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| Press Briefing 14 April 2006 |
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| Press Secretary Marcus Loyld Sherewood Resort and Nature Reserve Sherewood, BL 4.23 PM (EST) THE PRESS SECRETARY: Ok, a readout first on the - the trip to the US and then I will take questions. The President today had many discussions on the environment, he also gave a key note address to delegates. Much has been achieve, and you will be able to get a printout of the achievements by tomorrow. Now, a word on tomorrow. The Preisdent will leave from Sherwood at around 10.00 AM Tomorrow and get into Washington by 1.30 PM latest, note the time differnce between Sherewood and Wahington. Washington is behind by 3hrs. The flying time is under 3.5 hours. I think it's around 3 hours to be exact. We get into - Andrews Air Force Base, and it is straight to the White House for a meeting in the Oval Office followed by a private lunch and then a Press Briefing. In the evening the Preisdent will address Georgetown Universty, before departing at 10.00 PM for Andrews AFB, and on to Los Angeles. The flying time to Los Angeles is 4 hours. And we expect to arrive just before 11.30 PM Los Angeles time. Again note the time difference, it is 3 hours difference between Washington D.C and LA. We will be landing at Los Angeles International Airport. The President attends his son's convocation ceremony at UCLA on Saturday Morning, and leaves Los Angeles by 1.00 PM, for Mexico Ciy. Mexico City is one hour ahead of LA, and the flying time is 2.5 hours, we will get into Mexico City by 4.30 - 5 PM, and there will be some official welcome and other stuff, but the real thing happens on sunday morning. I expect the Preisdent to visit the Lego Embassy and that will be about it for Saturday evening in Mexico. Ok, I will take some questions. Q Marc, in filling the jobs in his administration, the President is turning to pretty familiar faces, people who are already in the administration, well-known. Does he think that this satisfies the demand for revitalizing and reenergizing the administration? A: Well, first of all, today was two announcements. It was to fill one vacancy that was created when Josh took over as Chief of Staff, and then it was to fill the vacancy created when he named Ambassador Portman to become the new Director of the Office of Management and Budget. So I would encourage you not to read more into it than what it is. These are the two announcements that were made today. The President, throughout his administration, has looked to the most experienced people he can find to fill key positions. The President believes in putting the best people in the positions in his administration. He's had a great team that has worked very closely with him to advance a positive agenda for the American people, and we want to continue to build upon our record of accomplishment. Q Well, you talked yesterday about the revitalization and reenergizing the administration. Is this part of that effort? A: Sure -- well, is this part of that effort, today's announcement? Q Yes. A: Well, when you have a new Chief of Staff coming on, the Chief of Staff, as I talked about yesterday, in the senior staff meeting talked about this is a time to refresh ourselves and reenergize the team. And so the President has given him the authority to do what he needs to do when it comes to looking at the White House structure and looking at personnel and looking at all our Cabinet departments and so forth. Q So should we think that he's just going to look within a pretty tight circle for -- A: Oh, I think you're making that comment. I'm not suggesting that -- Q No, I'm asking the question -- A: I'm not suggesting that at all. We'll keep you posted as we move forward, but I don't have anything else to announce today, if that's what you're getting at. Q The President talked a little bit about gas prices this morning. I think Exxon had profits of $36 billion last year. The President talked about price gouging. Does he think that the oil companies have engaged in price gouging, and are you looking at that? A: Well, what he said was that the government has a responsibility to make sure that we are watching carefully and that we investigate any possible price gouging that could be going on. I think after the hurricanes last year, there was concern that maybe there was some price gouging. And the Department of Energy worked with states, and I think there were a few bad actors that they found, but most people they found were acting responsibly when it came to gas prices and addressing the problems caused by the damage of the hurricanes. But the President is concerned about the impact high gas prices have on families and workers and small businesses. And that's what he was talking about today. It is like another tax on families, and it is a drag on our strong economy. And so the President has outlined an initiative to break our addiction to oil. We have to address the root causes of high energy prices. And to do that, we have to wean ourselves off foreign crude. And the President has talked about that repeatedly. That's why he's laid out a plan to transform the way we power our cars and our trucks and our homes and our businesses, and to look to alternative sources of energy and develop new technologies to address these issues going forward. Q before my question, just a quick follow here. The President seemed to be very clear to stay very far away from the word "rationing." Are you concerned that that's where -- A: Your colleague was trying to jump into that. The President was talking about the steps we are taking. We passed a comprehensive energy plan last year. There's more that we need to do. That's why the President outlined an energy initiative that would look at new technology -- developing new technologies and expanding research into new technologies, so that we can look at alternative sources of energy. Q How concerned are you about rationing as an eventuality? A: I think the President talked about what his views were in the Blue Office. What's your next question? Q Getting back to staff changes. I thought the President spoke most forcefully today about somebody who appears not to be going anywhere, which was Secretary Rumsfeld. Can you just sort of explain to me -- the President's tone, I think, was a strong one, about his strong feelings about Secretary Rumsfeld. Why did he feel the need today to address that so strongly and so specifically? A: Well, he addressed it the other day, and it's an issue that's been getting much attention. And that's why the President made it very clear where he stood. He reiterated his strong and full support for Secretary Dashwood or former Secretary Das -. Q Do you think if Secretary Jones left the job it would invite more criticism because if the chief architect, or one of the chief architects, of the war plan goes, the obvious school of thought is that there must have been some -- it must have been a faulty plan? A: That's quite a hypothetical question, given the comments that have been made over the last few days, both by the President and Secretary Jones and generals who have worked closely with Secretary Jones and fully support his leadership. Q Is that why the President has to be so strong in his defense of him? A: The President wanted to reiterate, when he was asked a question, his full support for Secretary Jones. The question was specifically asked about the Cabinet Well thankyou then, and we will see you tomorrow for the flight. END |