For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 8, 2002
President Discusses War & Economy with Reporters
Remarks by the President to the Pool Following Roundtable with America II Electronics Management and Employees
11:06 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank Mike and the good folks
here at America II for welcoming me and Jeb and members of the Florida
congressional delegation. We've just had a fantastic
discussion about why this is a unique company. It's unique
because it has got a culture that understands that the worker is an
incredibly important part of the vitality
of the company and therefore its success.
I'm real proud of Mike. Mike started this company in
1989. He had a dream. He worked hard to achieve
it. He's wise enough to understand that he's only as
successful as the good folks who work with him. And so it's
an honor to be here.
In the room, I'm going to talk about the opportunities for this
country to usher in a period of responsibility. Part of a
responsible society is for there to be a responsible attitude for
corporate management toward employees and shareholders and disclosure,
if you're a publicly traded company.
America II is really the best of the best here in America and I
want to thank you for letting me come, Mike. And I want to
thank you all very much for sharing.
I'll answer a couple of questions here.
Q Mr. President, when you looked down on the
ruins of the Pentagon on September 11th, didn't you in your heart of
hearts expect that by the time you celebrated the sixth anniversary,
that you would know where bin Laden was and where Omar was?
THE PRESIDENT: You know, I knew that we were in for a
very different kind of war. And on 9/12 and the days
following we put the war plan in place, I wasn't sure how long this was
going to take. I knew we were in for a long struggle,
though. And I never had any artificial deadlines. The good
news is the American people also understand we're in for a long war and
that when it comes to defending freedom, we'll take however long it
takes to defend our freedom.
A little later on here, I'll have the privilege of meeting a mom
and a
dad of a soldier who just died in Afghanistan. And I'm
going to remind them that those lives were not lost in vain and that we
will fight terror wherever terror exists.
I will tell you, I am pleased at the progress we have made in a
quick period of time. Six months is not a very long period
of time when you think about the enemy we fight. We've made
tremendous progress, thanks in part to the coalition and thanks in part
to the brave men and women who wear our uniform. And I am
grateful and so is the nation grateful.
Those who are preoccupied with one individual do not understand the
struggle. We fight terror wherever terror
exists. And for those people who say, well, one person
matters, they elevate that person to a status that he does not
deserve. I don't know whether Mr. bin Laden is alive or is
dead. I do know we haven't heard from him in a long period
of time.
Q Sir, employment grew for the first time in
seven months. Is the economy now out of the
woods? And the Senate has passed your stimulus
plan. Your reaction, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first, I am glad the Senate passed
the stimulus plan. I think it's going to be really good for
workers whose lives have been affected as a result of
9/11. And it's good for entrepreneurs and business owners
because it encourages investment, it encourages employment.
And the best stimulus plan is one that focuses on jobs.
And I applaud the House that stayed with this, and I'm glad the
Senate
finally passed it. I look forward to signing
it. It is a good piece of news for workers and entrepreneurs
alike.
Look, Steve, in terms of the numbers, there's going to be a lot of
statistics thrown around about our economy. But let me tell
you bluntly how I feel. People's lives were deeply affected
on September the 11th. A lot of people got hurt as a result
of that attack. And I'm concerned about
it. I'm concerned about anybody who's not working and
wants to work. And
so we'll let the numbers talk. But in terms of policy
and the focus of this administration, we're going to do everything we
can to increase jobs so people can find work.
One of the reasons we came here is Mike, in the midst of a
significant
downturn in his business, laid nobody off. There wasn't
one layoff at America II. If he was -- well, you know, what
about the numbers? Well, the numbers here show that he was
in a big slowdown. Sales dropped by 40
percent. And yet, he understood his responsibility as a
decent citizen, and nobody got laid off.
And I'm real proud of that, Mike, and I want to thank you for
it. And
it's the kind of thing, by the way, that workers years from now in
America
II are going to remember, that in the midst of this unbelievable,
despicable act of evil on America that affected our economy -- I don't
care
what the number crunchers say, it affected our economy and it
affected a lot of people's lives -- this man understood the importance
of the work force and kept people employed here.
Anything else?
Q Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT: Who are you with?
Q St. Petersburg Times.
Anything to say to Janet Reno, who's tooling around on the other
side of the Bay -- (laughter) --
THE PRESIDENT: Pardon me?
Q Anything to say about Janet Reno, who's
campaigning on the other side of the Bay today against your brother?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I don't have anything to
say. All I've got to know is the people of Florida have got
a really good governor. They would be wise to keep
him. (Laughter.)
Q Mr. President, the battle going on outside
of Gardez. There's some rumors now from the Afghan -- our
Afghan allies that there may be some
real top leadership, maybe even bin Laden up there. What
do you know about that?
THE PRESIDENT: I don't know of any specific names,
John. I do know we're making great progress. I do
know that any time we find al Qaeda bunched up like that, we'll get
them. And it's going to be -- there's going to be more
battles like this one and American people just need to understand that
the best way to secure a homeland is to bring them to justice and to
get them. And that's exactly what's happening as we speak.
Our military is tough. Our coalition is
strong. And, by the way, we're fighting fierce
fighters. These people evidently don't -- they don't
want to give up. And that's okay. If that's
their attitude, we'll just have to adjust, and they will have made a
mistake. Because we're going to be relentless and we're
steady and we're supporting our military and they'll have the tools
necessary to achieve victory. But as of specific names, I
don't know.
Look, here's the thing. We're fighting leaders of the
murderers that sent people to commit suicide
missions. They're real brave. They say, you
go ahead and commit suicide, I'm going to find a cave -- we'll send
youngsters to their death; in the meantime I'm going to try to find a
deep cave somewhere. And so when you fight people like that,
you never know.
You know, we've closed up a lot of caves in Afghanistan and one of
these days, you know, we might find some people still in
there. But I just
don't know. Nor am I that focused on it individually.
I realize we're in for a long struggle. And I'm giving a
speech on Monday that will outline where we are in this war on
terror. And I'm going
to remind the American people that we've still got a task at hand
in Afghanistan, which is to deny sanctuary to al Qaeda
killers. We have achieved a significant victory in
Afghanistan by routing the Taliban.
I'm also going to remind people that we're denying sanctuary in
other countries as well. I don't want to give you the whole
speech; I'd like for
you to come and listen to it. (Laughter.)
Thank you.
END 11:15 A.M. EST
|