From today's Press Briefing...http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060927-2.html
Q Before you leave, we wanted to ask your thinking in agreeing to do fundraising.
MR. SNOW: My thinking is that I wanted to be able to help the President. And at the same time, as I was telling Nedra the other day, these are not going to be speeches where I go out and start railing against Democrats. What I'm going to do is talk about the President's record and what he's done.
Q Will your appearances be open to the press?
MR. SNOW: I think there may be a couple closed, but most of them are open, yes.
Q You're only going to rail against Democrats to us? (Laughter.)
MR. SNOW: Only when so prompted.
Q Are you going to be paid by the government?
MR. SNOW: No. The RNC will be responsible for every jot and tittle.
Q When is the first one?
MR. SNOW: Actually, that's a good question. Well, there was a -- I did a talk last week in Pennsylvania, so that probably would have been the first one, in Harrisburg. I'll go back and get the date for you.
Q When's the second one?
Q Why were you picked?
MR. SNOW: The second one -- because they said there were a lot of people that had asked me to come. I'll be doing an event tonight, and I think it is closed tonight. There are open events -- there's an open event in Ohio, I think next Monday. The political office -- to tell you the truth, I don't have all this in my head. Sara Taylor in the political office.
Q Where is the one tonight?
MR. SNOW: It's in town and it's for Minnesota '06.
Q Do you see any conflict in doing a closed event when your primary role is to be a spokesperson of the President? To be open?
MR. SNOW: That's a good question. Well, I'm trying to be open with you right now. The fact is that this is how it was set up, and if you want a readout, I'll be happy to tell you what I said.
Q How did this all come about?
MR. SNOW: It came about when I was approached by the political office saying that we've got a lot of inquiries and a lot of people would like you to do this -- would you do it? What followed were a long series of conversations, because I think this is pretty unplowed ground -- Mark and I have been through this -- I think it's unplowed ground. And you want to make sure that you do it in such a way that you're still able to function effectively as the Press Secretary, which means that from a red meat standpoint, they're likely to be pretty dull.
What you have to do is to present a factual account of what the President is doing and not draw yourself into ongoing political disputes between Democrats and the President because that, to me, I think, would be crossing a line that I don't want to cross.
Q -- a fundraiser?
MR. SNOW: Yes, sort of.
Q Did you take some pause to think about the ethical considerations?
MR. SNOW: Oh, yes, and had a number of conversations with Harriet Miers and others. Absolutely, this was not like, oh, yes, no-brainer. You had to think it through and had to think it through in the way that would be appropriate to do it. And it's --
Q When were you approached by the political people? Last week?
MR. SNOW: No, no, no, it has been several months. It has been quite a while.
Q To your knowledge, have Press Secretaries in the past done fundraising?
MR. SNOW: I don't think so. I have not found any case in which -- there may be some cases, but I'm not aware of them.
Q Then why are doing one now? Why are you the one breaking this precedent?
MR. SNOW: I was asked.
Q Being "asked" is not sufficient -- you could have said, no.
MR. SNOW: I could have said no.
Q You've been a journalist most of your life. You tell us that all the time --
MR. SNOW: And I'm -- you know what, and I'm the President's Press Secretary, and one of the things I want to try to do is to help the President, but do it in a way that's consistent with my role as Press Secretary. And if we find that there is an unalterable conflict, then the Press Secretary role dominates. But keep your eyes out on -- |
