White House Gaggle

By Lovisa Frost
October 20, 2005

President’s Schedule

The President had his usual intelligence briefings as well as a hurricane briefing. This morning, President Bush welcomes President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority to the White House. The two leaders will hold a press conference in the Rose Garden. The President will then depart for Los Angeles, California this afternoon and attend a Republican National Committee reception this evening.

Meeting with Palestinian President Abbas

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said that, "The President has reiterated his support for their aspirations to become a peaceful nation". He continued to say, "both sides have obligations on the road map." President Bush will talk more about this in the joint press availability with President Abbas later this morning.

Hurricane Wilma

The President is following the developments of Hurricane Wilma, and "we are now working closely with state, local and federal officials", McClellan said. President Bush also spoke twice to his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Harriet Miers

Harriet Miers has now met with 21 members of the Senate and has two additional meetings scheduled for later today. When asked about the criticism that Miers has not supplied more documents to the Senate, McClellan said that all this information will come out in the confirmation hearings. McClellan continued to say that Miers indicated early on "that she has years of files to go through, and she will add anything when it comes to her attention. We are still in the early part of the process. This is the beginning, not the end of it." Furthermore, he also said, "Senator Specter appreciates them moving ahead so the Senate hearings can start and have her confirmed by Thanksgiving". When questioned about Miers’ suspended Texas Bar license, McClellan explained that it was a clerical error.

Majority Whip Blunt

McClellan was asked if the topic of recissions was discussed when the Majority Whip visited the White House yesterday. He answered that the President had a good discussion with the leader on how to move forward, so we can offset enough in the budget to help rebuilding efforts from Hurricane Katrina.