THE PRESIDENT: I want to
welcome the members of the leadership of the Congress here, and I want
the nation to know how proud I am of how they have helped unite our
country. Senator Daschle and the Speaker and Senator Lott
and Representative Gephardt have really showed that in times of
emergency and crisis, that our government can function in a way that is
just exemplary. And I want to thank them for coming down.
I'm also so pleased to accept the
invitation of the Speaker and the leaders to come and address the
Congress tomorrow night. I look forward to the opportunity
to explaining to the American people who it is and who would do this to
our great country, and why -- why would people choose America?
A lot of our citizens have got a lot of
questions about what has taken place on September the 11th and
subsequent to that. And I owe it to the country to give an
explanation. And I want to thank the Congress for giving me
a chance. I can't think of a better place than to talk about
freedom and the battle to maintain freedom in one of the greatest halls
of freedom. And that is in the United States
Congress.
So, thank you for the
invitation. I accept wholeheartedly, and I will see you all
tomorrow night.
I would be glad to answer a couple of
questions. Ron?
Q Mr. President, will you be able to
tell all Americans whether they're going to be safe while you prepare
to retaliate, or could terrorists strike again while we prepare for
war?
THE PRESIDENT: Ron, I think
America needs to know that we in government are on alert; that we
recognize life around the White House or around the Congress is not
normal, or is not the way it used to be, because we're very aware that
people have conducted an act of war on our country; and that all of us
urge our fellow Americans to go back to work and to work hard, but we
must be on alert. Our government is working hard to make
sure that we run down every lead, every opportunity, to find someone
who would want to hurt any American.
The American
people are united. They're united in their resolve to help
heal the nation. But they're also united in the
understanding that we've entered into a new day, and we'll deal with
it.
Q Sir, you've been stressing that
this is not a war against Islam. However, there are some
around the world who view the coming battle along religious
lines. I'm wondering how worried you are that some view this
as a holy war. And are declarations of jihad at all
affecting U.S. plans
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate
that question. First of all, it is so important for my
fellow Americans, as well as everybody in the world to understand that
America will hold those evil-doers accountable. We don't
view this as a war of religion, in any way, shape or
form. As a matter of fact, Islam preaches
peace. The Muslim faith is a peaceful faith. And
there are millions of good Americans who practice the Muslim faith who
love their country as much as I love the country, who salute the flag
as strongly as I salute the flag.
And for those who
try to pit religion against religion, our great nation will stand up
and reject that kind of thought. We won't allow that to
creep into the consciousness of the world. We're going to
lead the world to fight for freedom, and we'll have Muslim and Jew and
Christian side-by-side with us.
Q Mr.
President, you promised only to dip into the Social Security surplus in
an emergency, a recession, or war. And in your words, this
constitutes a war. How much of the Social Security surplus
are you prepared to spend?
THE
PRESIDENT: We are -- not only has someone conducted an act
of war on us, our economy has slowed way down and this is an
emergency. We've had all three, it seems like to
me. And I'm going to work with Congress to send a clear
message to America, American workers, American business people, that
this government will respond to this emergency.
We'll respond to
the emergency in terms of working on a package for the airline industry
that has been severely affected. We'll respond to work to
fight terrorism. The Congress has already responded, with a
supplemental that will not only help fund our military, but as
importantly, will send a clear message to the people of New York and
New Jersey and Connecticut that we'll help you rebuild.
And this is
exactly the subject we talked about. The definition of how
much -- is enough to get America going again as to be able to endure
this emergency.
Q And if
that means all the surplus, are you prepared to spend all the surplus?
THE
PRESIDENT: We're reasonable people. The members
here, the leaders from the Congress are very reasonable. And
they are mindful about government money as well as anybody
else. But we're dedicated, we're dedicated to saying to the
American people, this is an emergency, the likes of which we have not
seen in a long time in this country, and this government will come
together and deal with it. And that's exactly what's going
to happen.
Q Sorry to
ask another one, but did you mean to say just now that we are in a
recession? You said, it looks to me like we've got all
three.
THE
PRESIDENT: No, I said -- well, I said -- let me put it this
way -- tough economic times. There's no question it's tough
times. And, Ron, I don't have all the numbers, but let me
just say this: I can pick up all the statistics, but make no
mistake about it, this has affected our economy in a big
way. Now, I've still got faith that we'll
recover. The strength of the American economy has always
been our entrepreneurial spirit and our workers, and that's still
prevalent. But you've seen the statistics on the airlines --
they're beginning to lay off people. Big airline
manufacturing companies responding. And this government will
respond.
Now, I don't have
-- don't get me wrong, I don't have all the numbers at my disposal
because they have to start counting them up, but this has shocked our
economy. And we're going to respond. And that's
exactly what this leadership and I have been talking about.
Q Mr.
President, do you feel like you've got the full support of President
Musharraf? And how hard is it going to be for him to live up
to his pledges, given his domestic situation?
THE
PRESIDENT: Well, there's no question that President
Musharraf has taken a bold position, which is to say he will work to
the extent he can with America and our allies as we deal with the prime
suspect in the case. And we appreciate so very much his
statement of support.
I said we'll give
the President a chance to perform, and I believe he has done -- done
so. We will work and consult closely with Pakistan and India
to make sure that that part of the world is as stable as can possibly
be stable.
Let me say that,
in terms of foreign policy and in terms of the world, this horrible
strategy has provided us with an interesting
opportunity. One of the opportunities is in the Middle
East. I'm pleased with the fact that Chairman Arafat and
Prime Minister Sharon have taken positive steps toward bringing peace
to the region. I think we have an opportunity to refashion
the thinking between Pakistan and India. I think there's
some interesting opportunities to shake terrorism loose from sponsor
states.
And this
government, working with Congress, are going to seize the
moment. Out of our tears I said I see opportunity, and we
will seek opportunity, positive developments from this horrible tragedy
that has befallen our nation.