Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Afghanistan
Gibbs was asked about Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s remarks over the weekend and whether the meeting scheduled with President Obama for May is still on. He said the meeting on the 12th is still on the schedule. He said the remarks are genuinely troubling. The substance of the remarks, as have been looked into by many, are obviously not true. The United States will continue to work with President Karzai and others in the Afghan leadership to take the steps that are necessary to ensure that, as the US military and ISAF make security gains, the governance structure is in place to hold those gains.
That is the job, he said, we have laid out pretty clear benchmarks for the Afghan government and will continue to work with them to meet them.

Asked if it becomes increasingly difficult to work with someone who threatens to join the Taliban and says that operations in Kandahar will not be approved unless local leaders approve them, Gibbs said he would not get into the substance of every one of President Karzai’s remarks, except that we are focused on what we have to do with the Afghans. Gibbs did not put a lot of stake into everything that was said.

Asked if Karzai hinted at any of this when President Obama was in Afghanistan, Gibbs said they had a productive meeting, and he could not speak to what might have generated this. He repeated that the remarks are troubling and the substance is not true.

Gibbs was asked whether the remarks might complicate the supplemental. He said that what the military is doing there to stamp out extremism and to ensure the Taliban and its extremist allies are incapable of coming back to Afghanistan and setting up a safe haven by which to plan further attacks on the US is strongly in the national interest. That is why the president made a series of very tough decisions to increase the size and scale of our forces there.

Gibbs said that President Karzai is the democratically elected leader of Afghanistan. The U.S. will continue to work with him and others to meet the benchmarks we feel they have to meet in order to ensure the security of the Afghan people. It is not possible to clear, hold and ultimately build if there is not governance structure to hold what had been cleared. That is the main focus.

Part of the discussion that the President has had with President Karzai leading back to the phone call congratulating him on his re-election was to re-enforce what had to be done.

Gibbs said he has not heard discussion of pulling out of Afghanistan.

Gibbs was also asked if Karzai’s comments could erode American support for the war in Afghanistan. He said that on behalf of the American people, the White House is frustrated with the remarks. Families all over the country have watched their loved ones go off a long way away to serve bravely in the armed forces to help a country establish peace and security. The president and his team are enormously grateful for their sacrifice.

Gibbs was asked how much the waters were muddied by the story about the Special Forces operation that resulted in the killing of three Afghan women, two of them pregnant, covering it up, and digging the bullets out of their bodies. He declined to get into specifics about operations. He said General McChrystal, Ambassador Eikenberry and others have discussed the deep sympathy we have when civilians are harmed and killed. The planning that went into Marjah took special account to ensure as little of that as humanly possible.

Congressman Issa/Congressman Sestak
Congressman Issa will be asking for a Special Prosecutor of the White House in the matter of Representative Joe Sestak on April 5. (Rep. Joe Sestak claims he was offered a federal job in return for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Senate primary.) Gibbs said he spoke to the matter several weeks ago and had nothing to add.

Unemployment
Gibbs was asked to comment on the fact that unemployment benefits will run out today. He said that, as Dr Christina Romer said this weekend on one of the Sunday news shows, this is important emergency funding to ensure a safety net for people who have lost their jobs and continue to be unable to find work. The goal is to get the Senate and others to see the importance of ensuring that this funding does not go away.

Sudan
It was pointed out that there is growing concern that some of the parties that could participate in the upcoming election, might boycott it. Gibbs was asked the U.S. position and if they wanted these opposition groups to stay in the election. He said there are a series of very troubling developments around the election that we are paying very close attention to. He said he would get further guidance on next steps from the National Security Council.

Trip to Prague/Nuclear Matters
Gibbs was asked how the President is getting ready for the trip to Prague to sign the START Treaty on Thursday. The nuclear posture review will come out tomorrow.

He will travel to Prague, have a bilateral meeting with President Medvedev, which leads into the nuclear security summit, where upwards of 40 foreign leaders will be here, starting Saturday through the middle of next week to discuss ensuring that loose nuclear material is locked down. Nuclear security is one of the issues that the President is focused most on in foreign policy, and will spend a lot of time in the next eight to 10 days making progress on that.

Justice John Paul Stevens
Gibbs said that he had not heard directly from the president on the interviews that Justice Stevens gave to the New York Times and the Washington Post over the weekend. Justice Stevens does not clear his interviews with the White House. He said that if somebody resigns from the Supreme Court, they are, of course, ready. He would not be drawn on whether they have names in the pipeline.

National Championship
The President will watch the national championship. Gibbs cannot imagine what Reggie Love will be like if Duke wins tonight. The White House complex will not be big enough for Reggie’s exuberance and everyone else to coincide in the same place.

Throwing Out the First Pitch
Gibbs did not know if the President practiced last night. However, the President has fit in a little spring training to try to get his arm in shape. He declined to comment on the President’s jeans.

Peshawar Attacks
Gibbs said there is great concern about the attacks. The White House strongly condemns the violence and the actions. The extremists in Pakistan have succeeded only in killing Pakistanis, which hardens the view that has led to the gains that have been made over the course of the year against extremism by Pakistanis.

Michael Steele
Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, said today that he has a small margin of error because he is African American, as does President Obama. Gibbs was asked if the White House agrees with that. Gibbs said “I think that is a fairly silly comment to make. I think Michael Steele’s problem isn’t the race card. It’s the credit card.” (The press corps groaned.)
VE Day in Moscow
Gibbs was asked about U.S. presence on the anniversary of VE Day in Moscow on May 9th. He said he would check with the NSC as to who is representing the U.S.

Chinese Currency
Gibbs was asked to respond to criticism that the US should stand up to China. He said that every time the administration meets with the leadership in China, this issue is brought up. It was brought up directly to them by the President in Beijing in November. The President has spoken repeatedy and recently that the Chinese currency must be market based.

Rhode Island/FEMA
Gibbs was asked whether the President or the Director of Fema plan to travel to Rhode Island. He said that Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano was there on Friday. He did not know the Director of Fema’s travel plans, but imagined that a regional administrator or someone would have been with Secretary Napolitano.

Iran Momentum
Gibbs said the White House is in consultation with Congress about Iran, and their view on sanctions. This is a critical time period with our allies at the UN. The President believes there will be something through the UN Security Council by the end of the spring.

Easter Church Service
Gibbs was asked about photographic and sound coverage of the President’s visit to church on Easter Sunday. (The press was allowed print pool only.) Gibbs said the President was a guest on a very important day for church goers. Print pool was there so the press could see and hear what was happening, but the White House did not think it was appropriate to displace parishioners who are there for an important Sunday with TV cameras and coverage.

A reporter pointed out that an exception was made for the White House photographer. Gibbs said that the reporter’s complaint was lodged.