*EPF401 08/22/2002
Transcript: White House Press Briefing, August 22
(Pakistan, Iraq) (4200)

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer briefed reporters on Air Force One as they accompanied President Bush on a trip to Oregon, where he was to observe forest fires and enunciate his policy on helping prevent them, as well as raise money for Republican candidates. Oregon was his first stop on a three-day tour of western states. He also will visit California and New Mexico.

Following is the White House transcript:

(begin transcript)

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Central Point, Oregon)
August 22, 2002

PRESS GAGGLE WITH ARI FLEISCHER

Aboard Air Force One En Route
Medford, Oregon

10:30 A.M. CDT

MR. FLEISCHER: Tonight's event is expected to raise $900,000 for Senator Smith and the Oregon party. The breakdown is $600,000 going to Oregon Victory 2002, $300,000 to Smith campaign. And with that I'm happy to take your questions, because I have no other opening statements or anything else of that nature. I know you already got briefed on the forest fire information.

QUESTION: Do you know whether the President is going to be doing public appearances with Simon on Friday? Do you know yet what his --

MR. FLEISCHER: I haven't looked in detail at the schedule, but we're doing several fundraisers for the Simon campaign and I think they're open to the pool.

Q: Is he still on the list of people greeting Bush at the airport? Is he going to go to the Stockton welcome rally?

MR. FLEISCHER: I have all of today's events. I haven't looked at all the detailed breakdowns for tomorrow.

Q: You know that there's talk out there that Bush doesn't want to be seen with him in public, so if we could clear up any -- I'm told that he is on the --

MR. FLEISCHER: The President -- (inaudible) -- support the Simon campaign and raise money for the Simon campaign, and will proudly stand with Mr. Simon.

Q: Does he think Simon is running a good campaign?

MR. FLEISCHER: I'll talk about it tomorrow. Today I'm focused on Oregon. But let me -- what I just said about going out there for a purpose, implicit in that is --

Q: But if you look at the tick-tock, that would at least help answer that speculation that he's only going to appear within closed-door fundraisers, not at the public events.

MR. FLEISCHER: The fundraisers are open to the pool.

Q: But public appearances that everyday people can go to, like the welcome rally. I'd just like to know if at the non-fundraiser California appearances, if Simon is invited.

MR. FLEISCHER: I'll take a look.

Q: Thank you.

Q: Ari, generally speaking, on fundraisers, we understand that the President wanted to kind of get the bulk of his fundraising for candidates done by August. Is that just the --

MR. FLEISCHER: There's no hard date on it, but clearly, the President will be helping people who support his ideas by raising money and by supporting their campaigns. The closer it gets to election day, the less important it is to raise money, the more important it is to have more "get out the vote" style events. And there will be an ongoing change in emphasis the closer it gets to election day.

Q: Ari, what is the President's reaction to General Musharraf's unilateral rewriting of the constitution, to seize more power?

MR. FLEISCHER: It's important for Pakistan to follow the path of democracy. The President believes that the path of democracy has been a path -- that's a path for all nations, and that includes Pakistan.

Q: It doesn't seem like General Musharraf is following that path at all. He's going in the other direction.

MR. FLEISCHER: We'll continue to monitor events in Pakistan, and be in touch with the government of Pakistan, but the President's message is as it always has been. Pakistan has been making strides on the path toward democracy; it is important they continue.

Q: What strides have they achieved recently under --

MR. FLEISCHER: General Musharraf is committed to having free elections, fair elections. And the President expects that will happen.

Q: How difficult is it to push for democracy in Pakistan, given the role that Musharraf has played in the war on terrorism?

MR. FLEISCHER: There are regions of the world where it is not as easy as it is, for example, in our hemisphere for people to make strides toward democracy. But that does not stop the President from believing in the fundamental importance around the world of governments committing themselves to democratic values, democratic goals, and to follow them through.

Q: -- will continue to monitor and be in touch with the Pakistan government. Do you know if anybody yet has reached out to officials there?

MR. FLEISCHER: The State Department is in contact with Pakistan and will continue to monitor.

Q: Are you disappointed with his actions?

MR. FLEISCHER: I leave it as I said it.

Q: -- to Tom DeLay's comments yesterday?

MR. FLEISCHER: The President said that he -- the President believes it's constructive to have a national discussion about Iraq. There are important voices to be heard on all sides, and the President has said there are thoughtful people who have important opinions to share and there are differences within the Republican Party; there are major differences in the Democratic Party. Senator Lieberman, for example, has an opinion very similar to Congressman DeLay's. And the President will continue to listen to thoughtful cases from all people. He thinks it's good for the country, it's good for the world, it's good for Saddam. But he will be clear, he will be resolute about the threat Saddam Hussein poses.

Q: -- where's he's talking about the frenzy yesterday, partly the media frenzy and it's partly so many voices chiming in.

MR. FLEISCHER: Let me say this as an observation about the press. The press yesterday and the day before yesterday reached an absurd point of self-inflicted silliness --

Q: What?

MR. FLEISCHER: The press, yesterday and the day before yesterday, inflicted on itself -- reached a self-inflicted point of silliness that goes beyond the usual August hype. There have been meetings about Iraq in the past. There will be meetings about Iraq in the future. Yesterday's meeting was not about Iraq; the press didn't care.

There's a headline in a major Texas paper this morning, "meeting not about Iraq." It's just amusing to watch the press inform the public about what things aren't instead of what things are. And so I say it tongue in cheek, but I say it -- obviously, what's going to appear in a transcript where people can't see my jovial body language -- but there is something -- the press is just -- acts silly at times. And there are legitimate questions about Iraq that should be posed, but the fact of the matter is yesterday's meeting was about another important topic. So -- as I say, there have been meetings about Iraq, there will be meetings about Iraq, yesterday wasn't.

Q: Will you tell us when there's meetings about Iraq? Because you never said that before, this is going to be a meeting about Iraq.

MR. FLEISCHER: Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes yes, sometimes -- no, that's not true. When there was a meeting when Tommy Franks came to the Sit Room about three weeks, the last week before the President left for a recess, we told you.

Q: Will you tell us when you think we're silly? (Laughter.) And does the President agree with you that we're silly?

MR. FLEISCHER: My signal for when the press is silly will be kind of like a batter coach in the 3rd base batter's box, giving a suicide squeeze -- to the press, hoping they get thrown out at the plate.

Q: Any reaction to our neighbor, Jacques Chretien, deciding not to go for office --

MR. FLEISCHER: I have not talked with the President about that, so if I have anything to say on that, I will.

Q: -- find out -- (inaudible) --

MR. FLEISCHER: That was KFUN network.

Q: How much total is going to be raised for Simon? Three of the fundraisers are for him, right?

MR. FLEISCHER: I've got to look. Like I said, I haven't looked at tomorrow yet.

Q: Can you give us a total tab for Simon?

MR. FLEISCHER: I'll do that tomorrow.

Q: DeLay said that Bush will come before Congress before Saddam's day of reckoning. Is that a commitment that Bush agrees he has --

MR. FLEISCHER: The President welcomes Congress' role. The President knows that Congress has an important role to play. And the hearings, for example, Senator Biden held are a good start, are a constructive session for people to listen and for experts to make the case about the threat that Saddam poses. And it's part of an informed judgment that Congress needs to have, an informed judgment that the country needs to have about what path ultimately should or should not be pursued.

It's premature to discuss anything beyond that. But the President will continue to work closely with Congress. Congress has an important voice.

Q: -- DeLay went too far in suggesting that Bush would go to Congress to get any military action approved?

MR. FLEISCHER: Again, the President is going to continue to work with Congress and this is premature to get into specifics of that right now. We're still in the hearing stage with the Senate.

Q: Just to follow up on this, I've asked you before, what does the President think the scope of his authority to conduct the war on terrorism is, based on what Congress has already granted him?

MR. FLEISCHER: I'm not going to go beyond what I've said vis-a-vis Iraq. Congress obviously spoke in a rather broad way in the resolution in September. But all this question is in the context of Iraq, and I'm not going to go beyond what I said because it's premature.

Q: Did they show you guys at the White House his speech in advance? Did you guys have any sort of vetting, or review of what he was going to say?

MR. FLEISCHER: No, it was just -- I think he based it on many of his earlier conversations that he had with Dr. Rice. I think the afternoon before the speech it was provided to the National Security Council staff. It was Tom DeLay's speech.

Q: Was she involved with him in helping to write it, was Condoleezza Rice involved?

MR. FLEISCHER: Only to the extent that -- she hadn't talked to Congressman DeLay for a matter of weeks prior to the speech. So in the months before the speech, of course, it was a topic they would have discussed. And so he had the benefit of her thinking. But this was his speech, and it was a good one.

Q: Did the President feel like the frenzy was exacerbating issues with our allies or kind of forcing him to make decisions or answer questions sooner than he wanted to? What did he see as the down side of the frenzy? Did he specifically set out yesterday to kind of throw cold water on it?

MR. FLEISCHER: I think the President believes the frenzy was narrowly focused on the visitors to his ranch who -- knew the meeting was about missile defense, but wished it was about something else.

Q: And in terms of -- when Sandra asked a question yesterday, he very specifically said, are you asking about Iraq? Did he set out yesterday to throw cold water on the --

MR. FLEISCHER: From a journalism point of view, it has become an odd situation, where the government can hold a meeting on a topic, missile defense, and the press be oblivious to the topic of the meeting. This is a good time for us to have meetings on all kinds of things related to defense, because nobody will ask about the things they're talking about, they'll only ask about Iraq.

The other business of government goes on, and will continue to go on. The people's business will be done, the Department of Defense will continue to have presidential involvement on all their areas. And the press should ask whatever it wants to ask, but don't miss the story in front of you, because yesterday's story was missile defense.

So anyway, it's just a sense of the President that he understands, he's going to go out from a meeting that's about missile defense and have a press corps that could care less about missile defense, which is odd in and of itself, and ask him about an unrelated topic. Now, that's fine, that's the business of the press, that's the judgment the press makes. But I do think you've kind of reached a silly point. That's the only --

When you see stories about meeting, not about frenzy on it, we were getting calls from bookers saying, are you putting anybody out after the Iraq meeting. One news organization had a story about -- the headline was about war council on Iraq, reference to yesterday's meeting. It's just inaccurate. And we have a choice' either we can point out whether it was inaccurate or not, and then be accused of why are we talking about it, but we're trying to help people to be accurate.

Q: But you do understand, there are a lot of meetings that the White House conducts behind closed doors that we are never told about publicly and we're never told the agenda. So I think one way that you might consider addressing this is just by being more forthcoming about all your meetings.

Q: If you're going to give us advice about journalism, can we give you advice about being press secretary and governing?

MR. FLEISCHER: Bring it, baby. No, Sandra raises a very valid point. And I think there are three types of categories meetings are going to fall into. One, like the meeting with General Franks in the Situation Room, where we said, it is about Iraq. No, we won't tell you anything more than that, but it is about Iraq. There will be other meetings where we're just not going to tell you what it's about, and when you do learn there's a meeting, you'll be speculating. And at that time, if we're not telling you what it's about, I would totally understand the speculation in that instance and think it's invited by the White House, because we did not give you the subject. That might happen again in the future.

But there will certainly be other times where we directly inform you, no it is not about Iraq, it is about missile defense or some other topic. And then I think the press just should cover the news, and feel free to ask anything it wants. It just -- it does reach a point where, in the President's opinion, the press looks silly. And it's the press coverage, it's not the press. Because I think the President makes a distinction between questions he gets that don't lend to coverage, and questions he gets that does lead to coverage, that doesn't fully inform the public.

Q: Beyond any concerns about the way it was covered, was he trying yesterday to sort of lower the volume on the debate -- beyond that meeting --

MR. FLEISCHER: No. I mean, he's saying what he's always said, that he's going to be deliberative, he's going to be thoughtful, he's going to be patient. But he's determined, Saddam Hussein has got to go.

Q: Is time still running out? I mean, you said just the day before that meeting that time was --

MR. FLEISCHER: There's no question, when it comes to terrorism and technology, time is not on America's side. The more time that goes by where terrorists and states that support terrorism can gain access to more destructive technology, more Americans and others around the world will be at risk. And it's a difficult job of the President, for which he has intelligence information and expert advice from the security team, to make the assessment about how much time do we have before the risk becomes so great that people's lives could be in danger.

And these are the difficult judgments that the President of the United States is paid to make. And as he said, he'll be patient, he'll make that on the basis of the latest intelligence information, he'll make it on the basis of consultation with allies and friends, and also with the Congress.

Q: Can I ask you about some -- we've been doing about the President's summer reading? Do you know more about who suggested Elliot Cohen's book; if he actually did take William Kristol's suggestion, which, of course, Kristol would like us to believe? And did he have any comments about the book or thoughts about it?

MR. FLEISCHER: I have talked to the President about many things. I have not talked about his reading habits. I will --

Q: The evergreen question --

MR. FLEISCHER: -- try to learn --

Q: But if you have any more information about it --

Q: That's an August question.

MR. FLEISCHER: A frenzy about his literature.

Q: His interview with Runner's World, when will that be made available to us? And his comments on September 11th that he's taping today with CBS 60 Minutes II, there's obviously broad interest across the gamut here for what his thoughts on 9/11, and when --

MR. FLEISCHER: Let me take that under review, because I do have a policy that we've followed for the most part, but there have been some exceptions -- and, frankly, I regretted them -- where one organization has an interview. My general approach is to treat that as that organization's interview, and not to make it publicly available.

Now, I know, of course, that serves everybody in the press corps when it is their interview. Everybody else wants it when it's not. But I do think that I want to reach an accommodation with the press, because I think -- it's important to respect people's rights to have a private interview with the President, and the decisions they make about what they air or don't air are theirs. And whether that should be shared with their competitors, I don't know.

Q: So you're saying on both Runner's World and CBS, that you're not sure you'll release the full transcript?

MR. FLEISCHER: I'll take it under review. In no case would it be released prior to their publication of their magazine, or the airing of the interview. Beyond that date, let me take it under review, talk to the organizations involved. But I am careful about -- and I think we've made some mistakes in the past where we did release -- I remember one in particular, one organization's interview. My tendency as Press Secretary is to believe that when one organization has an interview, it belongs to that organization, and it should stay with that organization. But I'm willing to talk it through.

Q: You know that September 11th is a pretty extraordinary circumstance, and since he's only giving one. I mean, Runner's World, we'll give you that one. But September 11th really is. I mean, for him to limit it to one news organization --

MR. FLEISCHER: That's why I'll take it under review. But in no case prior to their airing it. So for 60 Minutes, in no case prior to 9/11.

Q: There's a certain sense that the BBC interview that Dr. Rice did broke an embargo. It was supposed to be a 9/11 interview, but obviously they asked questions about Iraq. Do you have any --

MR. FLEISCHER: I haven't heard that. Condi hasn't expressed that to me, so I don't know.

Q: When are we going to fly over the fire?

MR. DICKENS: We started five minutes ago -- and from five minutes ago, for a 30 minute stretch, we'll be flying over the fires.

Q: You can't see a thing.

MR. DICKENS: For another 25 minutes.

MR. FLEISCHER: Is that all smoke from the fire? Wow.

Okay.

END 9:50 A.M. CDT

(end transcript)

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