White House Gaggle

By Scott McClellan
THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
(Lancaster County, Pennsylvania)
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release October 27, 2004

PRESS GAGGLE
BY
SCOTT McCLELLAN

Aboard Air Force One
En route Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

10:47 A.M. EDT

MR. McCLELLAN: Good morning, gagglers. The President had his usual
briefings this morning. He taped an interview for ESPN, some of the election
coverage they’re doing. And we’ve got the events in –

Q What did he do?

MR. McCLELLAN: An interview with ESPN, Jim Gray.

Then we’ve got events in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan today, before
overnighting in Michigan. Senator Miller is traveling with us. I know he’ll –
you can expect that he’ll introduce the President, at least at a couple of the
stops.

As part of the President’s remarks today, in addition to focusing on the
five clear choices when it comes to families, I expect he will continue to talk
about his efforts to reach out to independents and Democrats. He’s continued to
reach out here at the end of the campaign to Democrats who feel abandoned by
their ticket, and he’ll talk about some of that in his remarks.

And that’s really all I’ve got to begin with.

Q What’s the meeting with African American leaders, who are they and –

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we’ll get you more information on the ground, or the
campaign can. It’s really to thank them for their support and for their
continuing efforts to help the President with his outreach efforts to the
African American community.

Q Can you repeat that again? What the meeting was?

MR. McCLELLAN: It’s not "was," it’s later today.

Q It’s in the schedule.

Q Oh.

MR. McCLELLAN: It’s later today, when we get to Michigan. It will be a
greeting with African American leaders, the first thing when we arrive at the
Silverdome. And that’s stills at the end.

Q Are they specifically working for the campaign? What are they,
volunteers?

MR. McCLELLAN: I’ll get the campaign to get you more information on the
ground.

Q Is that an official visit or a campaign event?

MR. McCLELLAN: This is part of the campaign.

Q Will the President mention missing weapons, missing explosives in Iraq
in any of his speeches?

MR. McCLELLAN: I have found one aspect of this debate interesting.
Senator Kerry’s own advisors, Senator Kerry’s own senior advisors have now been
forced to admit that they don’t know the facts. Richard Holbrooke said, I don’t
know the truth. And Jamie Rubin made similar comments to that effect. I think
it is part of the pattern by Senator Kerry, even when he does not know the
facts, to say anything that will give him a political advantage.

You know, the fact is there is an investigation that is ongoing to get to
the bottom of this. Our military does not know what happened to those
munitions, and neither does Senator Kerry. Yet, he is willing to — well,
Senator Kerry is someone who does not want to let the facts or the truth stand
in the way of his campaign. He fails to talk about the fact that more than
400,000 tons of munitions have been seized or destroyed by coalition forces;
more than 10,000 caches have been cleared. And let’s remember the facts. This
was a dangerous regime that had munitions literally spread throughout the
country. Senator Kerry, with less than a week to go before the campaign, now
suddenly believes that Iraq was a danger.

I expect the President may talk about what Senator Kerry is willing to do
for his own political advantage, and that is ignore –

Q But he won’t address the missing explosive issues, directly?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we talked about that. There’s an investigation
that’s ongoing. No, that’s why I’m saying is that I expect you will hear him
talk some about what I just referred to.

Q The President will not specifically address the issue of these missing
explosives?

MR. McCLELLAN: I expect — this is the debate that — or the discussion
that has been going on. And I expect that the President will talk about the
fact that Senator Kerry is willing to say anything for his own political
advantage, even when he doesn’t know the facts.

Q But will he actually address the 380 –

MR. McCLELLAN: I expect he will talk about the fact that more 400,000
munitions have been seized or otherwise destroyed. And I expect — you heard
what I just had to say, I expect he’ll touch on some of that.

Q When you say that 400,000 musicians [sic] have been seized or
destroyed, what, specifically, are you referring to?

MR. McCLELLAN: What I talked about the other day and what the military has
talked about: more than 243,000 munitions have already been destroyed; 400,000
tons of munitions have already been destroyed; another nearly 163,000 tons of
munitions have been secured and are ready to be destroyed, awaiting to be
destroyed.

Q But, Scott, that’s a meaningless number unless you know what
percentage of the total that is, out of how much has that been destroyed?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, that’s what I said, these munition caches were spread
all throughout the country. Literally every day our coalition forces continue
to work to seize and destroy munitions. This was a regime that operated in that
fashion. They spread munitions throughout the country, and I think the military
can give you what they know about those.

Q Right, but there’s lots of different kinds of musicians [sic] and some
are more lethal than others — the 380 –

MR. McCLELLAN: The military can talk to you –

Q — explosives are extremely lethal weapons. Are you denying –

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, let’s put — I think, Maura, I think you’re trying to
mischaracterize things a little bit here. Let’s talk to the military and ask
them where this falls, in terms of the rest of the munitions. It’s a high
priority, and it has been a high priority. And now we’ve learned that these
munitions may well have been removed by the regime prior to the military forces
coming into — coming into or arriving at the site.

Q Scott, were you implying, then, that the military had this on a lower
priority than other weapons caches?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, absolutely not. In fact, you were implying something
that I don’t think you can imply without talking to the military. And I think
they will tell you — I’d leave it to the military leaders to talk to you more
about the prioritization.

Q Right, but you just said it’s important to see where these munitions
are on the list of priorities. Is that implying that they were not at the top?

MR. McCLELLAN: You might want to talk to the military about that. And the
military can talk to you about that, and they can tell you — obviously,
remember, when we went into Iraq, one of the priorities was to look for the
weapons of mass destruction. These — as I pointed out the other day — are not
a proliferation risk. These are conventional weapons that we are talking about.

Q Is it your feeling that these weapons disappeared in the confusion of
the start of the U.S. invasion, or — it was the NBC report.

MR. McCLELLAN: We don’t know the facts, but it may well be that they were
removed by the regime prior to American forces — prior to American forces
arriving there. And you now have Senator Kerry’s own advisors saying that they
don’t know the facts, they don’t know the truth. Yet Senator Kerry is willing
to use this to his own political advantage, when he doesn’t even know the truth.

Q Scott, the inspectors are saying that the seals were intact five days
before the invasion. Are you saying that they regime removed the weapons in
those five days?

MR. McCLELLAN: That’s another thing you might want to talk to the military
about the specific time line, because my understanding is that the site was
inspected in January, and they looked to see if the weapons were there. Then
later, in March, they saw that the seals were still there, but that doesn’t mean
that they did a full inspection of the site. And then there was a period
between March and April when the invasion was going on and troops were moving
toward Baghdad to remove the regime. So there’s a whole period in there when –
very real possibility that the regime could have removed those weapons. We
don’t know the facts — the military does not know what happened to those
weapons, neither does Senator Kerry. And it is Senator Kerry who, time and time
again, has shown that he will say anything for political gain. And this is all
part of a pattern by Senator Kerry.

Q Do you say that the regime, that the Saddam Hussein regime was still
capable of moving tons of explosives around the country after the U.S. invaded?

MR. McCLELLAN: I’m not saying that. I’m saying — military leaders have
said that. Our military leaders have said that. I think that’s a fact. This
was a regime that operated in that fashion. They had munitions — munition
caches all across the country. They moved munitions around.

Q But isn’t it more likely that they were looted? There were reports of
looters on the scene after –

MR. McCLELLAN: — based on what?

Q I believe the military said that they found looters at the scene,
after the invasion.

MR. McCLELLAN: It’s more likely, how can you make that statement?

Q Because the military said there were looters at the site.

MR. McCLELLAN: They didn’t say it was more likely.

Q They said that looters were –

MR. McCLELLAN: The words you said were, "more likely." This just shows
that — Senator Kerry’s own advisors says he doesn’t — that they don’t know the
truth, he doesn’t know the truth, yet he’s willing to say anything for his own
political advantage. And you said, "very likely." You don’t know that.

Q No, no, no. What you said was that it was likely that the regime
moved this around at some point even after the U.S. invaded.

MR. McCLELLAN: That’s a likely possibility, that the regime could have
removed those explosives before that time period.

Q But what I’m saying is that there are military reports that looters
receive at the site, after the invasion. So doesn’t that make it more likely
that there were looters?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, no, no, who said that?

Q The military reported looters at the –

MR. McCLELLAN: What’s your source?

Q The U.S. military.

MR. McCLELLAN: Show me the source. I’ll be glad to –

Q Scott, if you don’t know, either, how can you say it’s likely?

MR. McCLELLAN: That’s what I said — no, that it is a likely possibility.

Q Likely.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, it is a likely possibility, because of the way the
regime operated. And I think commanders have talked about that, as well.

Q Maybe it’s a possibility, but I don’t –

MR. McCLELLAN: I think the military doesn’t — the material — the
military doesn’t know — well, because all during that time period there was the
time — that was the time period when they could have. And that’s why I said,
the military doesn’t know what happened to those explosives, neither does
Senator Kerry. Yet Senator — the issue here, now, is that it just goes to show
the pattern by Senator Kerry that he will say anything, even when he doesn’t
know the truth, for his own political advantage.

Q Another — there are reports that another $70 billion is going to be
asked of Congress, in an emergency supplemental. Why is he going to wait until
January?

MR. McCLELLAN: One, we’re still early in the process. As we made clear
months ago, we said we would be coming back, asking for additional funding to
make sure that our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have all the resources they
need to complete their critical mission. And so that’s still early in the
process, an it’s premature to try to speculate about what the precise number
would be. We will be coming back early next year, as we have said before,
requesting additional funding to support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And that’s why we passed the $87 billion in the first place, to make sure our
troops had all the resources they need to do their job in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Okay, thanks.

END 11:05 A.M. EDT