White House Gaggle

Briefer: Dana Perino

Planning a trip to Europe June 9- 16 to strengthen the transatlantic partnership, commemorate the Marshall Plan and the Berlin airlift. The President will participate in the EU/US Summit and will visit Germany, Italy, France, UK and the Holy See.

Tomorrow at 10 President Bush will make remarks on Cuba. He is going to Ft. Bragg to tour the barracks and he will also make remarks on Memorial Day from Ft. Bragg. There will also be remarks on Friday from the South Lawn. President Bush is going to Camp David on Friday and will arrive back on Sunday. Perino also announced that the White House is sending a delegation to Bethlehem for a conference on West Bank Investment.

Perino said that the White House is still analyzing the Senate housing bill and said that it is still premature to say if the president can support the bill in full. Perino said that the administration can support some parts of it, particularly a GSE independent regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In addition to an official press statement Perino defended the White House position on Iran and repeated that the story in the Jerusalem Post was based on unnamed sources. She said she was not aware of anybody who made a statement and repeated that there is no change in U.S. policy on Iran.

Perino said that Ed Gillespie’s criticism of NBC interview was not an assignment from the president though he supported the letter. “We were frustrated by egregious editing of the president’s words to distort what he said,” Perino said. She repeated that they are fed up from treatment they’ve been getting over the last couple months.

No details on where the pool is going, based on security Perino couldn’t disclose details.