Press briefings

Press Briefing By White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs; And Ambassador To China Jon Huntsman; Senior Director For The National Security Council For Asian Affairs Jeff Bader; Deputy National Security Advisor Mike Froman; And Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes

November 17, 2009 -- MR. GIBBS: Good afternoon, guys. I am going to very brief, so brief that all I'm going to do is turn this over to -- first to Ambassador Huntsman, to give us a few minutes on the trip; Jeff Bader, who will talk a little bit more about -- in addition to what the Ambassador talks about -- what happened at some of the meetings today; as well as Mike Froman, who you've heard from during the trip.    » read more »

November 14, 2009 -- Filing Center, Hotel Okura, Tokyo, Japan -- MR. GIBBS: Hello, everyone. I'll take a few questions after this. We've got joining us today Michael Froman, Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs, to walk you through a little preview of APEC; and Ben Rhodes, if there are any lingering questions from today's speech. And I'll give it to them.    » read more »

Washington, DC -- November 10, 2009 -- MR. TONER: Good morning. We’re very fortunate to have with us Joe Yun this morning from the Director of Maritime Southeast Asia; Susan Reichle, USAID’s Acting Administrator for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance; Alan Dwyer, USAID’s Foreign Disaster Assistance Principal Regional Advisor for East Asia Pacific; and Rick Scott, USAID’s East Asia Director, who are here with us today to preview the Secretary’s upcoming trip to the Philippines, although she’s actually en route, and to talk about humanitarian assistance in the wake of several recent natural disasters.

I’ll hand it off to you, Joe, and just to give an overview.    » read more »

November 10, 2009 -- Aboard Air Force One, En Route Fort Hood, Texas -- MR. GIBBS: Good morning, folks. How is everyone? Who's first?

Q Two questions about Fort Hood. Just a logistical question: The schedule has the President meeting with wounded troops twice, before and after the service. Are these all troops wounded in the shooting, or is this two different groups?

MR. GIBBS: As I understand it, and I'll double-check this, as I understand it, he'll meet with families from those that have lost loved ones today whom we're here to honor in the memorial service. He'll speak, and then if I'm not mistaken, he'll make a visit to the hospital, as well.*    » read more »

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

November 9, 2009 -- MR. GIBBS: Good afternoon. Before we get going on questions I just want to reiterate again that -- I think most of you know that we'll be doing a briefing call on Asia, on the Asia trip. I think as most of you all know, based on the events of last week and the changes to the President's schedule this week, our departure to Japan will be delayed by a day. We head to Japan, spend the same amount of time there, one fewer days in Singapore, and then pick up as previously scheduled.    » read more »

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

November 06, 2009 -- 12:15 P.M. EST MR. GIBBS: Good afternoon. Let me -- I'm going to start with a couple of things. I was going to do a week ahead but, as you might imagine, the week ahead prior to leaving for Asia is a bit in flux. As that gets filled in throughout the rest of today, we will endeavor to provide better guidance to the exact events that will happen over the course of those several days prior to us leaving for Asia.    » read more »

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

November 5, 2009 -- MR. GIBBS: All right, now that the warmup band has finished playing. (Laughter.) Probably only get to say that once or twice in my life. I might as well try today, right?

Yes, sir.

Q What prompted the President to come out today and make that statement, which sounded pretty tough?    » read more »

November 4, 2009 -- Aboard Air Force One, En Route Madison, Wisconsin -- MR. EARNEST: Secretary Duncan is just going to provide an overview about the announcements today and answer a couple of questions that you guys have. A lot of the other stuff Gibbs covered in the gaggle today, so we're just going to stick to the policy stuff on Race to the Top.

SECRETARY DUNCAN: Any questions?

Q Do you want to just start with questions?

Q Can you give us an overview of --    » read more »

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

November 3, 2009 -- Q Do you know who the President is rooting for in the World Series yet?

MR. GIBBS: I emailed this to Basinet, who asked at the conclusion of last Friday's briefing --

Q I was the one who asked this question -- for the record.

MR. GIBBS: I'm sorry. He emailed me, because I guess --

Q Because you evaded the question.

MR. GIBBS: Well, I didn’t know the answer. It drew some apparent attention in New York. I asked the President. He said he hoped for a good series, but didn’t have a strong pull for either team.

Q There goes Pennsylvania. (Laughter.)

MR. GIBBS: We'll see. What's that?

Q Does that means seven games? A good series?    » read more »

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

November 2, 2009 -- MR. GIBBS: Take us away, Ben.

Q Thanks, Robert. A few questions about Afghanistan. Can you tell us, first generally speaking, what's the President's reaction to the end of this election? And is he in any way relieved that this sort of messy process is over?

MR. GIBBS: Well, look, I think by all accounts, this has been a difficult process. This is the first election run by the Afghans. But I think the President, the embassy there, and everyone can take heart in the notion that the laws of Afghanistan and the institutions of Afghanistan prevailed in both instances.    » read more »

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

October 30, 2009 -- MR. GIBBS: Good afternoon. We'll try to do this quickly so we can get to afternoon meetings with the Joint Chiefs. But let me start out with giving you guys a quick rundown of the week ahead.

On Saturday, tomorrow, the First Family will welcome more than 2,000 local area children from Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia schools, and their families for trick-or-treating at the North Portico for Halloween. In addition, the President and First Lady and the Vice President and Dr. Biden will host a Halloween reception for military families and children of White House and White House residence staff.

Q What are they coming as?

MR. GIBBS: All sorts of things.    » read more »

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

October 28, 2009 -- Q Payments to President Karzai's brother by the CIA -- what can you tell us about how that -- or if that has caused any consternation here at the White House?

MR. GIBBS: I would refer questions about that story to the CIA.

Q So it's not true?

MR. GIBBS: The best person to ask that to is somebody at the CIA.

Q And what's the reaction here to the attack in Kabul today?    » read more »

October 27, 2009 -- Aboard Air Force One, En Route Norfolk, Virginia -- Q Hey, Robert, some of the moderates in the Senate -- moderate Democrats -- are really balking at the health care plan that Senator Reid announced. What's the President going to do to try to help him line up the support he'll need to get that through the Senate?

MR. GIBBS: Well, obviously right now, I mean, the President is working to ensure we get this through. I don't -- I have not heard of any specific calls that the President has made, and obviously Senator Reid is working this through the caucus. But I'm sure we'll get involved in due time.

But look, I think we've been -- we've been working through these issues for many months, and we'll continue to do so to make progress.    » read more »

Also Deputy Assistant To The President On Economic Policy Dr. Jared Bernstein; And Director Of The Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes

October 19, 2009 -- James S. Brady Press Briefing Room -- MR. GIBBS: Good after -- or good morning, I should say. Sorry, I'm used to doing this in the afternoon. Before we get started with our regularly scheduled programming, Jared Bernstein and Melody Barnes are here to discuss the report that released this morning on the jobs saved in the recovery plan by teachers. So I'm going to turn it over to Jared and Melody.    » read more »

October 16, 2009 -- Aboard Air Force One, En route Houston, Texas -- MR. BURTON: Hi, guys. All right, well, let's start this thing. Good morning -- or afternoon, depending on where you are.

Q Can we start with Afghanistan -- before we go on to the "balloon boy," I'm sure? The Washington Post have sources saying that the U.N. election monitors investigating the election fraud had cut Karzai's vote tally to 47 percent, and that would trigger a runoff with his closest competitor. Is there any concern on the part of -- what was the U.S. response to that and is there any concern that this will further delay the President's decision on the Afghanistan war strategy?    » read more »