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 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  White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 3/20/08 (Government by Public Opinion Polls) — Thursday, March 20, 2008 —  Q Dana, can I just follow on our colleague Martha Raddatz's interview with the Vice President? Let's set aside the meaning of the word "so" for a second, and get to something the Vice President then said about fluctuations in the public opinion polls: "You can't be blown off course by fluctuations in public opinion polls." That would suggest that at any point in recent memory that the American public has been behind the war. It's not that there's been fluctuations in polls; it's been different degrees of opposition to the war. So is the Vice President saying it really doesn't matter what the American public thinks about the war?MS. PERINO: No, I don't think that's what he's saying, and obviously I haven't spoken to the Vice President since he's traveling today and was in Kabul visiting with President Karzai at the request of the President. But what he went on to say is that President should not make decisions based on polls. And we fully recognize that people across America are unhappy with the war; possibly they didn't agree with the decision in the first place. They might have been unhappy with the conduct of the war. They might have disagreed with the President's decision to send in more troops, which was a very unpopular decision across the board. But what the President has said is that while people might not like the decisions that he makes, he has to do what he thinks is right for the country, and he cannot try to chase an opinion poll and try to make things better that way. He has to act on what he thinks is right, and that's what he's done. Q So at what point -- I mean, I guess I just -- there is the impression that the Vice President doesn't care about what the American people think in policy like that. Is that a wrong impression? And does the President share that impression? MS. PERINO: I think that is the wrong impression. I think that the Vice President and the President both, together, all of us across the administration, would like for people to support the President's decisions. We realize that that's unrealistic, especially in a time of war -- and in particular this war. And while we're not able to change public opinion, we also have to follow a principle and stand on principle. And you have to ask yourself, what kind of a person do you want in the Oval Office? And America will have this choice to make in November of 2008 -- before I get ahead of myself. So we believe that the President stood on his principle. He hasn't chased public opinion polls. He's aware of them, but he hasn't made decisions because of them, and I think there's a distinction. Just because you don't make decisions based on opinion polls doesn't mean you don't care what people think. We are all Americans. We care deeply about what people think. Helen. Q The American people are being asked to die and pay for this, and you're saying they have no say in this war? MS. PERINO: I didn't say that, Helen. But, Helen, this President was elected -- Q Well, what it amounts to is you saying we have no input at all. MS. PERINO: You had input. The American people have input every four years, and that's the way our system is set up. Q Every four years. MS. PERINO: And we listen to -- Q It sounds familiar. MS. PERINO: -- different points of view. The President, in fact, had many meetings with members of Congress leading up to his decision about the surge. Q Supposed to be a government for the people, of the people, by the people? MS. PERINO: I would submit to you that people across America, if asked what type of a President do you want: one that stands on principle or that one that chases polls? And I think that they would want -- Q What's the principle of going to war against the people who did nothing to us? MS. PERINO: Helen, the President went to war to remove Saddam Hussein. He talked all about this yesterday in his speech. I'll refer you to that. Dana Perino | Dick Cheney | Helen | Iraq | Polls | Press Briefing | Vice President | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Dick Cheney, Helen, Iraq, Polls, Press Briefing, Vice President, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:34:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 3/10/08 (Cheney's Trip to the Middle East) — Monday, March 10, 2008 — Q Has the President given the Vice President any specific benchmarks he's looking for from his trip to the Middle East? The President outlined a little bit, but you had made it clear earlier this morning that he wanted things to hurry up in the Middle East peace process. MS. PERINO: No, I wouldn't say that the President has to give the Vice President any benchmarks. The Vice President understands fully what we're trying to achieve there, and the President is grateful that he's agreed to go. He has an ambitious trip, starting this Sunday. He'll travel to several different countries, and he has many different topics that he will cover. One of the most important is certainly trying to help the Israelis and the Palestinians as they continue to talk with one another to get to a point where they could define what a state would look like. And in addition to that, he'll travel to Saudi Arabia; I'm sure that energy issues will come up there. He'll be talking about Iraq and the progress of the surge and the importance of making sure that the security gains that we've had do not reverse themselves. So he's got a wide range of topics that he'll cover on his trip. Q But not anything specific, like, let's have the settlement issue resolved by this date, for instance. MS. PERINO: If there is, I'm not aware of it and I don't -- they have private conversations. Q Will he repeat the request to the Saudis to ask OPEC to raise oil production, a request which was made by the President and turned down by our friends, the Saudis? MS. PERINO: I'll refer you to the Vice President's office for exactly what he will bring up. But certainly the position of the United States and the President is that we believe that more supplies should be out there on the market. And the President does want OPEC to take into consideration that its biggest customer, the United States, that our economy is weakened, and part of the reason is because of higher oil prices; we think that more supply would help. And I don't anticipate that the Vice President would have any other message than that one. Q So he will, obviously, then, have that message. MS. PERINO: I'm not -- I can't tell you exactly what the Vice President is going to say and I'm not going to -- I'll let him have his meetings and then they can read them for you while you guys are on the road. Dana Perino | Dick Cheney | Middle East | Press Briefing | Vice President | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Dick Cheney, Middle East, Press Briefing, Vice President, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 6:48:00 PM
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