For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
December 30, 2003
Press Gaggle by Trent Duffy
Crawford Middle School
Crawford, Texas
2:22 P.M. CST
MR. DUFFY: The President today began with his regular morning
briefings. And later in the day, as some of you may have noticed, he
gave an interview to Ken Walsh for his book, just so you all know. And
then he was working on the ranch throughout the day. And I have no
further updates to his schedule.
I do have an announcement for his schedule on Monday, January 5th.
He will be traveling to St. Louis, Missouri, to make remarks on the No
Child Left Behind Act, and to attend a Bush-Cheney 2004 reception. And
he is getting regular updates on the BSE situation as necessary, as
well as homeland security issues and the ongoing orange alert.
And with that, I'll be happy to answer questions.
Q Did the President ask for or approve Ashcroft recusing
himself from the leak investigation?
MR. DUFFY: The President was informed of the decision by staff
near noon today. His reaction is the same today as it was yesterday,
that he wants to get to the bottom of this. He said in September that
he welcomes this investigation and has absolute confidence in the
ability of the Justice Department to do a good job. He has directed
the people of his administration, as he said on September 30th, to
cooperate fully with the investigation. And no one more than the
President of the United States wants to get to the bottom of this.
Q Do you know whether he asked Ashcroft to do this, or whether
he pre-approved it?
MR. DUFFY: The Justice Department made its decision independently,
which is exactly the way it should be. As the Deputy Attorney General
mentioned, the Justice Department, as a courtesy, informed the White
House this morning. The White House was not consulted on the decision,
which, again, is exactly the way it should be.
Q Do you know whether this signals we're entering some new
phase, intense phase in the investigation? Does this tell us anything
about the status or the state of the investigation?
MR. DUFFY: That would be a good question for the Justice
Department.
Q What more can you tell us about Baker's plans to brief the
President on his mission to Asia?
MR. DUFFY: I don't have any further updates at this point. He
gets back later today, I believe. And I assume when we have updates on
that, we'll let you know.
Q What brought on the decision today to have a special
prosecutor?
MR. DUFFY: That would be a question you need to direct to the
Justice Department.
Q When the Justice Department informed the White House, did
they simply inform them of the facts, or did they give any back up
reasoning for Ashcroft recusing himself?
MR. DUFFY: My understanding is that they -- the White House was
informed of the decision.
Q With no back up reason?
MR. DUFFY: I will have to see what I can do on that.
Q Yesterday you were asked about U.S. policy vis a vis Iran,
and you said that there was no change in policy as a result of Iran's
acceptance of international aid. Secretary Powell gave an interview
yesterday, and was quoted as seeing those results as encouraging, and
said that this was a -- there are things happening, and we should be
open to the possibility of dialogue. Did Secretary Powell discuss that
view with the President, and can you explain your response yesterday?
MR. DUFFY: The U.S. has a clear and consistent policy towards
Iran, and that policy has not changed. We have made clear to the
Iranian government on many occasions our grave concerns regarding its
support for terrorism, pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and
others of its activities. The Iranians are well aware of the steps,
and we look to them to overcome these concerns.
I would remind you that on July 12th, 2002, the President himself
said that the future of Iran will be decided by the people of Iran.
There's a long history of friendship between the American people and
the people of Iran. As Iran's people move towards a future defined by
greater freedom, greater tolerance, they will have no better friend
than the United States of America. That was the President's view in
July, and that policy has not changed.
Q Secretary Powell referenced recent events, including the
decision to allow surprise inspections of the nuclear plants. Does
this President share the Secretary's view that recent developments are
encouraging and warrant being open to greater dialogue with Iran?
MR. DUFFY: I don't think I'm going to go any further than what
I've said on that, which is that our policy remains that we're willing
to engage with Iran on specific issues of mutual concern in an
appropriate manner, if and when the President decides it is in the
interests of the United States to do so.
Q Is Secretary Powell out there by himself on this one?
MR. DUFFY: Secretary Powell was expressing the views that the
President spent -- the views that the President has expressed, that the
future of Iran will be decided by the people of Iran.
Q Can I follow up on that? Could you confirm or knock down
reports out of the Middle East that the President may go to Libya next
year?
MR. DUFFY: I don't have any updates on the President's schedule at
this time.
Q Can you assure us he's not going this week, though?
MR. DUFFY: I don't have any updates on the President's schedule.
Q That was a joke.
Q About the notification on Attorney General Ashcroft's
decision. Is this the first time the White House has been notified
from the Justice Department about a step in this investigation, and if
not, what are the updates the White House gets from Justice about the
investigation? Can you characterize them daily, weekly, anything?
MR. DUFFY: I'll have to see what I can do on that.
Q Did you say earlier that it was a courtesy, it was done as a
courtesy?
MR. DUFFY: Yes.
Q Today's economic indicators trend. We have the -- consumer
confidence was down, the manufacturing index in Chicago was down,
existing home sales were down. What is the White House interpretation
of that data?
MR. DUFFY: Well, we'll continue to look at all the economic
indicators as they come in. Other economic indicators have been
positive -- obviously the 8.2 percent growth in the third quarter, the
fact that the economy has produced near 300,000 jobs, the fact that
retailers are seeing signs of the tax relief working and the American
people actually spending the tax relief that was passed.
So the economic indicators need to be viewed in the larger context
of the overall economic recovery. It's something that the President
remains very focused on, and that he will continue to work towards more
job creation and making sure that this recovery takes root.
Q Yesterday we asked you about whether or not the government
has made any overtures to President Musharraf since he survived the
second of two assassination attempts on -- against him in 11 days. It
just would stagger our minds if the United States government hadn't
done anything to reach out to the man. I know you would be offended if
the circumstances were reversed. (Laughter.) Could you tell us about
any overtures whatsoever, from the United States government to
President Musharraf since Christmas day?
MR. DUFFY: I don't have any updates on calls with world leaders
and the President.
Q My question wasn't limited to the President.
Q My question yesterday was, did he call him? And the answer
is, no, he did not? Is that different than, you don't know?
MR. DUFFY: I don't have any updates on calls with world leaders
that the President had.
Q My question wasn't limited to the President, it was limited
to the United States government. Have there been any overtures to this
man since this second assassination attempt in 11 days?
MR. DUFFY: We'll have to get back to you on that, Jim.
Q Would you please?
MR. DUFFY: I will.
Q If we could just follow up on the same subject matter. We
asked yesterday, did he call or did he not call? That should be a
fairly easy thing to be able to assert, you know, a "yes" or "no"
answer. We're not getting a "yes" or "no" answer. Should we read
something into that?
MR. DUFFY: No, let me get back to you on that. I will promptly.
Q Can you post that or let all of us know?
MR. DUFFY: I will.
Q And the same question yesterday about who was out there at
the ranch. You were going to look into other --
MR. DUFFY: Friends and family and senior staff.
Q How is he going to spend New Year's? Don't say, with friends
and family and senior staff. (Laughter.)
Q And Barney.
Q Just any color? If you don't have anything now, that's fine,
but any color stuff at all on how he's going to spend New Year's would
be great.
MR. DUFFY: And just for a programming note, I'm not going to
gaggle tomorrow, on New Year's Eve. And if we have updates to the
schedule, we will get them to you as soon as we can.
Thanks, everybody.
END 2:36 P.M. CST
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