For Immediate Release
October 8, 2002
Press Gaggle with Ari Fleischer
Aboard Air Force One
En Route to Knoxville, Tennessee
9:09 A.M. EDT
MR. FLEISCHER:
The President this morning had his usual
intelligence briefings. Our first event in Tennessee will be a speech
the President will give, and he will also seek to build support for the
campaign -- the Congress -- Van Hilleary for Governor, Lamar Alexander
for Senator, Janice Bowling for the United States Congress. The first
event is sponsored by the Tennessee Republican Party.
The second event will be a fundraiser at the Van Hilleary for
Governor Luncheon, which is expected to raise one million dollars, with
$750,000 going to Hilleary's campaign and $250,000 going to Victory
2002.
That is it for the President's schedule today, and with that I'm
happy to take your questions.
Q Victory 2002, is that the Tennessee --
MR. FLEISCHER: Republican State Party.
Q You said the first event is sponsored by the Republican
Party, so that none of this is official travel?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's correct.
Q Why is that? Welcome rallies in the past have been
official travel. Is there some attempt now to pick up more of the
political costs from the political parties?
MR. FLEISCHER: As the -- go through the election, I think the
President is going to focus on those candidates who support his agenda,
so that he'll have better prospects for passage of legislation to
improve education, to protect people's pensions, to create jobs. And
so if it's an official event, the President cannot directly endorse the
candidacies of various people -- and this now will afford him the
opportunity to do so.
Q Where do we stand on the port dispute, Ari?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President looks forward to receiving the report
from a bill that he named. He expects to receive the report sometime
today, and he will review the report once he receives it.
Q Is he inclined to invoke Taft-Hartley and to get them back
to work?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'll just leave it at he wants to read their
report, after he receives the report. If he has anything to say, we'll
keep you advised.
Q Anything on the fact now -- the terror that sniper in
Washington is expanding to school kids and so on? Does the President
have anything to say to people who live in Washington about that?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President issued a statement last night about
this directly; and he's talked to the Attorney General about it. This
is a very important issue of great concern. This is traumatic for the
families and the communities that have been affected, and it's scary.
And let me walk you through some of the actions that the federal
government has been taking to assist. And as you can see from a lot of
the comments that are being made by local officials, there is a very
close working relationship already between the federal government and
the local government. The local government deserves help and the
federal government is going to provide it.
The FBI is assisting in the profiling of the shooter or shooters.
The FBI has put people in command posts in Montgomery County and other
sites. The FBI is providing helicopter support. The FBI has provided
assistance with the rapid start program. That's a program used to
assist in tracking all of the hundreds of leads. They put this
information in a computer and they correlate and prioritize the
information. It's a case management tool.
The FBI is offering agents to covering leads as requested. And the
FBI has offered assistance from local field offices, labs or computer
systems in any way needed.
I think I have some additional -- the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and FireArms has also been assisting in providing ballistics help and
other types of help. And last night the President directed the
Department of Education to work with the local schools and the
counselors, the principals and the administrators to provide them with
the assistance they need to help counsel the students.
It's a trying time, and the President wants to make the resources
of the federal government available to help the community.
Q Can you tell us about the conversation that he had with the
Attorney General? When was it? I assume they spoke on the phone?
What did they talk about specifically?
MR. FLEISCHER: Let me try to get you more information on that -- I
dont have a lot,
Q Do you know anything about the two Marines who opened fire
in Kuwait, killing a couple of Kuwaitis, apparently?
MR. FLEISCHER: The Pentagon is looking into this incident to
determine what the cause is, what was involved, and I would anticipate
any statements, if there are any to be made today, would come from the
Pentagon.
Q Any information that they were responding to terrorist
attack, anything like that?
MR. FLEISCHER: The Pentagon is looking into this now, and I dont
want to characterize it.
Q Ari,
is this the first all political trip he's done?
MR. FLEISCHER: No.
Q Others recently, or --
MR. FLEISCHER: Friday, last week.
Q Oh, okay. Do you have any information on tonight's event?
MR. FLEISCHER: Tonight, the President will go speak to the Eagles,
who are gathering at the Willard Hotel.
Q Is that a fundraiser or that's --
MR. FLEISCHER: -- speech.
Q Why is that closed to press coverage?
MR. FLEISCHER : I dont know, let me look into it.
Q Ari, last night the President said that by complying with
demands that he laid out for Iraq, that it could "change the nature of
the regime itself." Does this amount to a revision of the policy of
regime change?
MR. FLEISCHER: No, it's a repeat of what he said at the United
Nations. In his speech at the United Nations, the President had the
six "if" paragraphs. He six times referred to "if a regime in a Iraq
will," "if the regime in Iraq will," "if the regime in Iraq will."
And his point was if the regime in Iraq will abide by international
laws, disarm, stop repression of minorities, stop hostility toward its
neighbors, the President's six specific "if" clauses, then the regime
would have changed its very nature. And that's a reiteration of that
message.
The bottom line is, the world needs the Iraqi regime to disarm, to
stop using hostility as a method of dealing with its neighbors; to stop
repression of minorities; to give an accounting of the people its held
as prisoners. And the regime under Saddam Hussein has shown no
inclination of a desire to do that. And the President knows the
importance of having it done.
Q Does he believe that regime change can be accomplished
without Saddam Hussein's removal?
MR. FLEISCHER: There is no history of Saddam Hussein showing any
inclination to do the things the world expects. And the President is
being realistic.
Q Is the President disappointed that the three major networks
ended up not carrying his speech live last night? And what do you make
of them deciding not to?
MR. FLEISCHER: Absolutely not. The White House did not request
them to do so, so I think it would be unreasonable for anybody to think
they should have. The White House deliberately did not ask them to do
so, because, one, given the substantive amount of information that was
new in the speech, in good conscience we did not think we should ask
the networks to do so, even though it was an important and newsworthy
address.
Two, it was our conclusion that if on Friday -- on Thursday, when
we announced the speech, we had said we were requesting live coverage,
despite every effort we possibly could have made to keep expectations
realistic and accurate, the rumor-mongering that had become
uncontrollable, and it would have suggested that war is imminent -- and
we did not think that was a proper or wise course to take.
Q So why schedule it at 8:01 p.m., a time that's generally
used when giving an address to -- live on the networks?
MR. FLEISCHER: Quite frankly, it reaches more Americans that way.
Q -- got your message across?
MR. FLEISCHER: Clearly, I think the -- we dont know how many
people watched it, but for the many millions who did they had an
opportunity to hear and see the President, in totality themselves,
which is always important for the country to hear the President
unedited. And, obviously, the newspapers and wires and others have
followed it closely.
Questions of war and peace are weighty and serious issues for
democracies and for all the world. But particularly in a democracy, it
is the responsibility of the Commander in Chief to openly and publicly
discuss all sides of the issues that people raise. It is not a light
issue. And the President takes that responsibility seriously. He will
continue to speak out, the administration will continue to reach out.
It's what democracies do; it's what keeps us free.
Q Has he had any reaction from either other world leaders or
anybody in Congress to the speech last night?
MR. FLEISCHER: The reaction that we have first heard has been from
congressional leaders, has been very encouraging. People have welcomed
his remarks and they thought it was a wise course.
Q Anyone in particular?
MR. FLEISCHER -- to speak to the members that were traveling with
the President last night, traveling with the President today. We'll
probably take a more detailed look at various statements from Democrats
or Republicans alike. I think Congressman McDermott again spoke out; i
look forward to reading his transcript.
Q Any overseas reaction at all, especially to the unmanned
vehicles and the other things he brought up in the speech?
MR. FLEISCHER: I have not got any overseas briefings yet on what
foreign leaders said. Keep in mind, the timing of the speech, of
course in Europe it would have been 3:00 a.m. or 4:00 a.m. in the
morning. And this morning, just quickly, i just haven't received
anything yet.
Q I think this morning they're quoted as saying it's all
lies. I assume that's just a predictable response?
MR. FLEISCHER: Of course, Iraq denied it invaded Kuwait, so why
listen to them?
Q Can you give us some sense on the timing of the report from
the board of inquiry? Do you know when, approximately, Bush receives
it?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'll try to let you know. I think it's going to be
midday, midday-ish.
Q Do you mean noon, or 2:00 p.m. or --
MR. FLEISCHER: Noon is a good description of midday. (Laughter.)
That's why I said it as artfully and as accordion-like as I could:
midday-ish, i-s-h.
Q What's your broad definition of midday, Ari?
MR. FLEISCHER: Generally, it begins sometime in the mid- to late
morning, and travels through to the early to mid-afternoon, with the
forefront being clearly in the center. (Laughter.)
Q Ten to 2:00 p.m., or would it be more like 9:00 a.m. to
3:00 p.m.?
MR. FLEISCHER: Ten to 2:00 p.m., working hours for West Wing
staff; 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. is OEOB staff. (Laughter.)
Q -- wise-ass portion of the briefing? That's wise-ass.
(Laughter.)
MR. FLEISCHER: That was none other than Sandra.
Q Is the President going to talk about the economy today,
and, if so, what's his message?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President will talk about the economy today.
The President will talk about the importance of creating jobs for the
American people; about why he's pleased the unemployment rate, for
example, came down a small amount last month -- it's not good enough.
More action has to be taken to help the economy, which continues to
ooch along. And the President believes that there are two key
provisions Congress can pass that would be very helpful to workers
right now.
One is pension protections, and the second is job creating passage
of terrorism insurance. And we'll just have to see what the Congress
does. It is reaching that -- it is reaching that biennial point where
Congress gets ready to adjourn, and it's anybody's guess about whether
adjournment would create a rush to actually legislate and get things
done, or whether we will mark a year of inactivity.
There are a lot of issues that are stuck in the Congress right now
and nobody knows what the Congress is going to do.
Q I'm sorry, is that biannual, as in twice a year? Or
biennial, as in once every two years? (Laughter.)
MR. FLEISCHER: I'd like to thank you for the wise question.
(Laughter.) That would be it happens once every two years.
Q So biennial.
MR. FLEISCHER: I'll get back to you midday on -- (laughter.)
Q Ari, do you think there is now overwhelming support in
Congress for a joint resolution?
MR. FLEISCHER: Based on what the President has heard from
Democrats and Republicans alike, it appears that there is overwhelming
support and a likelihood of a significant bipartisan vote for the
resolution that the President has proposed and that has been introduced
in the House by Congressmen Hastert, Gephardt, as well as in the Senate
by Senators Lieberman and McCain.
Anything else? I would like to take this opportunity to say "bye."
END 9:23 A.M. EDT
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