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Ärende: Press Release (0505204) for Fri, 2005 May 20
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Press Briefing by Deputy Press Secretary Trent Duffy
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For Immediate Release
May 20, 2005

Press Briefing by Deputy Press Secretary Trent Duffy
The James S. Brady Press Briefing Room



12:41 P.M. EDT

MR. DUFFY: Good afternoon, everyone. A quick opening comment, then an
announcement.

The U.S. economy continues to show its strength and the President is very
pleased with the continued strong job growth. Today the government released
new data showing that job growth increased in 46 states. Of course, last
month we had 274,000 new jobs created, and that is a total of 3.5 million
new jobs since last May. So the President is very pleased with that job
growth.

The President also had a very good meeting with the Prime Minister of
Denmark this morning. They discussed progress in Iraq, the broader movement
to freedom and democracy around the world -- especially in Europe -- steps
forward in the Middle East between the Palestinian and the Israeli people,
and progress in the broader Middle East.

I have one announcement. The President will welcome German Chancellor
Gerhard Schr der to the White House for a meeting and working lunch on June
27, 2005. Germany is a strong ally and partner of the United States,
working with us to advance freedom and reform, promote prosperity and
development, and counter terrorism and proliferation around the world.
Germany has played a leading role in the international effort to assist the
Afghan people with security, developing the police, and reconstructing
their nation.

Building on their February 2005 meeting in Mainz, Germany, the two leaders
intend to continue their discussion about how the United States and Europe
can work together on a broad agenda of global issues.

With that, I will be happy to take your questions.

Q Trent, a couple of questions. First, what's the President's position on
some of these conversations going on in the Senate to try to broker some
sort of a deal? Is he open to the idea of a compromise that may get some of
the judges through, and also bypass the idea of ending the filibusters?

MR. DUFFY: The President has been quite clear that he continues to believe
that all of his judicial nominees deserve a simple up or down vote in the
Senate. As far as discussions about compromises, those are discussions that
are taking place in the Senate; those involve Senate procedures and the
President and the White House defer to Senate leaders about Senate
procedures. But the President's view has been very clear, it hasn't changed
one iota.

Q Well, but you -- perhaps you're intending to influence that. If his
position is inflexible with regard to getting all nominees an up or down
vote, then would he not agree to any compromise that may, in effect, block
one or more nominees?

MR. DUFFY: I think it's very clear the President just wants simple up or
down votes on his nominees, on all of them.

Q So is that to say that a compromise that would not provide that is
unacceptable?

MR. DUFFY: I think I've stated it as clearly as we can and we defer to the
--

Q Well, obviously not --

MR. DUFFY: -- defer to --

Q Is it a compromise --

MR. DUFFY: The President wants -- the President --

Q -- that doesn't get an up or down vote on all the nominees? Is that
acceptable or not?

MR. DUFFY: The President wants an up or down vote on all his judicial
nominees.

Terry.

Q I have one other one.

MR. DUFFY: No, sorry, David.

Q One other question. The First Lady's trip, we discussed earlier in the
week, kind of her mission. Has it taken on added significance in the light
of some recent events -- the Newsweek stories, the concerns about our image
overseas? Does she have a broader mandate now to represent the U.S.?

MR. DUFFY: I think the First Lady's trip had been planned for some time,
and obviously, the First Lady does represent the United States overseas.
She is a great representative for the U.S. overseas. She recently went to
Afghanistan. I know she's looking forward to promoting the U.S. image
overseas. I would dismiss any suggestion that's in response to anything. I
mean, she's been wanting to travel -- you know that she's been wanting to
travel to the region for quite some time. So I think it's just a result of
that.

Q And what's her primary focus there?

MR. DUFFY: To deal with promoting freedom and democracy overseas, to
discuss and to promote women's rights and human rights and free and fair
elections, and to continue to promote the U.S. image around the world.

Q You said earlier this morning that the President would probably veto or
that -- would veto a bill that would -- the Castle bill that would loosen
the 2001 restrictions on stem cell research. What's the White House
position on this bill that would encourage stem cell research using blood
from umbilical cords?

MR. DUFFY: The White House is looking favorably on legislation that would
maintain the President's principle that human life should not be created
for the sole purpose of destroying it. We do believe that there is a lot of
promise in some of the research in cord blood, as well as adult stem cells,
in addition to the human embryonic stem cell research program that the
President authorized. So the President strongly supports that kind of
research. We need to look at the specifics of the kind of bill that's being
discussed on cord blood, but we think that that has some real promise.

Q Has promise, but you're not willing to endorse it yet?

MR. DUFFY: At this point I would decline to do that until we can really
study all the details.

Q The President was asked earlier this morning about these photos of Saddam
Hussein which have now appeared in a couple of papers. He said that he
didn't feel that these photos would inspire the insurgents, the enemies of
the United States, because they are inspired by other things, by what he
called their bad ideology and so forth. He never really condemned the
leaking of these photos, so what is his reaction? Does he think this was a
terrible thing that was leaked? Or does he simply think it's not very
important, because he said it wouldn't inspire the insurgents to do more?

MR. DUFFY: Well, the President was asked if he thought the photos would
inspire the insurgents. The President responded that the insurgents have
already been inspired, way prior to these photos, to kill and murder
innocent civilians in America and around the world. The President has been
briefed on the situation regarding these photographs, and he strongly
supports the aggressive and thorough investigation that's already underway.
The source of these photos is unknown at this time. These photos were
wrong; they're a clear violation of DOD directives, and possibly Geneva
Convention guidelines for the humane treatment of detained individuals.

And the multinational forces in Iraq, as well as the President, are very
disappointed at the possibility that someone responsible for the security,
welfare and detention of Saddam Hussein would take and provide these photos
for public release.

Q Well, the administration has said that the Newsweek controversy, the
alleged allegations that somebody stuffed pieces of the Koran down a toilet
in Guantanamo, had a serious impact and people did die from that. Does the
President feel that this could have some kind of serious impact, too?

MR. DUFFY: I think this could have serious impact, as could the -- as we
talked with the revelations of prisoner abuse. What the United States did
in both of those situations, however, is recognize that, take immediate
steps to investigate and get to the bottom of why it happened, how it
happened, and take steps to make sure, one, that people are held to account
-- and in the prisoner abuse instance there are people being held to
account, people are going to jail, people are serving time because of those
abuses -- and, likewise, there will be a thorough investigation into this
instance and similar accountability measures will be taken.

Q Is it fair to say that the President was angry about the leaking of these
photos of Saddam Hussein?

MR. DUFFY: Listen, I've covered that. The President wants to get to the
bottom of it immediately.

Q Trent, you said yesterday that you think that Congress can do both --
deal with the judicial nominees standoff and some of these priorities like
Social Security and the energy bill that the President places a lot of
importance on. But there's also the issue of Bolton's nomination.
Realistically, if the nuclear option is invoked, these things will, at a
minimum, get delayed. Is the President worried about the risk to the Bolton
nomination because of this?

MR. DUFFY: Well, the administration and the President are still confident
that John Bolton will be our next ambassador to the United Nations and
we're confident in his nomination. The President does believe that the
Congress has some serious work of the country ahead of it. He believes that
putting judges on the bench is an important part of the obligation to the
country, so that we have a fair justice system that delivers speedy trials
and continues our independent judiciary.

But there is other important business that the Senate has before it, that
the Congress has before it, and he's confident that they can continue to do
their work.

Q But is the importance that he places on getting these judges through --
does that override the importance of these other priorities?

MR. DUFFY: They're equally important.

Q Trent, what's the President's reaction to the First Lady saying she
believes that, in fact, the President should have been interrupted during
his bike ride when we had the plane scare at the White House? Does the
President agree with the First Lady's assessment?

MR. DUFFY: The First Lady said that she has full confidence in the Secret
Service, and so does the President. They do excellent work. They put their
lives on the line each and every day to protect both the President and the
First Lady, their families, the Vice President, Mrs. Cheney and their
families. And that's all I have to say about it.

Q But the question is more, does he agree with the First Lady that he
should have been interrupted, not whether he believes Secret Service does a
good job.

MR. DUFFY: He agrees with the First Lady that the Secret Service does an
outstanding job and they have the full confidence in the Secret Service.

Q Trent, two questions. One, yesterday President was speaking at a function
and he blamed India for the energy crisis and high oil prices around the
globe. And he said that India should come up with some alternative oil and
energy needs. Now, question is that if President has any alternative energy
plans for India, or he's willing to help India in any way to come energy
and oil crisis India is facing today?

MR. DUFFY: I'm not familiar with the comments, Goyal. I'll be happy to go
back and review them. The President believes that we have an obligation,
both at home, to have a comprehensive energy bill and also to help our
friends and allies around the world get the energy that they need to keep
their economies growing and to keep the world economy growing. So I'll be
happy to go and review the comments.

Q Second question, if I may, please. Recently, Catholic bishops for the
first time ever in the history called on the administration of President
Bush that illegal immigrants in this country should be given permanent
status or they should be made legal because this will be good for the U.S.
economy and they are not paying taxes and working for low wages and living
underground. Any comments on that?

MR. DUFFY: Well, the President has a temporary guest worker program. The
President is against blanket amnesty. But the President wants to see a
guest worker program that matches willing workers with jobs that Americans
are not interested in. He wants to see that passed by the Congress. He does
believe that our immigration policy needs to be more humane, and needs to
reflect the simple fact that people are coming here to feed their families,
and that we can have a more compassionate immigration system, while also
making sure that we're securing our borders against those that might want
to do us harm.

Q Is the U.S. government apologizing for this picture of Saddam Hussein?

MR. DUFFY: The investigation is underway. It was a clear violation of DOD
guidelines. We don't yet know who is responsible for the pictures, and
until the investigation is finished, I wouldn't have anything further.

Q Two questions, Trent. Going back to Ed's question before, Scott said
repeatedly that the protocols were in place on the day of the bike ride,
and that there was no need to change them. In view of the First Lady's
concerns that her husband should have been notified, should there be some
consideration to changing those protocols?

MR. DUFFY: Well, as I said yesterday, the Secret Service is -- they are
always, every day, every minute, assessing how they secure the President
and protect the President and the First Lady, so it's not any incremental
response to any action. Scott did say that there would be a review, that
there is and there will be. But every day the Secret Service wakes up
thinking about the best ways to protect the President.

Q Also, is it possible that these pictures might have come from a non-U.S.
source?

MR. DUFFY: As I just said, the source is unknown at this time, which is why
the military is investigating the matter.

Q Another way of saying it is, is Saddam only being guarded by U.S. forces,
or are other forces guarding him?

MR. DUFFY: I believe it's multinational forces.

Q Trent, two questions. It has been more than six months since the election
campaign, during which the President said he would push for a
constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Since that time, we
have seen little from him on that

vital issue. And my question, first question, is it still on his agenda?
And if so, what does he plan to do to make it a reality?

MR. DUFFY: It's absolutely on his agenda. He campaigned very much in favor
of a constitutional amendment. As you know, we had a House vote last year
-- came up a little short. And what the President wants to see is the
success of an amendment, so we need to build the kind of grassroots
pressure in favor of succeeding on an amendment so we can get it passed.
That's the best way to succeed, is to build that coalition support.

Q There have been dozens of syndicated columnists and editorial pages,
including today, such as The Wall Street Journal, which have all strongly
denounced Newsweek. And the Drudge Report republished several lines of the
briefing transcript on Tuesday where certain network people in this room
"ripped into Scott on this issue," as Drudge headlined.

And my question, since MSNBC's Keith Olbermann wrote about Scott's alleged
letter of resignation, you can assure us that the President regards this as
being as asinine and abusive as the network bullying of Scott, can't you?

MR. DUFFY: Let's see, if I start on that -- (laughter.) I think we've been
clear about Newsweek making an error, retracting their story, and we --

Q What about the letter of resignation, this --

MR. DUFFY: Hold on a second, hold on --

Q -- the letter of resignation and the bullying of Scott?

MR. DUFFY: I think we've covered Newsweek cover to cover.

Q No -- no comment? You're not -- Scott has not submitted a letter of
resignation, has he?

Q He's gone. (Laughter.)

MR. DUFFY: Les, we all serve at the -- we all serve at the pleasure of the
President. Scott has not offered any letter of resignation.

Q So that is just absolutely rubbish, isn't it?

MR. DUFFY: Thank you, Les.

Q Where is Scott, seriously? (Laughter.)

Q Is the President at all concerned -- he talked earlier about vetoing the
Castle bill should it become law. Is he at all concerned about the
possibility of a veto override in either chamber, should it get to that
point?

MR. DUFFY: Well, of course, the vote hasn't taken place yet, but a couple
of things on stem cell. Remember that the President is the first President
in history of the United States to authorize human embryonic stem cell
research. That research is ongoing. Six hundred stem cell samples have been
issued to researchers under the President's policy. And the reason the
President supported it is because he wants to find the live-saving cures
that the stem cell research might have to offer.

Now, his principle was -- is that we cannot cross a fundamental moral line,
as he said in the Oval Office some hours ago, about using public money to
support the destruction of human life.

The issue with the Castle bill is it does break that principle, and it also
may be unnecessary at this point because there are methods in the
scientific community that might give us the ability to extract stem cells
from human embryos without their destruction, or to obtain stem cells some
other way that would fit within the President's program.

As far as the question about the veto override, you know, we'll have to let
the vote take place. But you heard the President fairly clearly on this.

Q Do you have anything on the coming meeting between President Bush and the
Greek Prime Minister, Kostas Karamanlis, at 1:15 p.m., I think?

MR. DUFFY: I don't have anything on that. We will likely have a readout of
the meeting following the meeting.

Q Here in the briefing room?

MR. DUFFY: We'll let you know.

Q Can I ask you one question on the photo of Saddam. Are there rules for
military guards that they cannot bring cameras when they're on duty at the
prison?

MR. DUFFY: All I know, it was a clear violation of DOD directives that the
photos were taken at all. So if you have specific questions as to the
Defense Department guidelines or the rules about that, you might want to
ask the Pentagon. But I know that it was a clear violation; these photos
are a clear violation of DOD policy.

Q Another thing, not related, on China. Chinese government just announced
that they're going to put increased tariff on 74 items -- textile exports,
in a gesture to try to ease the trade tension between China and the United
States. Do you have anything on that, anything that the Commerce might have
some goodwill gesture also?

MR. DUFFY: Well, I think Commerce has taken the lead on that. I mean, what
the President is interested in and what the U.S. is interested in is
keeping our healthy trade relationship with China going, but also making
sure that that's a level playing field. That's why Commerce took the
actions that it did, that's why the U.S. government took the actions that
it did, so that we balance the need for manufacturing jobs and good jobs
here at home, along with consumer prices. So as far as the specific actions
that China took today, I might refer you to the Trade Representative's
Office or the Commerce Department. But overall, what we are interested in
is a level playing field and furthering our good relationship with trade
with China.

Q Trent, if I could ask something about prisoner abuse. There was a report
in The New York Times today from the Pentagon regarding prisoner abuse at
Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. After Abu Ghraib, you now have Bagram. Are
you alarmed by a pattern emerging here?

MR. DUFFY: The President and the administration and the military were
alarmed by the reports of prisoner abuse, no matter where they were,
whether they be at Abu Ghraib or at Bagram. What the military and what the
President supported is investigations holding people to account. I think
seven people involved in the Bagram incidents are currently being
investigated and are being held to account.

Q But this doesn't help while the First Lady is on a goodwill tour of the
Middle East, does it?

MR. DUFFY: Well, but these are instances that have happened; we've taken
steps, we've taken new policies to ensure that this doesn't happen again.
We're holding people to account.

Q Trent, a clarification on the stem cells. You're saying the President
believes in the promise of human embryonic stem cell research, but is
concerned about taxpayer money being used to fund that research.

MR. DUFFY: He's concerned about taxpayer funding of a practice which
involves the destruction of human life, yes.

Q On the issue of cloning, the President just made a brief statement at the
beginning of that answer earlier in the Oval Office. What we're hearing
from South Korea, is this an issue of concern, given the President's view?

MR. DUFFY: The President is definitely against human cloning. I think what
the Korean development suggests and tells us is that this is the world in
which we live. Science has amazing capabilities, but we need to balance the
need to push science as hard as we can to find life-saving cures, but at
the same time remember that we have ethical and moral obligations, as well.
But the President is dead-set against human cloning. The U.S. pushed for a
ban on international human cloning in the U.N. this, I think, fall, and
won. So our position is very clear about that.

Q Trent, can I ask just one other question about the pictures of Saddam?

MR. DUFFY: Sure.

Q In your mind, in the President's mind, is there a difference between
these images and the images which this government broadcast around the
world after his capture, of his hair being inspected and his mouth being
inspected by a physician?

MR. DUFFY: There is, and I can get further details about why it's
different. But the photos that were released today are a human being in
custody, of a detainee, and they are possibly in clear violation of Geneva
Convention guidelines. The photos that were released after Saddam Hussein's
capture were within -- were within our guidelines under the Geneva
Conventions, is my understanding.

Q I, for one, would be interested in how the administration views the
distinction. Is that to say that a violation of the Convention is that
these were -- there was an attempt to humiliate a prisoner here? Is that
the idea -- you leak pictures of him in his -- you know, in a state of
undress, and so forth?

MR. DUFFY: I'm not the international lawyer, but I think we can definitely
get some more information about the differences, the distinction between
the photographs that were released following his capture versus the ones
we're talking about today.

Q If that could be sent out, I, for one, would be interested in that.

MR. DUFFY: Yes, I'd be happy to get that for you.

Q Trent, I think you've done a very good job, but I was wondering, is Scott
-- when does Scott come back, and where is he?

MR. DUFFY: The honorable Scott McClellan is providing a commencement speech
at the University of Texas, his alma mater. He is very honored to do that.
And we have to close out here so we can go live to that exciting speech.
I'm sure you all want to cover it.

Q When will he be back?

MR. DUFFY: He'll be back Monday, yes, sir.

Q Let me just ask a follow-up on Terry's question about the use of blood
from the umbilical cord. I can't come away with this thing -- the President
would not veto the House leadership bill? He would veto the Castle bill,
but he would not veto the House leadership bill?

MR. DUFFY: What I was telling Terry is that we think that that approach for
cord blood, which we think has a lot of good promise within the President's
moral principle, we need to study a little closer. But we agree with the
approach that it's taking. It's premature to suggest what the President may
or may not do on the legislation about cord blood.

Q Thank you.

MR. DUFFY: Thank you.
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