sometimes. Like, for example, when we did the Charlie Gibson interview last week, and I saw the President and Mrs. Bush talk about what their biggest accomplishments were during the past eight years, you realize the momentous presidency that this has been, the consequential presidency that it's been. And all of us are thinking a little bit about that. But I will tell you that just when you think that you're going to be able to be reflective and relax, something else happens. And so the President learned that you have to expect the unexpected when you're President, and that's true for the staff, as well. So we have to continue to get up every day, work hard, and make sure that we're doing the work that we need to do on behalf of the American people. Q What did they say was their biggest contribution? MS. PERINO: Well, Mrs. Bush said, for what she hears people say to her around the country, is that since 9/11, that the President has kept the nation safe. Q Follow-up on that, Dana. We've seen the President doing a lot of these -- sort of a farewell tour, going to different agencies, and even to military bases, and thanking people. How important does he think that is? And I don't know really how unique it is for Presidents to do that. And do these events bring him up, or down, because you do often see him getting a little emotional. MS. PERINO: I think they absolutely inspire him. He has been so honored to be the Commander-in-Chief, and so, for example, last week when we went to Fort Campbell, the President -- of course, you saw he got a little teary-eyed. When he said thank you to the staff out here the day after the election -- or two days after the election, he got a little teary-eyed. Look, the President is always about right here in terms of the tears -- or, it doesn't take much, and he has admitted that over the years. But it is a little bit of an emotional time, but at the same time we have a lot of work to do, so it's very much mixed, a mix of emotions. But we'll have plenty of time to say good-bye. It's only December 4th. Dana Perino | Bush Administration | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Bush Administration, Dana Perino, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 4:33:00 PM The Bush Legacy - Air Force One Press Gaggle by Dana Perino 12/2/08 — Tuesday, December 02, 2008 —  Q Dana, can you talk about the event yesterday, the event today, and I think there's going to be a lot of stuff coming up where the President -- is he intending to highlight some of the successes of his tenure? I mean, is there a concerted effort to do that? There seems to be now a lot of events looking at -- MS. PERINO: We have thought about it. Q We've done the 2 million plus for the AIDS program, the 110,000 here -- MS. PERINO: Yesterday was World AIDS Day. Q Yes, I realize there are other reasons. But I'm just saying, is there -- MS. PERINO: Yes, over time we've done different speeches since I think August, talking about the President's record on judicial nominees, and on keeping America safe, on the faith-based -- remember we did the faith-based conference. So, we have looked to opportunities for the President to be able to talk about some of his legacy items, some things that he will be remembered for. He talked about that a little bit yesterday. You saw the Charlie Gibson interview. So, now is the right time for us to be able to identify some opportunities where the President can either give a speech, or do a roundtable like he's doing today. We don't expect the children, the mentoring of children to be front-page news, but we do want to highlight some of these programs that the President has conceived and announced, and then the goal was exceeded. And we think that it's important for people to realize that while the President of the United States on any given day works on a variety of issues that are pressing and front-page news regarding the economy or terrorist attacks, there are other programs like this one that are changing people's lives one at a time. That's one of the things the President wanted to do through the faith-based initiative. So we'll talk about this one. He's giving a speech on the Middle East on Friday. So there's a lot of different opportunities, and you'll sort of see them between now and, I guess, 49 days from now. Air Force One | Dana Perino | President Bush | Press Gaggle | White House Press Corps Labels: Air Force One, Dana Perino, President Bush, Press Gaggle, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 9:29:00 PM NSA and Tony Blair - Air Force One Press Gaggle by Dana Perino 11/25/08 — Tuesday, November 25, 2008 —  Q A former NSA linguist is saying that the U.S. spied on Tony Blair. Do you have anything on that? MS. PERINO: I don't have anything on that. No, I would not comment. And I saw reports about that. President Bush doesn't recall anything of that sort. So that's all I'd have to say on it. Q You asked him about it, and he doesn't recall anything of that sort -- MS. PERINO: This story has been out there for a while. It's been circulating around. I don't know why all of a sudden everybody is writing about it, because -- maybe they read it on a blog or something. I don't know. Air Force One | Dana Perino | NSA | President Bush | Press Gaggle | Tony Blair | White House Press Corps | Wiretapping Labels: Air Force One, Dana Perino, NSA, President Bush, Press Gaggle, Tony Blair, White House Press Corps, Wiretapping >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:01:00 PM Oh, Les! - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 11/14/08 — Friday, November 14, 2008 —  MS. PERINO: Les. Q Thank you Dana. Two questions. A commission appointed by the governor of Maryland has just recommended, by a vote of 13-7, that capital punishment be abolished in Maryland. My question: Since the President is a devout follower of world history's best-known victim of the death penalty, could you explain how he can support the punishment of killings in cold blood by doing just that in executions? MS. PERINO: I think the President's position on death penalty is well known. I'm going to move on. Go ahead, Sam. I'm going to move on. Q Wait a minute. MS. PERINO: Les, no. Sam, go ahead. Q I said two questions. MS. PERINO: Sam, please go ahead. Capital Punishement | Dana Perino | Les | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Capital Punishment, Dana Perino, Les, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 4:29:00 PM Helen has a question - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 11/12/08 — Wednesday, November 12, 2008 —  Q I think Helen had a question. MS. PERINO: Helen has a question. Q Yes, I do. You say the President is not at fault for the auto industry problem. Do you think he's responsible for a solution? MS. PERINO: Well, I think that he -- Q And also, is there a quid pro quo on the Colombia trade agreement? MS. PERINO: There is absolutely no quid pro quo for that. And I was able to clarify that yesterday, and I was pleased that the President-elect's team clarified that as well. But I think that the President of the United States believes that companies are responsible for finding solutions. However, this is an industry, as I've said before, that's very important to the American people. And there are a lot of regulations that the government has tried to place on these companies over the years. And so Congress and the administration and the companies have an obligation to put their best minds towards trying to find out -- figure out what we can do to the greatest extent possible to try to keep these companies viable. And if we can do that, we certainly will. Q Is he aware that Michigan has 9 percent unemployment? MS. PERINO: Very well aware of it. And he's been very concerned about it. It's one of the reasons that he agreed to the UI extension from -- unemployment insurance extension that we provided in August. And we'll see what the Congress puts forward on that if they come back for a lame duck. Q Is he aware that Detroit won World War II by retooling in a matter of days to a wartime condition? MS. PERINO: He knows how important Detroit is, how -- its history, the industry, and how many people it supports, not just in Detroit, but all across our country, and the people all around the world who work for those corporations. He's very mindful of it. Automobile Industry | Dana Perino | Economy | Helen | President Bush | President-Elect Obama | Press Briefing | Unemployment | White House Press Corps Labels: Automobile Industry, Dana Perino, Economy, Helen, President Bush, President-Elect Obama, Press Briefing, Unemployment, White House Press Secretary >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:56:00 PM Obama Leaks About Bush White House Meeting - Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum Press Gaggle by Dana Perino 11/11/08 — Tuesday, November 11, 2008 —  Q Dana, so just to make that even clearer, is it wrong to say that the President told President-elect Obama that he would consider loans to automakers if Congress passed the free trade agreement or took up the free trade agreement? MS. PERINO: As I said, there was no linkage between -- Q So this was an incorrect report? MS. PERINO: Well, look, there's two anonymous aides -- or one anonymous aide who is apparently telling this story. I know from some reporters who told me that they were encouraged by others on the Obama team not to write that story because it was inaccurate. So, look, I'll let unidentified aides defend themselves, if you guys can find them. But I can tell you here, on the record, not afraid to say it, the President does support free trade; that's no secret. Everyone knows the President has talked about that a lot. He even spent time in his State of the Union address talking about the concerns he has about protectionism and isolationism, which could lead to a further weakening of our economy. That's what he's trying to work against. And when he has the leaders here this weekend, he's going to talk a lot about that. Dana Perino | Leaks | President Bush | President-Elect Obama | Press Gaggle | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Leaks, President Bush, President-Elect Obama, Press Gaggle, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:05:00 PM Obama Campaign Rhetoric on Bush - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 11/10/08  Q You know, you talked about this a little bit ago, about the differences in policy, obviously, that these two men have. There was a lot of heated rhetoric on the campaign trail. Not to belabor the point, but how does that affect the dynamic when -- you know, the President obviously understands, I know, he's a politician, he understands full well what it's like on the campaign trail, but could you just elaborate a little bit on how the heated rhetoric -- MS. PERINO: It's always amazed me how President Bush is able to let heated rhetoric like that just slide off his back and move forward and do what he thinks is right for the country. Obviously right now the most important thing we can do is ensure a smooth transition to Barack Obama and his team, and that's what he's committed to doing. He just lets those things go and will be focused on helping the next team have what they need. I think it's probably something that's hard for all of us to understand, but President Bush has been involved in politics since the mid-'60s, when he watched his father run for Congress. And then their whole political life has been about a rough and tumble campaign. This President was not involved in the campaign, we studiously stayed out of it, even when it was very hard for us sometimes to let attacks go unanswered. But we did that because he thought it was the right thing to do for the Republican Party. Now in the next few weeks I think you'll be able to see us revisit some of those issues and put a marker down for history of what this President stood for and why he made the decisions that he did. Dana Perino | Political Campaigns | President Bush | President-Elect Obama | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Political Campaigns, President Bush, President-Elect Obama, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 12:53:00 AM Favorability and Power - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/14/08 — Tuesday, October 14, 2008 —  Q According to some of those who were a part of the banking meeting yesterday, they were not all enthusiastic about signing off on this initially. In the President's dealings with banks, with the allies, with Congress, has he felt any impact related to his relatively low -- historic low job approval rating in the country? Has that had any impact, or been any disadvantage to him?MS. PERINO: The President is focused on leading; he doesn't focus on the approval ratings. And yet -- I wasn't in the meetings yesterday, but I would imagine that there was probably some reluctance to move forward with this, but a willingness to do it, because everyone recognizes that we have to do it in order to protect everybody and to get this economy moving again. So, sure, there's not a soul that wanted to have to do this. But if we're going to do it, we better do it right. And we better implement the legislation in a way that gets it done appropriately. This legislation got passed; this legislation is being implemented. The banks are going to participate in this program, and they have an incentive to get the government out of their business. We'll have a quarterly dividend that comes back to the American taxpayer at a 5 percent rate for the first three years. That jumps to 9 percent after those first three years. And so they have every incentive to work very hard to get their businesses back up to par, and return to normalcy. Q Has the President felt any impact from the poll numbers that are out this week giving him a historically low job approval rating? It hasn't had any impact on his dealing with foreign leaders or with Congress? MS. PERINO: Well, I think that if anybody who saw the statements yesterday by Prime Minister Berlusconi and others, all the conversations he's had, the United States is the one helping to provide the leadership necessary to steer this ship, so that we can all save our economies. That's what this President is focused on. He's not focused on the approval ratings as a lot of the media are. Dana Perino | Economy | Legislation | Polls | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Economy, Legislation, Polls, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:53:00 PM G7 Pileup - Air Force One Press Gaggle by Dana Perino 10/10/08 — Friday, October 10, 2008 —  Q What is -- what's the President hoping to achieve with the ministers' meeting tomorrow, with the G7 meeting?MS. PERINO: Well, we have been keeping you regularly updated on all the calls and coordination amongst the G7 countries and beyond, because as we said this morning, the President spoke to Prime Minister Rudd, I expect he spoke to President Lula earlier this week, amongst others. The G7 has been working together on a variety of things: sharing information, finding common areas where they can work together on instituting rescues that will address their individual nation's needs, as well as what we need to do as a whole, since we are all so interconnected. So today's meeting at the Treasury Department will allow them to meet face to face, maybe dot some "I's," cross some "T's," and then tomorrow morning the President will have a chance to meet with them. I'm going to let that meeting take place, but I will tell you that the goal of the meeting overall is to continue the good communication and cooperative spirit of trying to find common solutions, while respecting the fact that each nation has individual problems and challenges and needs and ways to address them. Q Dana, has anyone at the White House spoken to Berlusconi or any of his aides about his proposal to close global markets? MS. PERINO: I don't know if you saw an update, but it was retracted. Q Did you guys talk to him about retracting -- MS. PERINO: No, I don't think so. I think that it all happened so fast it was -- Q It wasn't like the White House asked him to retract that or anything like that? MS. PERINO: Not that I'm aware of. I just saw a news report as it came across. I don't know of any of us -- I wasn't involved at all. Q What about the idea of guaranteeing some of the bad debt at the banks? MS. PERINO: This is one of the ideas that Gordon Brown has put forward. What we have said is that with any proposal that's put forward by one of our global partners, that we'll take a look at it and we will review it, but beyond that I don't have any comment on it. Q What about insuring all deposits temporarily at U.S. banks? MS. PERINO: All of those things are questions that the policymakers can take up and think about, discuss. And then once we have -- if we have a decision about moving forward on any of those issues, it will either come out of the Treasury Department or we'll keep you updated. Air Force One | Dana Perino | Economy | G7 | President Bush | Press Gaggle | Treasury Department | Wall Street | White House Press Corps Labels: Air Force One, Dana Perino, Economy, G7, President Bush, Press Gaggle, Treasury Department, Wall Street, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:13:00 PM Hit Me Baby One More Time - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/9/08 — Thursday, October 09, 2008 —  Q Thanks. Does the idea of the federal government taking part ownership in a number of U.S. banks fit with the President's philosophy of free enterprise?MS. PERINO: As the President has said, the radical and bold aggressive steps that we are taking on the economy are not ones that were part of his natural instincts. But when presented with the evidence that the financial crisis about to hit the United States would affect every single America up and down the economic food chain, this President decided that it was important that the government take robust action. That's why we worked with Congress to establish the rescue package. Part of that package includes a broad range of authorities for the Treasury Secretary. What you're referring to, I believe, is capital injections that would actually be investing in banks but not taking them over. Q Not taking them over, but doesn't this idea envision that the government would have part ownership in a number of banks? MS. PERINO: It would include an equity stake, yes. Q And how far along is that idea? MS. PERINO: I would refer you to the Treasury Department for that, but it is a part of the range of authorities that they were given, and this is a dynamic situation. We still have a volatile stock market, and Secretary Paulson is looking at all the different tools to figure out which one should be used at what time and how robustly, and how much money to put into each. He said it's going to take a little bit of time, though, as they implement these -- the rules and regulations that Neel Kashkari is now involved in. So let me refer you over there on specifics for that. Q But that's an idea that the President would be okay with? MS. PERINO: It was a part of the rescue package that the President supported, and it gives the Treasury Secretary a range of possibilities, and investing in banks directly was one of those authorities. And Secretary Paulson can use that authority as he sees fit. Q But given the fact that the markets have not reacted positively so far, or at least not very, wouldn't the President like to see that kind of authority used sooner than later? MS. PERINO: Well, one of the things that the President wants is to make sure that these new authorities are used in the most effective and efficient way possible. They are moving at lightning speed for government-type work in trying to establish how quickly people can get in those positions so that they can work on the reverse auctions that were also a part of the authority. This -- these capital injections are something that Secretary Paulson is actively considering, but I'd have to refer you to him as to when he thinks he'd be able to make the first move. Q And the President -- back over this ground again -- the President doesn't object to this in spite of his free market stance? MS. PERINO: As I -- the President's natural instincts when first presented with these issues was not to have government involvement, but when he realized that it wasn't just a few executives on Wall Street who were going to lose their shirts, but it was possibly everyone in America, and now if you look around the world, everybody is suffering -- the President said the government has the tools and the ability to be able to step in and stem this crisis, and there was no way he was going to stand by and let everyone be hurt by the bad decisions of a few. Dana Perino | Economy | President Bush | Press Briefing | Treasury Department | Wall Street | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Economy, President Bush, Press Briefing, Treasury Department, Wall Street, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:29:00 PM A Day at the Spa with AIG - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/8/08 — Wednesday, October 08, 2008 —  Q Is the President following any of the financial hearings that are going on, on the Hill, specifically at AIG executives? When the White House hears about these executives taking a spa vacation, spending thousands of dollars on massages and treatments -- I mean, do they think that there should be any kind of action taken against these executives, considering how much taxpayer money was put into that company to rescue it? MS. PERINO: I don't know how much he's been able to actually watch those. As you know, yesterday we were traveling out to Chantilly, Virginia. But certainly we've seen coverage of it. And I understand why the American people would be outraged -- I am. It's pretty despicable to realize how callous somebody might be as they go through this -- as some might be reacting to this crisis. And the President did not want to move forward on this rescue package to help anybody in the top positions in Wall Street. He was concerned about everybody -- everyday people like you and me in America and people all across this country who have worked so hard to put money into their retirement accounts, to pay their mortgages on time, who have been responsible in the loans that they've taken out. Not everybody has, and there were risky lenders -- lenders who gave people loans that they knew they weren't going to be able to pay, and borrowers who took out loans that they probably knew they didn't have the income in order to pay but thought maybe that eventually that they would. Now, Americans are not the type of people who fault success. When people succeed we like that, we think that that's good, and we aspire to be successful ourselves. But rewarding failure is something that we have a very hard time swallowing. And President Bush has said that his first instinct was absolutely not to go down this road. What he wanted was to make sure that we were asking all the right questions to prevent this financial market collapse and that we take the actions necessary on Capitol Hill, or anywhere else -- at the Fed, or the SEC, wherever we could independently -- to help save the system. But he didn't do that to help top executives and certainly not to help executives go to a spa. President Bush did that in order to try to help everybody save their accounts. Q Should some of that money be taken back from those individuals? Is there a way to do that? MS. PERINO: I don't know how it was all paid for or anything. I just know that I can understand that people would question the judgment of executives who would take that kind of action. AIG | Congressional Hearings | Dana Perino | Economy | President Bush | Press Briefing | Wall Street | White House Press Corps Labels: AIG, Congressional Hearings, Dana Perino, Economy, President Bush, Press Briefing, Wall Street, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:10:00 PM The Press and Body Language - Press Gaggle by Scott Stanzel 10/6/08 — Monday, October 06, 2008 —  Q If there's any -- going to be any change or update in whether [the President] might speak on the economy today, can you give us a heads up?Q -- we might hear from him when he gets back -- I mean, that's the body language I took from you. MR. STANZEL: You guys are all great at reading body language. Q Is that true? MR. STANZEL: No, it's not. But I think you're all very adept at reading body language. But my body shifting and walking back and forth here was not meant to indicate anything whatsoever, other than I read out this President's schedule as it stands right now. Economy | President Bush | Press Gaggle | Scott Stanzel | White House Press Corps Labels: Economy, President Bush, Press Gaggle, Scott Stanzel, Wall Street, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 4:26:00 PM Iraq Withdrawal Time Horizon - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 7/21/08 — Monday, July 21, 2008 —  MS. PERINO: Matt.Q Dana, the term "time horizon" has to imply the setting of date, or dates, of some sort in this agreement. How can you say that this is not a change of administration policy when the President had adamantly -- adamantly -- objected to the idea of time lines, time frames, deadline, anything related to time? MS. PERINO: I just think that it's important that you make the distinction, Matt, that for many years, over -- since, I think it was '05, '06, and '07 -- many members of Congress suggested that we pull troops out in 90 days from X date, or, in six months from today we'll have no more combat troops there. Those were arbitrary dates that tied the hands of the commanders, that did not give any consideration to conditions on the ground. The whole reason we are able to have this conversation today with the Iraqis is because conditions on the ground have changed radically, and for the better. And we are willing to talk with them about an aspirational time horizon when we would be able to have them take more security control of their country, as well as see them continue to make gains in their political reconciliation, which we increasingly saw even over the weekend, as the Sunnis agreed to come back and rejoin the government. On the economic side, they just passed a supplemental for their budget. They're increasingly bringing in more revenues and they're paying for much -- almost all of their reconstruction costs. So we're making gains. Let me also mention that I do think that they've made a tremendous effort in the region, in the neighborhood, to improve the diplomatic relations with their neighbors. And you're seeing that through the Kuwaitis, who have now said that they will send an ambassador for the first time in many years; the United Arab Emirates, who agreed to forgive their debt, which was a good step forward; Jordan has said that they would consider opening up their embassy there, amongst others. So all of these tracks have been moving forward. We are not setting an arbitrary date for withdrawal that is a date that is plucked out of thin air. We are going to do this based on conditions. Conditions have improved dramatically, and we want to get it on a trajectory that makes sure that that can continue. Q You're not setting an arbitrary date -- MS. PERINO: That's right. Q -- but dates will be set, nonetheless. MS. PERINO: As I just said, there will be an aspirational time horizon where there might be -- for example, something that says, we believe that by X date the Iraqis should be able to take care -- take over security control of Y province. That could be the type of dates we're talking about. Q But, so then what really is the -- it sounds like a semantical difference. I mean, most Americans are going to look at that -- MS. PERINO: I don't think -- well, if you're making policy and you're the Commander-in-Chief, there's a huge difference between saying that you're going to bring troops home based on -- let me go on -- I don't remember whose legislation it was that would have brought our troops home in 90 days after the passing of the supplemental -- maybe in 2007. But I know that we've gone through several of these fights, and in every -- every time we've been able the beat it back because we think that the best decision-makers on the ground are commanders on the ground, not people in Washington, D.C. plucking dates out of thin air. And we are able to have this conversation with the Iraqis now because of the success we are seeing in Iraq -- that is based on the surge, which was a extremely courageous decision, one of the most unpopular decisions possibly in presidential history, but one that has worked nonetheless. Dana Perino | Iraq | Middle East | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps | White House Press Secretary Labels: Dana Perino, Iraq, Middle East, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:37:00 PM Lifting of Executive Prohibition of Federal Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 7/14/08 — Monday, July 14, 2008 —  Q Does [the President's] action today revoke entirely the executive order his father signed, or is it more nuanced? MS. PERINO: It doesn't. It doesn't. Q Okay. MS. PERINO: Yes. Q Given the reluctance of the Congress to turn the other key, is it fair to call this a symbolic gesture? MS. PERINO: Well, I think that you have seen increasingly Americans are understanding the importance of this issue; they're becoming more educated about the advances in technology that have taken place that would protect the environment. I know that across Europe, especially in the North Sea, there's a lot of offshore oil drilling that takes place, and they've been able to do it in ways that has been able to be protective of the environment. So there's three more weeks left of Congress, and you've been in town long enough to know that oftentimes Congress gets most of its work done in just the remaining weeks right before it goes off for August recess. One thing I know that the Democrats continue to recommend is that we -- or to suggest -- is that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the answer to all of our problems. We strongly believe that it's not. That trick has been tried before and it doesn't work. It's unfortunate that the only place Democrats in Congress seem to be able to think we can get oil is from our insurance policy, which is the extra supply that we have in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And to my knowledge, Speaker Pelosi or others have not indicated how long they would recommend -- or how many -- how long they would recommend taking oil out of the SPR. They've not said what the price point is they're trying to get to. They've not said how long it would last. And so I think those are -- a lot of questions have to be answered before they could even be taken seriously. I believe that Democrats believe a problem delayed is a problem half-solved -- and in this case, it doesn't work. Q Are you seeing increased support from Democrats? MS. PERINO: I think -- you can -- I won't speak for them, but I think you have seen increasingly there have been some Democratic members of Congress who are starting to change their position on this, and what -- in ways that they can look at the technology that has improved, the demand from Americans because they are paying record-high gas prices. And I will repeat again, there's no magic wand that's going to decrease prices overnight. But what we're trying to do is send a signal to the market that more supply would be coming on line. And we will work with Congress to try to do that. Congress | Dana Perino | Natural Gas | Oil | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps | White House Press Secretary Labels: Congress, Dana Perino, Natural Gas, Oil, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:39:00 PM NBC News Bias - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 5/20/08 — Tuesday, May 20, 2008 —  MS. PERINO: Mike.Q On the back-and-forth between you guys and NBC News, one of the issues Ed Gillespie brings up is NBC calling Iraq a civil war for a period, and then Ed notes that it stopped around September of 2007. Then Ed asks in his exchange with NBC, "Will the network publicly declare the civil war has ended, or that it was wrong to declare it in the first place?" I'm wondering if you guys have gotten a response on that matter, and if not, are you still calling for a response from NBC? MS. PERINO: We have not heard back from them on that specific matter. We anxiously await any response that we would get on it. But I think it's quite telling that they have been silent. The reason that we sent the letter yesterday is because we had gotten fed up with the way that the President's policies are being mischaracterized, or the situations on the ground weren't being accurately reflected in the reporting. We had complained before. And it just reached a boiling point when things had boiled over when we believed that NBC News specifically edited out -- intentionally edited out -- something that the President said in response to a question in an interview regarding Iran, and that it mischaracterized the whole interview because of it. As regards the civil war, I remember very distinctly how there was quite the pomp and circumstance when NBC, on the Today Show, decided to declare -- that they were declaring that Iraq was a civil war. But since then, after the surge and things certainly improved in Iraq, NBC has never had a corresponding ceremony to say that Iraq is not in a civil war. I was just curious to find out what they believe. And the same goes with the economy. When we got the numbers just two weeks ago on the GDP for the economic growth, it said that we had grown at 0.6 percent. And yet the anchor that night decided to disavow that number. We're just curious what part of the official government data that's been coming out for years do they not agree with. So we haven't had a response on that. And just another point on this is that President Bush is going to continue to state what United States policy is for the next eight months, and certainly during the six months that there's an election going on. If, for example, if tomorrow President Bush says that he believes that the tax cuts should be made permanent, that doesn't mean he's attacking anybody; he is stating his policy. And we just want to make sure it's really clear that we're not going to allow the President's policies to be dragged into the '08 election unnecessarily and unfairly. Dana Perino | Iraq | Media Bias | NBC | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Iraq, Media Bias, NBC, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:23:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 4/23/08 (Helen and Torture) — Wednesday, April 23, 2008 — Q The President has said publicly several times, in two consecutive news conferences a few months ago, and you have said over and over again, we do not torture. Now he has admitted that he did sign off on torture, he did know about it. So how do you reconcile this credibility gap? MS. PERINO: Helen, you're taking liberties with the what the President said. The United States has not, is not torturing any detainees in the global war on terror. And General Hayden, amongst others, have spoken on Capitol Hill fully in this regard, and it is -- I'll leave it where it is. The President is accurate in saying what he said. Q That's not my question. My question is, why did he state publicly, we do not torture -- MS. PERINO: Because we do not. Q -- when he really did know that we do? MS. PERINO: No, that's what I mean, Helen. We've talked about the legal authorities -- Q Are you saying that we did not? MS. PERINO: I am saying we did not, yes. Q How can you when you have photographs and everything else? I mean, how can you say that when he admits that he knew about it? MS. PERINO: Helen, I think that you're -- again, I think you're conflating some issues and you're misconstruing what the President said. Q I'm asking for the credibility of this country, not just this administration. MS. PERINO: And what I'm telling you is we have -- torture has not occurred. And you can go back through all the public record. Just make sure -- I would just respectfully ask you not to misconstrue what the President said. Q You're denying, in this room, that we torture and we have tortured? MS. PERINO: Yes, I am denying that. Dana Perino | Helen | Interrogation | President Bush | Press Briefing | War on Terror | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Helen, Interrogation, President Bush, Press Briefing, War on Terror, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 4:03:00 PM Press Gaggle by Tony Fratto 4/17/08 (British Prime Minister Gordon Brown) — Thursday, April 17, 2008 —  MR. FRATTO: Any other questions?Q Yes, the Gordon Brown. So last time the President told us, no, he's not angry at Gordon Brown for pulling troops out of Iraq; Gordon Brown has since said, since the fighting erupted around Basra, the clampdown on the Shiite militias -- attempted clampdown, he's going to put those withdrawal plans on hold. Is the President going to say "I told you so" today? MR. FRATTO: No, look -- we think that the British have been very responsible -- (Announcement interruption.) MR. FRATTO: Maybe someone could tell our staff that a gaggle is still ongoing. (Laughter.) No, look, we have a -- we think the British have been very responsible in their operations in Basra. Their support for the Iraqi-led operation a couple weeks ago was impressive, even heroic, flying helicopter runs evacuating injured soldiers from the fighting, was -- under fire -- was very impressive. They're performing their overwatch mission we think with great courage and distinction. And of course we expect that Iraq, Afghanistan and other operations that we're involved with with the U.K. will be discussed today. And so you'll have a chance to hear from the President and the Prime Minister this afternoon on that. Q Does the President have any feelings about Gordon Brown meeting with the -- his would-be successors this morning? Does he feel that's good, a problem? What's his reaction to that? MR. FRATTO: We don't think it's a problem. I haven't asked the President on that, but I can tell you, you know, generally we think it's probably a wise move by the Prime Minister to get to know who -- one of the individuals who will likely be President in a year from now. So it makes sense. We think it's -- we certainly have no objections to it at all. Afghanistan | Gordon Brown | Iraq | President Bush | Press Gaggle | Tony Fratto | United Kingdom | White House Press Corps Labels: Afghanistan, Gordon Brown, Iraq, President Bush, Press Gaggle, Tony Fratto, United Kingdom, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 9:37:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 4/16/08 (President's Remarks on Climate Change) — Wednesday, April 16, 2008 — MS. PERINO: Anybody else? (Laughter.) Q Dana? MS. PERINO: It is hot in here. (Laughter.) Okay, I'm going to go to Elaine since she hasn't had one at all. Q Well, can I just go back to -- I know Jim is not here, but just on sort of the timing of the climate change speech, the announcement today, was there any thought that perhaps the message on that might be overshadowed on such a day as this? MS. PERINO: We worked hard to figure out a day that we could do it, and the policy process was -- it's a complex issue and one that we were working on for quite a while. And we were not ready to go, but we knew we needed to get it done before the meeting tomorrow in Paris, in which Dan and Jim will be there. But the President wanted to make this announcement before they went to this major economies meeting so that we could continue to show the leadership and encourage other countries that, when they're ready, to put forward their national goal. Q And can I just clarify something that Jim said? So he was essentially saying, if I understood him correctly, that the practical effect in the administration's eyes of the President setting this national goal today, even though he does have less than a year in office, is to basically provide a place for the next President to kind of take over, the thinking being, what we've heard on the campaign trail is that the next President will be willing to sort of pick up where this President leaves off. Is that what the administration believes will happen here? MS. PERINO: Well, I think, Elaine, just look -- we're mindful of the clock. But look back to May -- last May, 2007, when the President first announced that he would start this post-Kyoto conversation. And he said, I will lead this effort, and I will lead it in a way that keeps China and India at the table, which is critical for having the political consensus, for everyone to have the will to actually move forward and get this done. Otherwise it is going to fall apart. We said at that time, and then in September 2007, that we want every country to agree to establish intermediate and then a long-term goal, and then that the plans of those goals would not be finalized until the end of 2009. So we had already said last May and then in September that we knew that this was going to be a process that would take a while, but it is a post-2012 conversation. And so, yes, the next President is going to have to deal with this. But so is the Congress. I mean, this is just something that the world is going to have to deal with for quite a while to come. Q Again, a non-binding goal -- I mean, some people might look at that -- MS. PERINO: You need to look back at the September 2007 statement because through the major economies meeting process, in order to keep this process on track, and by having China and India at the table, that's how you do that. We will be able to collectively agree on a goal that all of us will be held accountable by under the United Nations framework. Dana Perino | Global Warming | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Global Warming, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:42:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 4/9/08 (President Bush and China's Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies) — Wednesday, April 09, 2008 —  MS. PERINO: Bret., Press Briefing, Tibet, White House Press Corps, Q Dana, in an interview with EWTN, the President was asked specifically, "You are now planning on going to the Olympics, to be at the Opening Ceremonies at the Olympics. How can you in good conscience go to that ceremony, Mr. President?" He answered, "Because I -- I'm going to the Olympics, for starters, and my plans aren't -- haven't changed." Dana, is he going to the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games? MS. PERINO: I would just leave it as the how the President stated it. We haven't announced the President's schedule. Q So you can't say right now whether he's going to the Opening Ceremonies or not? MS. PERINO: I cannot. Q You can only say that he is going to the Olympics? MS. PERINO: Yes, but I'm not trying to signal anything by saying that -- I don't have the President's schedule. It is way too far in advance for us to announce the President's schedule. Q Nancy Pelosi said today that -- about the Opening Ceremonies and the party -- that she hopes the White House realizes there's not a party going on in Tibet, saying that you shouldn't go to the Opening Ceremonies. MS. PERINO: Well, maybe she should check out what the President just said on camera about pressuring China, both publically and privately, before, during and after the Olympics. He just said it, just now in the meeting with the Senior Minister from Singapore, in which they spent a lot of time talking about China and human rights and Tibet. And particularly -- in particular, the President said that China would be in good stead if it would just reopen the dialogue that it had with the Dalai Lama or the Dalai Lama's representatives. Q One last thing. For people who are reading between the lines here that you're not being -- able to be pinned down on this, is it possible that the President could go to the Olympics but not go to the Opening Ceremonies? MS. PERINO: I'll refer you to my first answer. (Laughter.) Q But this is different, Dana. If we asked you this question a couple of weeks ago or a couple of months ago, you would have said he's going to the Opening Ceremonies. Does this suggest -- MS. PERINO: That's not true. Did you ask me that? Did I say that? Q I think it's been pretty clear that he was planning on going. MS. PERINO: No. He said he was going to the Olympics. We have not given out the President's schedule. And even before -- I've not given out any details about the President's schedule when it comes to Olympics. So it's wrong to say that I have changed my story. Q Since this issue has become -- sort of moved to the forefront here, is there any reexamination, recalibration, or rethinking of the dynamics that would have the President at the Opening Ceremonies? MS. PERINO: Not that I'm aware. Q Dana, what sports -- what Olympic sports might the President be most interested in, and might his journey center around those? MS. PERINO: I don't know. He's a sports fan, he likes it all. Q Is it true he's going to the shot-put? (Laughter.) You won't discuss that, will you? MS. PERINO: I don't have any details on his schedule. It's premature for me to -- Peter. China | Dana Perino | Olympics | President Bush | Press Briefing | Tibet | White House Press Corps Labels: China, Dana Perino, Olympics, President Bush, Press Briefing, Tibet, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 6:39:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Tony Fratto 4/7/08 (General Petraeus Iraq Testimony) — Monday, April 07, 2008 — Q You acted like the President wouldn't know what Petraeus and Crocker are going to testify. Do you mean he's going to be surprised tomorrow -- MR. FRATTO: No, I hope I didn't leave -- Q -- when they say the surge is working and all? MR. FRATTO: No, I hope I didn't leave that impression. I think he has a good sense of what the thinking of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker is. Obviously they speak on a fairly regular basis and the President is briefed by General Petraeus. And he's also briefed by lots of -- Q But he's the President, isn't he calling the policy? I mean, we don't have President Petraeus, do we? We have President -- MR. FRATTO: No, we don't. We have commander Petraeus, who is running the operations on the ground in Iraq and he's closest to the military operations. He knows the capabilities of his forces, the coalition forces, and what the Iraqi security forces can do, and has a good sense of what's needed to complete his mission. And it's a mission that he designed. So we want to look forward to his testimony and hear how he thinks it's going and what the requirements are to complete that mission for the remainder of the year. Q What is the mission? MR. FRATTO: Well, it's pretty clear, says to bring -- is to bring -- Q Are you asking -- to continue the occupation of Iraq? MR. FRATTO: -- security in Iraq, sufficient security, so that the political leadership can continue to make gains. And they've made some very impressive gains, whether it's with the budget and reconstruction funding and the Baathist legislation and provincial elections. These are all very, very important elements of political reconciliation in Iraq. We'd like to see more. We want to see more action on oil revenue law. And so there's more to be done. We're going to keep a very close eye on implementation of the laws that have been passed. But I think it's clear General Petraeus's mission was to reduce violence in Baghdad and in Iraq, more broadly, and I think it's hard to deny -- it would be hard for anybody to deny that he hasn't been successful in that mission. Now, we know that it's a -- the reduction of violence is fragile and it's reversible, but we like the trend and we like what the Iraqi political leadership has shown about their ability to take action. Q And paying off 90,000 Iraqis not to fight? MR. FRATTO: Kathleen. General Petraeus | Helen | Iraq | Middle East | President Bush | Press Briefing | Tony Fratto | White House Press Corps Labels: General Petraeus, Helen, Iraq, Middle East, President Bush, Press Briefing, Tony Fratto, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 10:55:00 PM Press Briefing by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley 4/3/08 (NATO Summit Results) — Thursday, April 03, 2008 —  Q With these decisions today by NATO, do you think that President Bush and President Putin will be able to settle their differences this weekend on missile defenses, or do you think it could be more of a broad, strategic statement that they're going to come to?SECRETARY RICE: Well, I certainly think that there will be a -- we expected that there would be a strategic framework about which we've talked. And a part of that has to be some discussion of missile defense. We are hopeful that Russia will take the opportunity to express the views that have actually been expressed to us about the usefulness and the importance of the measures that the United States has been willing to take, concerning the third site in the Czech Republic and Poland, that are meant to allay Russian concerns that somehow this missile defense system, the nine interceptors and radar sites, are somehow aimed at the Russian deterrent. And so that opportunity obviously arises, and already when we were in Moscow the Russians said that these were useful and important. We hope that we can move beyond that to an understanding that we will all have an interest in cooperation on missile defense, but we will see. Yes. Q As far as Afghanistan is concerned, are you -- you said you're satisfied with the result. But is this the end of your pressure of the other allies to provide more commitment, more troops, and I think about Italy, Germany and Spain, or you just satisfied with this result, and that's the end of it? MR. HADLEY: Well, interesting your question is -- "the end of our pressure." I think one of the things that was interesting about that meeting today was the NATO allies are all putting pressure on themselves. And NATO ally after NATO ally said, we have got to succeed here; it is important for the credibility of the Alliance; more to the point, it's important for the security of our people, and we need to succeed and we need to do more. This isn't just President Bush's line. This is now the line of everyone there. It's what we heard of President Karzai: a lot of progress was made; we all have to do more. Same thing from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: progress -- need to do more. And as you know, the United Nations is stepping up. So I think everyone recognizes we need to do more. And it's not like we're going to come to a level and that's it, success is around the corner. This is going to be a long commitment. This is a hard fight. We are going to have to assess our requirements, modify our forces, modify our tactics and strategy, and do it over the long term. So I think what you are seeing is a much more focused engagement in Afghanistan, and a commitment that we cannot fail, and therefore are going to have to, in a very focused way, do more, and work more effectively with the forces that we have, both military and civilian. Afghanistan | Condeleezza Rice | NATO | President Bush | Press Briefing | Stephen Hadley | White House Press Corps Labels: Afghanistan, Condeleezza Rice, NATO, President Bush, Press Briefing, Stephen Hadley, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:00:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 3/24/08 (4,000 U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq) — Monday, March 24, 2008 —  Q The 4,000 U.S. deaths in Iraq -- does the President regard that as a significant milestone? What's it mean to him?MS. PERINO: President Bush thinks that every single loss is tragic, from the very first several years ago to the ones that sacrificed yesterday. And he's extremely proud of the courageous men and women in uniform and all that they've done to help protect Iraqis, to protect each other and to protect this country. Most of the families of the fallen that he meets with have one request of the President, which is: Do not let my loved one's sacrifice be in vain. And the President assures them that he is committed to staying and fighting and winning. And one of the reasons he's taking such careful deliberation over the next few weeks as we lead up to the April time frame is because he wants to make sure that the gains that we have secured over this past year are cemented and that we lay the foundation for Iraq to have a democracy where they can govern, sustain and defend itself right there in the Middle East. The enemy we face is brutal. They have killed thousands of people around the world, innocent men, women and children. And they have killed our soldiers as well. And the President believes that taking the fight to the enemy is the best way to combat them for our own national security. But he definitely feels the loss. He gets a report about every single soldier who passes away, and he always pauses a moment to think about them and to offer a prayer for their loved ones and their family and friends. Q Aren't there also families of the bereaved who ask him to stop the war? MS. PERINO: There have been, but the vast majority have all asked him not to allow that sacrifice to be in vain. But certainly there are some. Q The "vast majority"? Can you say that with certainty? MS. PERINO: Well, he has said that repeatedly, and that is true for the I think almost nearly a thousand families of the fallen that he's met with. Q Does he take responsibility for a war he started without provocation that led to 4,000 deaths and 30,000 dramatically injured for life? MS. PERINO: Helen, as you know, as he said many times, he was the one responsible for making the decision to go to war. He didn't make it lightly. And as Commander-in-Chief, the hardest thing that you do and that he's done, and that any Commander-in-Chief before him and those in the future, the hardest thing that they will do is decide to commit our men and women to harm's way. Q Did he foresee this kind of catastrophe? MS. PERINO: I think that he knew that the war was going to require sacrifices and that -- Q By who? MS. PERINO: Well, of course by our soldiers. Q There's nobody in his family or this administration in this war. MS. PERINO: Helen, these are all questions we have dealt with before. I've given you an answer in the President's reaction to the 4,000 and I'm going to move on. Dana Perino | Helen | Iraq | President Bush | Press Briefing | War on Terror | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Helen, Iraq, President Bush, Press Briefing, War on Terror, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:57:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 3/19/08 (Iraqi Political Reconciliation) — Wednesday, March 19, 2008 —  Q The President had a lot to say about the surge, but he didn't say much about the reason that the surge was put into effect, which was to create some breathing room for political reconciliation, which really hasn't happened. He didn't mention that at all.MS. PERINO: I realize some people think that that hasn't been anything that happened, but I think if you look at the facts, Bill, I think -- Q Well, why didn't he mention it? MS. PERINO: In terms of the political reconciliation that they've had? Q Yes. What is there to brag about? MS. PERINO: Well, they've passed a lot more laws than this Congress has this year, and they've worked very hard. I mean, they're going from a complete dictatorship where they have no trust of one another -- they've never had democracy, and just in January, late January, they finished passing four -- three or four pieces of -- major pieces of legislation. And they're continuing to work on more. Politics is alive and well in Iraq. And just today we hear reports that it's possible that the constitutional process that was working its way through, where Vice President Mahdi had suggested a veto against a provincial powers law that -- it looks like that will be withdrawn, which would be a good step. And then you have -- what you have is Iraq actually trying to function as a democracy. And I think some people who are throwing stones ought to look at the primary system in our own country, especially on the Democratic side, where you have two states where -- Florida and Michigan, where they're figuring out whether or not to seat those delegates. Politics happens. And that's what -- it happens in the United States and it's certainly happening in Iraq. It's not a bad thing that they're having debates about their constitution. Q So you think that the Democrats should seat the delegates from Florida and Michigan? (Laughter.) MS. PERINO: I don't really have an opinion, but I'm really interested in the story. (Laughter.) Dana Perino | Iraq | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Iraq, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 11:45:00 PM Press Conference by the President 2/28/08 (Al Qaeda and Iraq ) — Thursday, February 28, 2008 —  THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Jonathan.Q Mr. President, do you believe if we have the kind of rapid pull-out from Iraq that Democrats are talking about, that we would be at greater risk of a terrorist attack here at home? And when Senator Obama was asked a similar question, he said, "If al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad." So I'm wondering if -- THE PRESIDENT: That's an interesting comment. If al Qaeda is securing a al Qaeda base -- yes, well, that's exactly what they've been trying to do for the past four years. That's their stated intention, was to create enough chaos and disorder to establish a base from which to either launch attacks or spread a caliphate. And the intent of the surge was to send more Marines into the area that -- where they had proclaimed their desire to set up a base. That was Anbar province. And so, yes, that's one of the challenges we face, is denying al Qaeda a safe haven anywhere. And their intentions -- that's what they said, that they would like to have a base or safe haven in Anbar province. Yes, Bill. Q But -- THE PRESIDENT: No, next turn. Q But the question about -- THE PRESIDENT: Nice try. (Laughter.) Q Mr. President -- THE PRESIDENT: You obviously haven't been here long. Al Qaeda | Democratic Candidates | Iraq | President Bush | Presidential Press Conference | White House Press Corps Labels: Al Qaeda, Democratic Candidates, Iraq, President Bush, Presidential Press Conference, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:34:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 2/25/08 (FISA Bill and Telecom Retroactive Immunity) — Monday, February 25, 2008 — MS. PERINO: That has been his position for a long time, and the reason is because you can't have -- without the cooperation of the companies, we won't have a program. You know, if we had a nationalized telecommunication system, then we -- the government could do it on its own, but in our system of government and the way that we are set up as a capitalist-style country, we have to have the cooperation of the private sector. They have the technology, they have the means, and they want to cooperate, but they have been burdened with over 40 lawsuits, class-action lawsuits that would -- that, one, already are costing them lots of money to deal with. And if the suits were to go forward, it could cost them possibly billions. And that cost is going to be borne by the consumers of those businesses, the customers of those businesses. But more importantly, the companies at this point are saying that they are growing increasingly reluctant to continue to work with us because, even though they want to, they are concerned about the trial lawyer lawsuits that are pending. Q Dana, critics would say that -- MS. PERINO: Reluctantly so. And it took a lot of work on behalf of the Justice Department and the office of Director of National Intelligence to work with the companies to work with companies to -- work with them to tell them what we need, and to tell them that we are going to continue to push for prospective and, more importantly, retroactive liability protection. Q Who gave them the right to break the law? MS. PERINO: Nobody broke the law, Helen. That might be your opinion, but nobody broke the law. Q When these companies -- when no warrant is given, and they didn't break the law? MS. PERINO: Helen, you're entitled to your opinion, but you're not entitled to your own set of facts. Q Oh, come on, let's -- MS. PERINO: And the facts are that companies were asked to help, and they were helped -- Q Why can't they get -- MS. PERINO: -- and they allowed -- they helped with a legal program that has helped save lives. Q Who told them they could break the law? MS. PERINO: That is just -- that's not true, Helen. Q Is it not the case, as the writers of the op-ed in today's Post claim, that the law protects all of this until August? MS. PERINO: There are -- it's a little bit more complex than that, but there are certainly directives that were approved last August when the Protect America Act was passed. Q For how long? MS. PERINO: For one year. But it's not for -- it's not necessarily -- that does not necessarily apply to all the new targets. And it doesn't apply necessarily to maybe new companies or new providers that we would need to work with in the future, that might not already be under a directive that we're -- Q But one of your complaints of prospective. They don't affect anything that's going on right now. MS. PERINO: That's not necessarily the case. As you heard in the letter -- you didn't hear from him, but in the letter that Attorney General Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence McConnell sent on Friday -- that there were several days last week where we lost information. Late Friday night there was a company that agreed reluctantly to continue to cooperate with us. But one of the things you have to understand is in the world -- Q They lost information because companies wouldn't cooperate. MS. PERINO: Correct. There was -- they are reluctant to cooperate. And during that time frame when they were trying to work with them to get them to cooperate, and to give them the comfort that they needed to be willing partners, it just took a little while. And then once that was given on Saturday morning, that the Justice Department and the Office of Director -- the DNI, put out a statement saying that they had gotten this cooperation. But this is not the kind -- this is not the way we should be running an intelligence program where you are trying to track terrorists who are calling into or out of America. We don't want to have to be having our lawyers and other professionals in the intelligence community having to coax companies to cooperate. These companies want to cooperate. I mean, all they're saying is that they want the retroactive liability protection which passed the Senate 68-29. Dana Perino | FISA | Helen | President Bush | Press Briefing | Vetoes | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, FISA, Helen, President Bush, Press Briefing, Vetoes, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:14:00 PM Air Force One Press Gaggle by Dana Perino — Monday, February 18, 2008 — MS. PERINO: Yes. I wanted to let you know that the President and Mrs. Bush had the opportunity to visit with Ellie Leblond -- that is their niece -- Doro Koch's niece(*). Q How old is she?  MS. PERINO: She's 19, and she's here in the country for a few months working with a group called the Tanzanian Children's Fund. And a woman named India Howell, who is the founder and director, joined them for the visit, as did Nano Chatfield -- she's the president of the board of directors of the Tanzanian Children's Fund. India Howell is the founder and director. I would encourage you, if you have a chance, to look up the Tanzanian Children's Fund website, because they do some really great work with orphans. And India Howell has been in Africa since -- well, she first climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 1998, and she says in her bio that it changed her life and that she wanted to fulfill a lifelong dream of doing something to help orphans. And so she started an orphanage first in her own home, and then expanded it, and now she serves over 40 -- 41 children are living here with her right now at what they call a children's village. That was as of March 2007, there were 41 children living with her in the children's village. And so Ellie is there volunteering for a few months. (*) Ellie Leblond is Doro Koch's daughter Africa | Air Force One | Dana Perino | Doro Koch | Ellie Leblond | India Howel | President Bush | Press Gaggle | Tanzanian Children's Fund | Tanzania | White House Press Corps Labels: Africa, Air Force One, Dana Perino, Doro Koch, Ellie Leblond, India Howell, President Bush, Press Gaggle, Tanzania, Tanzanian Children's Fund, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 10:26:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 11/15/07 (President's Federalist Society) — Thursday, November 15, 2007 — MS. PERINO: No, I don't think that there was anything specific, and I don't think -- in discussions, I don't believe it came up. But what I can say is that the President has for many years said that what his position is on judicial nominees is that he looks for someone who believes like he does; that the Constitution is the Constitution and it shouldn't evolve based on different public policy positions. I'm not aware -- I wasn't aware that Justice Breyer had a book. Q In a larger sense, though, does he believe that Justice Breyer and other advocates of this policy, to quote him from elsewhere in the speech, are -- pursue judicial lawlessness in a way that is a threat to our democracy? MS. PERINO: The President does not believe that we should have a living Constitution. He believes the Constitution is the Constitution. Dana Perino | Federalist Society | Judiciary | Justice Stephen Breyer | President Bush | Press Briefing | United States Constitution | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Federalist Society, Judiciary, Justice Stephen Breyer, President Bush, Press Briefing, United States Constitution >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 4:58:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 11/14/07 (Iraq Funding Bill) — Wednesday, November 14, 2007 —  MS. PERINO: Mark.Q Yes, back to the Iraq funding bill, Dana. The legislation that I gather is going to pass this afternoon does not have a binding deadline in it; it's a goal, it sets a goal. The President has said he would like to bring U.S. troops home. And it's also -- MS. PERINO: And actually, the troops are coming -- are starting to come home. Q Well, and that's -- that was the other part of it. So why would you veto something that's basically what he is already doing? MS. PERINO: As I understand it, there is an -- the way we read it, there is an arbitrary date for withdrawal. And I would remind you that it was Senator Reid yesterday who said that if the President doesn't go along with this, then he's not going to get his money. This is not money for the President, this is money for the troops. And we are urging Congress not to play political games. Think about it -- they only have approximately nine legislative days left in their calendar in order to get all of this work done. And I think that I have a slide here. I've had this up here before; I'm going to show you again. There are 12 appropriations bills. They sent one to the President that he signed yesterday, and one that he vetoed. I don't know how many days have passed, legislative days have passed this past year, but they only have nine working days left, and it is unlikely that they'll be able to get all of this work done before that deadline. Q And by "appeasing radical groups," are you talking about MoveOn.org, et cetera? Or are you talking about the large numbers of Americans who tell interviewers and pollsters that they would like troops home as soon as possible? MS. PERINO: I am talking about MoveOn.org and CODEPINK, in particular. I would also say that they have held these same -- similar votes over and over again. Dozens of these votes have been held. And in fact, on the Senate side -- I realize this is a House bill -- but on the Senate side, resolutions were passed earlier this year that said that it is the sense of the Senate that we do not believe a withdrawal date is appropriate for this war. And in case they have missed it, our troops are fulfilling their mission in spectacular fashion. They are working to bring down that violence in Iraq, to establish political reconciliation, to improve the economy. People are starting to return to Baghdad and to their homes. Pulling the rug out from under our troops now is the height of irresponsibility. Congress | Dana Perino | Democrats | Iraq | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Congress, Dana Perino, Democrats, Iraq, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:52:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 11/6/07 (President Bush and President Musharraf) — Tuesday, November 06, 2007 — Q Why is the President dodging a personal phone call to Musharraf? MS. PERINO: The President has had his Secretary of State -- Q I'm asking you directly why doesn't he call him? MS. PERINO: The President feels very strongly that President Musharraf knows exactly how he feels about the situation. Q That isn't the point. MS. PERINO: It is the point. Q Dana, does the White House believe that Musharraf is now a dictator? MS. PERINO: Look, I think that that is -- it's premature to say that. This is a President -- Q Well, why is premature when the First Lady -- MS. PERINO: -- who has worked closely with an ally in the war on terror, President Musharraf. We're doing two things with them: on the one hand, working cooperatively to take the fight to the enemy, to fight against terrorists; and on the other hand, trying to help President Musharraf and the other members of the Pakistani government to move along the path to democracy, because ultimately what's going to help solve this problem is a free society, a democratic society. And yes, President Musharraf, we believe, has made a mistake. We are gravely concerned about the situation. We are calling for an immediate return back to -- Q But wait a minute, why are you calling it a mistake? You seem to be giving Musharraf the benefit of the doubt. MS. PERINO: -- we are calling for an immediate return to civilian rule, and we are in communication with them because we have a lot of cooperative interests. We have a broad relationship, and we cannot lose sight of the fact that we have very serious counterterrorism operations that are currently underway in Pakistan as well. Q Why did -- the First Lady was very clear in her op-ed in The Wall Street Journal about Burma, Myanmar, saying it's a military dictatorship; what they're doing is wrong. We're not hearing the First Lady, we're not hearing the President being that sharp either on Pakistan. Why do you seem to be giving Musharraf the -- MS. PERINO: And what you have heard -- what you have heard from the President and this administration is that we were made aware that this state of emergency could possibly be declared. We have averted it before, in trying to work cooperatively with President Musharraf. This time the President of Pakistan decided that this is the direction he wanted to go in. We disagree with it. We want him to return to civilian rule. We want the normalcy of the democracy to come back. We're in the early stages of this crisis, and it's going to evolve. We're assessing the situation, and we're reviewing our aid packages. Q But why is it evolving? It's been days that he basically said, no more constitution, and we're going to round up political -- MS. PERINO: We have condemned the action. We have condemned the action. We cannot support any means that are happening outside of the constitution. And that's why we are calling for him to return to the constitution. But remember, this is a country that we want to see democracy. There is a way to get them back on that path. It would be in the best interests of not just the Pakistani people but for people like those of us in the United States, who want to work with an ally in order to fight against terrorists. Q But why should Musharraf believe that you guys are really serious about what you're saying from this podium when the President doesn't actually pick up the phone and call him to let him know personally? That carries a lot more weight than having Condoleezza Rice or somebody else talk to him. MS. PERINO: Well, we disagree. The President has made his points very clear with Musharraf; he's had many meetings with President Musharraf. And Secretary Rice has delivered those messages. And we feel that we are going to keep pressuring them to get back to that rule of law, working with our Ambassador, Anne Patterson, who is in constant contact with President Musharraf. Q It still does not carry the same weight as the President having direct contact with Musharraf -- (inaudible). MS. PERINO: Well, I'll let you -- I'll let that be your opinion. I'll let that be your opinion. Q But what is the tactic? I mean, what is the strategic reason for President Bush not to actually pick up the phone and talk to him? MS. PERINO: I feel confident that the President is being well served and advised by his senior national security team. The decision has been made to have Secretary Rice be the one directed to have this communication. Q Why shouldn't we see this as double standard? I mean, it's not the same standard as applied to Burma. MS. PERINO: I can understand why that question would be asked, but I think everyone has to remember that we are in the early days of a crisis, looking at a country who had decided to try to move down the path to democracy in establishing freedom of the press, civil societies, improving the education system, the public health system, allowing for freedom of expression and assembly. Democracies take time to develop. It is not easy. And this is certainly a setback, and we're -- Q Well, they certainly don't have freedom of the press or assembly at the moment. MS. PERINO: And we have called for a return to it. Burma | Dana Perino | Democracy | First Lady | Helen | Musharraf | Pakistan | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Burma, Dana Perino, Democracy, First Lady, Helen, Musharraf, Pakistan, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 4:58:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 11/5/07 (Pakistan and Democracy) — Monday, November 05, 2007 — Q For a long time the President has urged Musharraf to give up his military status, and he has not done so. And you cited a couple of reasons why we should all be mindful of Pakistan's assistance in the war on terror. Is the U.S. willing to accept a certain amount of Musharraf's lack of democracy in order to have his assistance? MS. PERINO: We are not in a give-and-take situation. We want democracy to work. We know that democracy had been working in Pakistan. People have been able to have press freedoms, they've been participating in civil society groups, education had started to reform, the public health system was starting to get better. So I think that if they can return quickly, as Secretary Rice said, return quickly to the rule of law, they can get back on that path to democracy and we won't face that situation, an either/or situation. Q Can you have a partner in the war on terror from a country that does not embrace these democratic institutions? MS. PERINO: I think that the most important thing is for them to get back to their stated goal of having a path to democracy, establishing that free and fair elections would take place in January. You'll hear from the President more. Right now we have a review underway of all of our programs that we are supporting. We have to keep in mind that it is important that we fight the terrorists there for all people, not just those there in Pakistan but for our national security interests as well. And the President has an obligation to protect Americans, to protect American assets. So all of these things are going to have to be taken into consideration as we review the situation. Q Is there any concern from the President that during this time of uncertainty that the work the Pakistani military was doing to try to root out al Qaeda in its border regions would be compromised, or that this could be an opening for bin Laden and his associates? MS. PERINO: I haven't heard that expressed, but I'm sure that since we've been cooperating with the Pakistani military to try to root out the terrorists I don't have any reason to believe that that would end. Q Why hasn't the President called Musharraf, who is, after all, a key ally, personally? Is he reserving that, is there a lack -- MS. PERINO: The President has directed his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, to have that direct contact. And if there's more to update later today we will. Condeleezza Rice | Dana Perino | Musharraf | Pakistan | President Bush | Press Briefing | State Department | War on Terror | White House Press Corps Labels: Condeleezza Rice, Dana Perino, Musharraf, Pakistan, President Bush, Press Briefing, State Department, War on Terror, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 4:23:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Tony Fratto 10/22/07 (S-CHIP Veto) — Monday, October 22, 2007 — MR. FRATTO: Well, I could see that point if that was what the President said, but that's exactly not what the President said. What the President said was is that they have the policy wrong on SCHIP, not that it's too expensive or is -- Q They were asking for too much, though, right? MR. FRATTO: No, they were asking for a policy that was bad. Let me tell you something about the -- what the SCHIP bill that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are proposing, okay. If you look at the eligible communities in this bill, it would result in 57 percent of children in this country and about 53 percent of families with children on public assistance, or at least eligible for public assistance. Now what the President has said is that poor children should come first. Now there are a lot of things you can say about half the families in America. Half of them aren't poor. And so the President has said that the policy is wrong. He didn't say that it's too expensive -- although it is too expensive to spend money on the wrong policy. So what he has said is the policy is wrong. Now, with regard to the supplemental request, children -- the right children, poor children getting their health care, and the needs of our troops can both be accomplished. They're both priorities and we can handle both of those requests. Iraq | President Bush | Press Briefing | S-CHIP | Tony Fratto | Vetoes | White House Press Corps Labels: Iraq, President Bush, Press Briefing, S-CHIP, Tony Fratto, Vetoes, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:41:00 PM Press Conference by the President 10/17/07 (Iran and Russia) — Wednesday, October 17, 2007 —  Q Good morning, Mr. President, thank you. I don't know if you saw the picture on the front page of one of the papers this morning of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Vladimir Putin. THE PRESIDENT: I did. Q It looked like they were getting along pretty well. And they are among -- THE PRESIDENT: Surprised they weren't kind of fighting each other on the front page of the paper? No, man, come on. Q It looked like they were enjoying each other's company. And I'm wondering, since they were leaders of five Caspian Sea region nations that have now declared each country will not be used as a base to attack the other, A, what do you make of their growing relationship? B, does it complicate what the United States can do in the region? And C, would you characterize that arrangement as some sort of Caspian Sea Truman Doctrine or something like that? THE PRESIDENT: You know, I -- I think it's hard to judge how their conversations went from a picture. Generally leaders don't like to be photographed scowling at each other or making bad gestures at each other. So I'm not surprised that there was a nice picture of them walking along. I try to make sure that when I'm with foreign leaders, there's a pretty picture of the two of us walking down the colonnades, or something like that, to send a good message. Q Are you saying it's not so warm? THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't know yet. What I'm about to tell you is, is that I'm looking forward to getting President Putin's readout from the meeting. I think one of the -- the thing I'm interested in is whether or not he continues to harbor the same concerns that I do. And I say "continues" because when we were in Australia, he reconfirmed to me that it is -- he recognized it's not in the world's interest for Iran to have the capacity to make a nuclear weapon. And they have been very supportive in the United Nations. And we're working with them on a potential third resolution. So that's where my concerns -- I don't worry about the pictures. I understand why they meet. I am -- will continue to work with Russia, as well as other nations, to keep a focused effort on sending Iran a message that you will remain isolated if you continue your nuclear weapons ambitions. Q But this declaration doesn't speak to that, Mr. President. This declaration doesn't suggest isolation for Iran. Just the opposite, that Russia and Iran are going to do business. THE PRESIDENT: Well, we'll find out, see. You're trying to get me to interpret the meeting based upon a news story or a picture. I'd rather spend some time with Vladimir Putin finding out exactly what went on. Thank you. Q Let's stay with the nuclear -- here. When North Korea tested a nuclear device, you said that any proliferation would be a grave threat to the U.S., and North Korea would be responsible for the consequences. Are you denying that North Korea has any role in the suspected nuclear -- THE PRESIDENT: See, you're trying to pull a Gregory. Q Yes, I am. Ahmadinejad | Iran | North Korea | Nuclear Arms | President Bush Labels: Ahmadinejad, Iran, North Korea, Nuclear Arms, President Bush, Presidential Press Conference, Putin, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:10:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/16/07 (President Bush, the Dalai Lama and China) — Tuesday, October 16, 2007 — Q Why has the President chosen to attend this event tomorrow? Is it because he attends all of the -- with the Dalai Lama -- all of these congressional award ceremonies, or is he trying to make a statement to China? MS. PERINO: President Bush has attended the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor ceremonies. The most recent one that I can remember was the Tuskegee Airmen event that he attended. I think that was earlier this year. And he told President Hu when we were at APEC in Sydney that he would be attending this one, as well. And he is going to be proud to do so. He believes that the Dalai Lama is a strong spiritual leader, and he will have a private meeting with him today, and then he'll attend tomorrow's Gold Medal ceremony. And, as I told you, he told President Hu that he would and he'll be proud to do so tomorrow. Q Is he concerned about the repercussions? The Chinese Foreign Minister called this a violent intrusion into Chinese domestic politics. MS. PERINO: We understand that the Chinese have very strong feelings about this, and that's one of the reasons that the President brought up with President Hu almost two months ago that he would be actually -- that he would be attending this event. The President wanted President Hu to know about this early on. The President attends that ceremony; it's a special one that we have in American traditions. The United States and the Bush administration has worked hard to have very strong relations with China on a variety of issues -- from trade and to cooperation on many different issues, such as the six-party talks with North Korea. We feel we have a very strong relationship with them, and that will be maintained. Q So if there's a strong strategic relationship with China, I would think that the President would listen to strongly expressed reservations about something the President was doing, with a certain amount of appreciation for that. What's the difference between Turkey saying, we don't want the United States to do something, and China saying, we don't want the government or the President to do something? What's the difference? MS. PERINO: Well, first, I think those two things are different. First and foremost, the President has met with the Dalai Lama multiple times, and this will be his fourth private meeting with the Dalai Lama. The President also attends the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony whenever he possibly can. I think he's attended almost of all them, and if he hasn't, that has been because of travel that he didn't make it. On the Armenian resolution, what the President has done is he has expressed the Americans' grief about what happened in 1915 through a presidential message every year. And the President has made it clear that Turkey currently is playing a very important, vital role in making sure that our troops have the supplies that they need. A lot of our troops -- all the supplies are going through Turkey either through the airspace or -- and both to Iraq and Afghanistan, so there's a strategic national security reason there. On China and on the Dalai Lama, the President has made clear early on with President Hu -- we've been very open about -- that the President was going to be meeting with him. It's not that the President hadn't met him before. Q Why not release the picture? MS. PERINO: There's going to be a picture of the President and the Dalai Lama that you'll have tomorrow. Q What about today? MS. PERINO: They'll be standing together in the Capitol. Q But if it's not that big a deal, and the President's proud to -- MS. PERINO: We understand that there are very strong feelings that the Chinese have, and that they've reacted negatively to the fact the President will be going to this event tomorrow. But the President was clear that he would attend the event, as he had before. And we made a decision not to release a photograph today, but you are -- it's not that you're not going to get a picture of the President and the Dalai Lama, because you'll see them together tomorrow at the Capitol. Q Was it a conscious decision not the release a photo, even though you -- MS. PERINO: We always make a decision whether or not to release a photo. Q But it almost appears like a splitting the difference, that understanding that China is -- MS. PERINO: Well, I don't know if the Chinese would feel that way. I think that they don't want the event to happen at all. So I -- but I think -- it is going to go forward. The President will be there tomorrow. He'll make brief remarks and he'll have his picture taken there, too. Q Is it a gesture to the Chinese to not release a photo, to limit the exposure -- MS. PERINO: I don't know if they would take it that way. It was a decision we made on our own. They did not ask us not to release a photo. Q And what is the basis of that decision, then? It's certainly a story today. MS. PERINO: The United States -- we in no way want to stir the pot and make China feel that we are poking a stick in their eye, to a country that we have a lot of relationships with on a variety of -- I mean, a good relationship with on a variety of issues. And if this is -- this might be one thing that we can do. But I don't have -- I don't believe that that's going to assuage the concerns of the Chinese. Sure, I'll go to Ann, and I'll come back. Q Several years ago the Dalai Lama proposed what he calls the "middle way," not independence for Tibet, but a kind of, what he calls, autonomy, where that area could have its own leaders. Does the United States embrace the Dalai Lama's vision of what a government for Tibet should be? MS. PERINO: As I understand it, the Dalai Lama wants not for -- he's not calling for independence from China. He's asking for the people there to have ability to -- the freedom to practice their religion. And the United States supports him as a great spiritual leader. He should be honored as a spiritual leader. But we are not asking for independence from the country. Q But his idea of autonomy -- and that's the word he uses -- is what the United States would also embrace? MS. PERINO: I don't know his specific language that he uses, but we do not support a separate country from China. Q Dana, what can you tell us about what they're going to talk about, the President and the Dalai Lama? MS. PERINO: Well, those are private meetings, and the President has private meetings with spiritual leaders such as the Pope. We don't always tell you what's on his mind. The President, obviously, will have a good discussion with him. But when he has a private meeting, I don't get into the habit of asking him specifically what's he's going to bring up with somebody. If there's more to say later, I could let you know. Q -- preview of the topics, even -- MS. PERINO: No. Q Do you know where it will be? MS. PERINO: In the Residence. Q Where in the Residence, do we know? MS. PERINO: I don't know. Q You heard what the Chinese Foreign Minister said about violating international relations and wounded feelings with China. The Dalai Lama's Special Envoy says that this meeting sends a message that people have not forgotten about Tibet, and that it is also a message -- a powerful message, according to him, to China, that the Dalai Lama is not going to go away. Does the President believe that this meeting sends that sort of message to China? MS. PERINO: I think that what the President would believe is that people are going to look at this meeting in several different ways, and it's almost taking on a life of its own. The President has met with the Dalai Lama before. He is a great spiritual leader. The President wants to meet with him. The President believes that people all over the world should be able to express their religion and practice their religion in freedom. And that's why the President wants to meet with him. He believes he should be honored as a great spiritual leader. And you mentioned the Foreign Minister. The President, just within the recent weeks, had a good meeting with him, as well, here at the White House -- the Chinese Foreign Minister. And we believe that we'll get through this event tomorrow that the President is going to attend, and that we'll be able to continue and maintain to have really good relationships with China from here on out. Q If I could just follow, you can judge by the number of questions here in this briefing that it is -- MS. PERINO: -- lot of hot air tonight. Q -- the topic of the day. So why not release this picture today? It just seems like it's happening today -- MS. PERINO: I understand and I'll take it back up, if I can, but I believe that there will not be a photo today. You'll get one tomorrow. Q Dana, you talked earlier about not releasing the picture as something you could do, in essence not to stir the pot. What about at tomorrow's ceremony? Will the President hand the medal and present the medal to the Dalai Lama? Will he -- is he keeping his remarks purposely short? What are other gestures -- MS. PERINO: I think his remarks are on par with the length of what he's given before -- I believe. They're always brief remarks because it's a long ceremony. And I don't know who -- I don't know what the protocol is for who provides the medal. It's the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, so I don't know what the President's role is. Q But is the White House thinking carefully about the symbolism of those gestures and -- MS. PERINO: We're aware of it, sure. It's on our collective radar screen. We understand that there are the concerns and -- that the Chinese have expressed. But we are going to go forward with the event tomorrow. We're not going to change that. But we will not release the photo today. But you all know that the meeting is happening anyway, and you'll have a picture of him with the Dalai Lama tomorrow. Q Will you let us know by the end of today what the protocol will be tomorrow, and if the President will be presenting the medal? MS. PERINO: Yes, sure. Q And also, what is he likely to say in his remarks tomorrow? MS. PERINO: Well, I think that he will honor the Dalai Lama as a great spiritual leader. And when I can provide you more -- those remarks are still being worked on, too, and unless they've been released in between the time that I was in my office and came down here, they're still not final. Let me go back to April. Q Dana, in the last couple of months this White House has said there has been an interesting relationship with China, especially after all the trade issues. And now you're saying it's a good relationship. How -- could you explain why you have a good relationship with China, as some would see this adding fuel to the fire of recent controversies with the United States and China? MS. PERINO: Well, I just think we have -- it's a relationship where we have a lot of different issues that we work together on, including energy issues. China was here two weeks ago when the President hosted the major economies meeting, when we talked about how to curtail global warming through reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The President told President Hu that he looks forward to attending the Olympics next year. We've also talked to China --the reason he met with Foreign Minister Wang was to talk to China about our concerns regarding Burma. We have an issue with the Product Import Safety Commission that Secretary Leavitt is looking into. We also have China as a great -- as a large trading partner, and we have many different issues going back and forth and we work cooperatively with them. Secretary Paulson has the Economic Strategic Initiative that he has implemented over at the Treasury Department. And so it's a complex relationship that has many different facets. And we're working with them, as I mentioned before, on the North Korean six-party talks. They're very important to us, and to that -- and to the entire region in making sure that North Korea becomes a nuclear-free peninsula. Q But "complex" still equates to a good relationship? MS. PERINO: I think you can have a complex and a good relationship, like ours. Helen. Q It's not on the Dalai, but anyone else want to ask about -- MS. PERINO: Well, I'll come right back to you, Helen. In the back. Q Thanks, Dana. Is China interfering in our domestic politics by complaining so strongly about tomorrow's Congressional Gold Medal ceremony? MS. PERINO: Look, I think that if people want to express their views, the President welcomes every -- everyone should have the opportunity to express their views. And I think that we're not going to try to squelch that at all, no. Goyal. Q Dana, thank you. MS. PERINO: Is this one on the Dalai Lama? Q Yes, ma'am. As far as this -- the Dalai Lama and particular issue is concerned, this has been going for a long time, and the people of Tibet have been waiting and asking President Bush every year whenever he was meeting with him in the White House that they see a hope of light for them. And now, over quarter million Tibetans in India are asking on President Bush again today that he should stand for the independence or freedom of Tibet just like anywhere else in the world. MS. PERINO: As I said, the President -- Q And this will be the highest -- this will be the highest award ever the U.S. can give to -- civilian award to anybody, and they are very delighted and very thankful to the President. But, at the same time, they're asking for more. MS. PERINO: Well, I understand that the President looks forward to the meeting he's having with him today, and then he'll make brief remarks tomorrow, and you can maybe get those out in your newspaper. China | Congressional Gold Medal of Honor | Dalai Lama | Dana Perino | President Bush Labels: China, Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, Dalai Lama, Dana Perino, President Bush, Press Briefing, Tibet, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 9:12:00 PM Air Force One Press Gaggle by Tony Fratto 10/12/07 (Al Gore and the Nobel Prize) — Friday, October 12, 2007 — MR. FRATTO: Yes, the President learned about it this morning. Of course, he's happy for Vice President Gore, happy for the International Panel on Climate Change scientists, who also shared the Peace Prize. Obviously it's an important recognition and we're sure the Vice President is thrilled. Q Is he going to call him? MR. FRATTO: I don't know of any plans to make calls to any of the winners at this point. Q (Inaudible.) MR. FRATTO: Well, obviously Vice President Gore has helped to bring attention to climate change. The IPCC scientists have done remarkable work to bring scientific rigor to the questions surrounding climate change. And obviously the next step for -- and really the most difficult step is implementing climate change strategies that are effective and practical, and that allow for continued economic development and for countries to do the work that they need to do to lift people out of poverty. And that's a challenging task. That's why the President brought together the major economies -- the announcement he had prior to the G8 and then the summit meeting last week -- I guess it was two weeks ago now -- to discuss a strategy for climate change. And that's the next step and that's an important step. Q Given that his approach on climate is so different from Al Gore's, does he feel that this award is in any way sending a message about his own policies? MR. FRATTO: I'm not sure what -- no, I don't see it that way at all. No. Q Does he think, though, that the award will place pressure on him and on the Bush administration to do more quickly, and to maybe fall into line with what other countries want, which are mandatory caps on emissions? MR. FRATTO: No. Al Gore | Global Warming | Nobel Prize | Press Gaggle | President Bush | Tony Fratto Labels: Air Force One, Al Gore, Global Warming, Nobel Prize, President Bush, Press Gaggle, Tony Fratto >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:20:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/11/07 (President Bush Attending Dalai Lama's Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony) — Thursday, October 11, 2007 — Q Dana, China has complained bitterly about the plans for the Dalai Lama to receive the Congressional Gold Medal next week and, by extension, the President's plan to attend that ceremony. Can you respond to that? And is there any indication the President will meet face to face with the Dalai Lama? MS. PERINO: Well, I wouldn't rule that out, but I have nothing to announce for you in terms of a meeting with the Dalai Lama. If you'll recall, when we were in Australia at the APEC meeting, the President told President Hu that he would be attending the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony, and the President and Mrs. Bush look forward to attending it. The President will make brief remarks, and he will reiterate our view that the Dalai Lama is a great spiritual leader. He leads a movement that is aimed not only for independence from China but for the rights of the Tibetan people.* And the President wants -- is going to -- let me see, I guess I can announce -- I just had it here -- I knew that there was a meeting in the works but I didn't know it had been confirmed. He will meet with the President on October 16th, the day before. Q At the White House? MS. PERINO: At the White House. Q Can I follow up on that? MS. PERINO: Sure. Q The President is concerned about relations with Turkey, and has opposed a resolution which is non-binding in one House of Congress, right, the genocide -- why is he not afraid of relations with China being damaged by actually meeting with the Dalai Lama in public for the first time ever on Wednesday? MS. PERINO: Well, the President has met with the Dalai Lama many times; we've released photographs of that so that we'd have a -- there is a public record of the President meeting with the Dalai Lama. He -- the President had a good conversation with President Hu when we were in Australia and told him that we would be welcoming the Dalai Lama to the United States, that the President would be going to the Capitol, as he does every year, for the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony. Q So you're saying it's no big deal that the President will actually be at a public event for the first time with the Dalai Lama? MS. PERINO: I think that the President -- first and foremost, he told President Hu that, back the first week of September of this year. This is not -- this should not come as news to the Chinese that the President is going to be attending. And this is a spiritual leader who is fighting for freedom and democracy, which the President is supporting as well. And what you're talking about yesterday is the President referring to something that had happened in 1915 with the Ottoman Empire, and the House of Representatives having many tasks in front of it, including passing appropriations bills, even appointing in the House side conferees to talk about how we're going to spend the American taxpayers' money. They could work on closing the -- permanently closing the intelligence gap by passing the FISA legislation. There's a lot of things that the House could be doing and the Senate could be doing, rather than passing resolutions, talking about historical actions in 1915. So he will go next week -- Q Is it not a big -- so you're saying that the Wednesday public ceremony is not a big deal? MS. PERINO: Well, we would hope that the Chinese leader would get to know the Dalai Lama as the President sees him, as a spiritual leader and someone who wants peace. And that's what the President will -- that's what the President urges in meetings. He understands that the Chinese have concerns about this. They were expressed to the President as well in Australia. He's well aware that there are different feelings about this. He believes that as a leader and as the President of the United States, and someone who always attends a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony, that he is going to go and he will proudly be there to witness the event. China | Congressional Gold Medal of Honor | Dalai Lama | Dana Perino Labels: China, Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, Dalai Lama, Dana Perino, President Bush, Press Briefing, Tibet, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 9:00:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/5/07 (United States Flag) — Friday, October 05, 2007 — MS. PERINO: I don't know, I haven't talked to him about it. But, obviously, he would have liked to see more participation at the debate from the Republicans. Q Well, he believes that they should have the United States flag above that presidential debate, doesn't he? MS. PERINO: I think that a university or a college can make their own decisions about that. Q But doesn't the President believe the flag should -- MS. PERINO: The President loves the flag. Kelly. (Laughter.) Q He loves the flag. I want to know does he believe the flag should have been displayed there, or not, as Congressman Duncan Hunter -- MS. PERINO: I think it's a decision that's up to the college. Q A bulletin that the President loves the flag. Dana Perino | President Bush | Press Briefing | Republican Candidates | United States Flag | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, President Bush, Press Briefing, Republican Candidates, United States Flag, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 10:21:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 9/28/07 (Global Warming Goals & Strategies) — Friday, September 28, 2007 — Q On the climate change speech the President gave today, he said once again that goals for greenhouse gas emissions is sufficient; better than mandatory limits. Isn't it inherent in the President's argument that mandatory limits would hurt economies; that the goals would not be as aggressive as the mandatory limits? MS. PERINO: Not necessarily. I think -- yes, the President believes that the mandatory limits that Kyoto would have placed on the United States would have been very harmful. And apparently, so did 98 other senators who voted against Kyoto back in the Clinton administration. Q I believe I'm talking about Kyoto at this point. I'm talking about setting -- MS. PERINO: I'm making a point. Q Okay. MS. PERINO: The President has set a goal in 2001 for the -- I'm sorry, 2002 -- for the United States to reduce greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent by 2012. That was a goal. And we measure it every year. And we are held to account on that goal. And we, because of lots of different actions in several different sectors across the economy, we are on track to meet that goal. Countries that place -- that have goals strive to meet them. That is the point. But mandatory cuts on carbon emissions, the President believes, would not be the right thing for the economy because, one reason -- the technology does not exist today to be able to do that. On the other hand, if you look at the Montreal Protocol, which reduced CFCs -- it's the substance that helps eat away the ozone layer -- that technology existed. And so when governments were putting money into those technologies, they were seeing an immediate return on investment. The only way right now, today, in order to stop carbon emissions coming out of coal-fired power plants -- of which 54 percent of our energy is derived -- is to turn them off. And that's why the President thinks that we should move forward on several different parallel tracks: alternative energy, new technologies that are cleaner-burning, and also some mandatory measures. We have a renewable fuel standard that we want, 35 billion gallons by -- let's see -- 20-in-10, so it's 2017. So we have lots of different ways that we can move forward. But one of the things the President wanted to do today is to get beyond the fights about Kyoto and to get to the post-Kyoto discussions that the U.N. is going to be having, and bring together all the major economies. Because in Kyoto the developing countries weren't a part of it. Now, what the President did today is have all the major emitting countries, all the major economies come together and decide, how can we establish a goal long-term. And everyone is going to have to report what their midterm goals are, as well. Each state is different, each state has a different fuel mix: some use a lot of coal; some use a lot of wind; some have natural gas. It's going to depend on individual countries. Instead of a cram-down, the President wants to see some bottom-up action. Q You seem to be telling me that mandatory caps would have to be the Kyoto caps; goals would be something else. My question is, isn't it inherent in the idea of setting a goal, rather than mandatory caps, the goal is not going to be as aggressive? Why would the caps have to be -- MS. PERINO: That's not necessarily true. A goal can be just as aggressive. If you look at -- many countries that signed up to Kyoto, they weren't able to meet those targets. Q Let me try one more time. MS. PERINO: Okay. Q If your mandatory cap is not as stringent as Kyoto required -- I mean, you're telling me the technology does not exist to meet the Kyoto caps. I'll agree with that. If you set a cap that is less aggressive, what is the problem with that? MS. PERINO: Let me take a step back. Whether you have a mandatory cap or a goal, there are some countries that didn't meet their mandatory cap anyway. So I think the President's point of establishing a goal that the entire world can get behind is a better approach than having just a few countries, and not including the developing world. Look, the developing world is going to have to not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also figure out a way to keep their economies going. Some of these countries, people live in terrible poverty and they need energy in order to have jobs and heat their homes and light their homes and their schools, and they need to have clean-burning technologies in order to be able to do that. One exciting thing that the President announced today is this international global technology fund, which people could put money into, we could pool resources, pool ideas and ingenuity so we can come up with the new technologies. But then these other countries that are developing, like China, India, Mexico, and South Africa, can take advantage of what they have -- an ability to grow their economy without harming the environment at the same time. Labels: Dana Perino, Global Warming, Kyoto Protocal, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:30:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 9/25/07 (President Bush on Iraq to Democratic Candidates) — Tuesday, September 25, 2007 — MS. PERINO: I don't know. I didn't sit in on any of the interviews. Let me tell you what I do know in terms of how I know that the President thinks, which is heading into the last 16 months of the administration he realizes that there are going to be -- when you're out on the campaign trail, he knows just as well as anybody else that you're often asked very definitive questions, yes or no answers are demanded, people want to start establishing their policies and their views. And -- for example, one of the things he did on the FISA Court issue, on Terrorist Surveillance Program, is he knows that whoever becomes President next January -- January of '09, that when they sit down in the Oval Office, they are going to realize that that program is necessary. And in order to make it more -- for lack of a better word -- politically acceptable to have such a program that is extremely necessary for our security, as Director Hayden and McConnell have said, he said, well, let's move it to -- let's put it back over in the FISA Court area; we worked with them to do that. And that way, the President felt that anyone who is on the campaign trial, if they were asked about the surveillance program, that they wouldn't have to take such a definitive view on it and be locked into a position before they get into the Oval Office. And to the extent that he's thinking about long-term needs, to have security -- for our own national security, to have us have a presence there in the Middle East, he is thinking about that. I don't know about back channels, in terms of communications. He has talked about that, somewhat more openly -- obviously, now, increasingly openly. And I think that anyone who will listen, I think that the President and the Vice President would make the case that we need to think very carefully, as you're headed into an election season, where the questions come fast and furious and answers are demanded, and to avoid people locking themselves into too rigid a position. I think that's what the point of those quotes are. Labels: Dana Perino, Democratic Candidates, Iraq, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:09:00 PM Press Gaggle by National Security Advisor Steve Hadley 9/24/07 (President's Speech to the UN) — Monday, September 24, 2007 — MR. HADLEY: A little bit, but it won't be a major focus. But I'd like to not get into more what will be in or not in the speech. We've given you a sense of sort of the framework and the thematic, and I'd like to save the rest of it for the President tomorrow. Q Do you have any reaction to the theme of what Ahmadinejad has been saying today; essentially that, why should we go to war, there is no war in the offing, we're not walking towards war with the United States? Are those comments in any way helpful? MR. HADLEY: Look, what would be helpful is for Iranian officials to give some direction so that they would stop the movement of equipment into Iraq, and training people in Iraq who are killing innocent Iraqis, Iraqi security forces and our kids. What would be helpful is if Iran would get out of the business of supporting terror, and agree to what's been offered to them: to suspend their enrichments capability so we can sit down and negotiate a resolution to the nuclear issue, that would give the Iranian people an opportunity for a truly peaceful civil nuclear program, and reassure the international community they're not trying to find a nuclear weapon. And it would be nice for this regime to give their people more of an opportunity to participate in government. I mean, look -- it would be nice for this regime to take some concrete steps to address the agenda, that not only the United States has, but really the whole international community has with the government of Iran. Thanks a lot. Labels: Ahmadinejad, Iran, President Bush, Press Gaggle, Sanctions, Stephen Hadley, United Nations, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:13:00 PM Press Conference by the President 9/20/07 (S-CHIP Veto) — Thursday, September 20, 2007 — Q Quick follow, if I may, Mr. President? THE PRESIDENT: No, you may not. Q Mr. President, back to your grade point average on holding the line on taxes -- THE PRESIDENT: Whew, I thought you were going to talk about the actual grade point average. (Laughter.) I remind people that, like when I'm with Condi I say, she's the Ph.D. and I'm the C-student, and just look at who's the President and who's the advisor. (Laughter.) But go ahead. Q If there is a tax increase on cigarettes to fund the S-CHIP program, is that a tax increase you oppose? THE PRESIDENT: It does. We don't need to raise taxes. What I want is the Congress to be focused on making sure poor children get the health insurance they were promised. Instead, Congress has made a decision to expand the eligibility up to $80,000. That's not the intent of the program. The program was find poor children and help them with health insurance. Their vision is, expand the eligibility so that people making up to $80,000 will be eligible for this program. I believe this is a step toward federalization of health care. I know that their proposal is beyond the scope of the program, and that's why I'm going to veto the bill. Labels: President Bush, Presidential Press Conference, S-CHIP, Vetoes, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:34:00 PM
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