30 January 2002

White House Press Gaggle Aboard Air Force One

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer briefed on Air Force One en route to North Carolina with President Bush. Also participating on background, a senior White House administration official briefed on the Enron affair.

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
January 30, 2002
Press Gaggle By Ari Fleischer
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Mr. Fleischer: All right. The President this morning had his usual round of intelligence briefings, had several staff meetings throughout the morning. As you know, he dropped by the Vice President's party. Then the first event today is at 2:15 p.m., which is a roundtable at the Center for Community Safety, where the President is going to talk about the new initiative he's announcing today on USA Freedom Corps, the citizen corps councils, and it will be mostly with the law enforcement community that he'll be meeting today, emergency management, fire department, emergency medical services, emergency response teams, police personnel. That's who will be present at the roundtable.

And then, the President will give remarks at 3:10 p.m. on citizen preparedness, where the President will get into what you have in front of you, the fact sheet and the booklet. I won't go into any of those points; you have it all. He'll announce the 800 number and the web page. They are both already fully on line and functioning.

And then, the President will meet with a group of North Carolina Republican grass-roots leaders, committeemen, committeewomen, county chairs, supporters of the President and the Republicans at 3:45 p.m. for 30 minutes. He'll depart and arrive into Daytona at 6:30 p.m. There will be an airport welcome at 6:45 p.m., and then the President will get to the hotel at 7:40 p.m.

One update, and then I want to introduce you to John Bridgeland. On Friday, the President will travel to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia to attend the 2002 Congress of Tomorrow luncheon at The Greenbrier. That's an annual retreat done by the Republican House and Senate members. He'll discuss the legislative agenda for the upcoming year that he outlined in the State of the Union Address.

We have with us John Bridgeland, who is the most knowledgeable person, the expert in the White House and the person who is assigned by the President to run the USA Freedom Corps, the new initiative. So if you have any questions, John is available here to the pool. He will be also briefing the entire press corps on the ground, so John is available.

And with that, I'm happy to take any questions you may have.

Question: Do you have any reaction to the GAO filing a suit today?

Mr. Fleischer: Well, the President will stand proudly and strongly on principle. The President believes very strongly that this White House and all future White Houses should have a right to receive the advice and the thoughts of citizens and to do so without those thoughts being turned into virtual news releases.

So the President will strongly promote that right, and fight for that right in court, and the White House expects to prevail. We think the GAO case, which they have even yet to make, is weak. Now, I think you all understand, they have not sued us. We expect they will. But just so you understand, they have not sued anybody. There is really nothing new that they've announced today. I read this on the front page of The Washington Post last Saturday when they said they were going to sue. Today, they said again, we're going to sue.

Q: You said a couple of days ago there were no discussions going on with the GAO and the White House or Cheney's staff. Are there now negotiations?

Mr. Fleischer: No, I said the other day that our attorneys do talk, but it's not a negotiation -- no. I couldn't have said it any more clearly.

The President will go to court to protect those principles that he thinks are essential to the functioning of the Executive Branch, and the White House expects to prevail.

Q: Does he believe, Ari, the way the Vice President does, that GAO is motivated by the Enron scandal?

Mr. Fleischer: If you want, we can do something ON BACKGROUND here too, if you want. So if you have anything else ON THE RECORD, let's finish that.

Q: Let's do ON THE RECORD. Is there any sense in the administration that the President went too far last night in his remarks about Iraq, Iran and North Korea?

Mr. Fleischer: N-O.

Q: Have you heard any reaction? Have you heard any reaction from any of your Arab allies to naming those two countries?

Mr. Fleischer: I personally have not had my ear on the ground on that topic today, so you may want to check with the State Department. I've seen press accounts, but I haven't heard anything.

Q: Ari, what's the next step? It's one thing to say they're an axis of evil, they shouldn't proliferate. There's been a lot of effort over the years to stop proliferation; and yet, Russia, China, even our allies provide dual-use technologies.

Mr. Fleischer: Those nations will just have to guess what the President's next step will be. The President is not going to indicate to them what he is going to do. But the President has made it plain to the American people that time is not on our side, but he will be deliberative in anything he does.

Q: What's the thinking behind that, Ari? In the last speech four months ago, the President laid out a specific set of demands for the Taliban in Afghanistan. In this case, couldn't he also have done the same with Iraq, for example, and say, let the inspectors back in and run down the list of demands? Why not do that in this case?

Mr. Fleischer: Again, the President thought it was essential to share with the American people how serious and how real the threats are from our enemies. I don't think he can say it any plainer when he says time is not on our side. But this President is thoughtful, he is deliberative, but he's determined.

Q: What makes him think he can do any better in stopping Russia, China and Germany from providing dual-use technologies to Iran and elsewhere, than the Clinton administration was?

Mr. Fleischer: The President has had very productive talks with the Russians, and I think that's manifest in some of the discussions at the United Nations about smart sanctions. More progress is being made, and I think that's an important cause and the President is going to fully dedicate himself to it.

Q: Ari, does the President think that Japan needs to do more to put their financial house in order? Do they need to take more steps?

Mr. Fleischer: I don't have anything for you on that topic today.

Q: Okay, because you know O'Neill and Hubbard were talking about it today, and I didn't know if that's --

Mr. Fleischer: I don't have anything topical on that now.

Q: Did Senator Daschle ask -- no, did the President ask Senator Daschle to limit the investigations of September 11th? And what did Senator Daschle say?

Mr. Fleischer: I don't discuss anything that was discussed, and I'm not saying it was or wasn't, at any of the presidential breakfasts, if that's what you're referring to. But the President does think it's important that if Congress and as Congress reviews the events that led up to September 11th, it do so in a manner that does not unduly burden the intelligence community and the military in the middle of fighting a war.

Q: Let's go to that BACKGROUND stuff.

Senior Administration Official: We're going to land soon. Okay, this is senior administration official.

Q: GAO political motivations?

Senior Administration Official: Well, if the GAO case was so strong, how come they didn't back it up today? There is nothing new that the GAO has done today. We've all heard it before. They've been saying they were going to sue for months. It was on the front page of The Washington Post last Saturday. The GAO today failed to back up their case. And we understand they won't have it ready for a week or two.

The point is, Vice President Cheney went on one of the Sunday shows and said that this is politics, that the collapse of Enron has nothing to do with the principle of whether the GAO should or should not legally be able to receive the records and minutes, the meetings, the notes, who was in attendance, at the task force.

Enron goes bankrupt. All of a sudden, the GAO, under pressure from congressional Democrats, changes its tune, when bankruptcy of Enron should have nothing to do with the principle of whether the GAO can seek that information. When the Vice President said that, the GAO said that was wrong by the Vice President, because it was full speed ahead, their words, last August, and they were ready to sue on September 10th.

But they were ready -- if it was full speed ahead, and if they were ready to sue on September 10th, then why did they fail to back up their case today?

Q: You mean, with legal papers, with --

Senior Administration Official: They -- what they said today. Everybody knows they were going to sue.

Q: Well, they're preparing the papers.

Senior Administration Official: They said it was full speed ahead last August, that they were ready to file suit on September 10th. Today, what they've showed is what we suspect, that their case is not strong, they have failed to make it, while the White House case is strong.

Q: So why would they have continued to threaten suit? They're just trying to frighten you?

Senior Administration Official: Because I think what happened was that the GAO was surprised at how strong the White House was going to stand on principle. Typically, in Washington when people threaten suits, politicians are willing to negotiate away principles. And I think that the GAO is surprised that the President and the Vice President are willing to go to court on behalf of a principle.

I think they thought that the White House was going to change.

Q: What do you think is motivating them? Is it politics?

Senior Administration Official: I think they're under a lot of pressure from congressional Democrats. But, again, there is absolutely nothing new from the GAO today, except the fact that they failed to back up their case.

Q: Maybe they don't want to step on the President's State of the Union, you're overstepping --

Senior Administration Official: Oh, that's why they leak on Saturday they were going to sue, and then they say today we are suing?

Q: So you're saying this has been going on, these threats --

Senior Administration Official: One, they haven't sued, they said they will. That's what they said today.

Q: They're trying to get you to cave.

Senior Administration Official: I think they already recognize that this President and this Vice President are proud to stand on principle.

Q: Can I ask you what this here is from Carville and Shrum?

Senior Administration Official: Oh.

Q: Did they contribute to this report --

Senior Administration Official: This is their memo. This is the Carville, Greenberg, Shrum memo that they circulated in anticipation of the President's State of the Union, given the Democrats' advice --

Q: Are we ON BACKGROUND?

Senior Administration Official: Yes. Given the Democrats' advice on how to seek maximum political advantage of the horror of the Enron scandal. This memo is a memo that both Leader Daschle and DNC Chairman McAuliffe were asked about this morning. They have both cut and run from this memo, disavowed it, saying they think it was a mistake, they don't know where it came from. Yet, what's so odd and what's so wrong is that while Terry McAuliffe and Tom Daschle disavow this memo, say it was wrong and it doesn't represent the Democrats, they speak the language of the memo every day. And that's wrong, it's odd, it's not in the spirit the President asked for last night and they committed themselves to when they said they were going to work together.

If they've disavowed this memo as strongly as they have and as strongly as Senator Daschle did this morning, why do they continue to speak its language? Why do they continue to seek and exploit for maximum political advantage, the tragedy of Enron?

Q: Will you share that with us?

Senior Administration Official: It's floating around e-mails. Everybody's got it. Sure.

Q: I saw Democracy Corps at the top, and thought maybe they've done some work for you on the actual --

Senior Administration Official: Here's what Tom Daschle said this morning --

Q: Silly me. (Laughter.)

Senior Administration Official: -- when Daschle was asked, could it backfire, he said, I think it could. I don't know where that memo came from Paula, I haven't seen it, but I wouldn't support it. The last thing we should do is politicize a scandal. While last week, Senator Daschle said, we're slowly Enronizing the economy, Enronizing the budget. That's exactly what Enron did. I sure hate to see that happen to Social Security.

This memo gives Democrats advice on how to connect Enron to Social Security and what words they should use. But Terry McAuliffe cut and ran from this memo as fast as he could. Particularly The Washington Post reported on January 14th a key Democratic strategist saying, quote, "Democrats are very excited about this, because it gives us a hook to bring this guy some accountability, plus there's no way it's not going to be a distraction for them." In reference to the President. The Democrats are saying that they are rejoicing in the Enron scandal, because it can distract President Bush when the President is focused on fighting a war, defeating a recession.

And this is the worst of worst politics for the Democrats to use Enron to this purpose. And again, how can they say they are consistent and want to work with the President, be bipartisan, when they disavow the memo and run from it as fast as they can in public, but they hug it and embrace it as often as they can when no one's looking.

Q: Do you think there were any memos like that floating around from Republican consultants during Whitewater?

Senior Administration Official: I was in Austin back then.

Q: I actually do have questions on this citizen corps and Freedom Corps. Is Bridgeland going to be briefing? Do you know when he's going to brief in the file?

Mr. Fleischer: After the President's remarks.

Q: After? So he'll go --

Senior Administration Official: It'll be at --

Q: He's going to stay behind? He's not going to go on Air Force One?

Mr. Fleischer: No, he will. I think he's going to get back on Air Force One. He's going to do it at 3:45 p.m. when the President's meeting with the Republicans.

Q: Is the President taking questions from real folks at this event?

Mr. Fleischer: I don't think so.