Friday
Sep112009
White House Gaggle
Friday, September 11, 2009 at 1:34PM
White House Gaggle with Robert Gibbs
Coast Guard Exercise
Gibbs said that to his knowledge they had no advance warning, and that there were exercises going on all over the country. We are all safer because of them. Before people report things like this, he said, checking would be good. He did not question law enforcement in trying to keep the nation’s capital safe. As best he could tell, there was reporting based on listening to a police scanner that was not verified. A lot of this might have been avoided. He saw no analogy to the Air Force One fly over in New York.
Asked whether the President has an opinion about whether the public should have been informed that there was a training exercise on September 11th, Gibbs said he did not think the President knew about every training exercise federal, state or local law enforcement do in preparation for something happening again. It was hard to divorce the media coverage from the question. He suggested people should call the White House. If anybody is unnecessarily alarmed based on erroneous reporting that claimed that shots had been fired, everybody is apologetic. It is a Coast Guard decision. Neither the Commander in Chief nor his spokesperson are going to micromanage the training exercises.
Gibbs said there are a lot of responsibilities. People owe it to everybody, not just in the memory of what happened eight years ago, but in the memory of whatever could happen again, that we may not get this story first, but we may be the first ones to get it right.
Senator Carl Levin on Afghanistan
Asked about Senator Levin’s statement on not sending more troops to Afghanistan until the Afghan army and police have been built up, Gibbs said he has not seen Levin’s statement. The administration continues to assess the situation as it has done since the transition. Reorienting the strategy and getting it right is of the utmost importance to the President. There is no imminent decision on increased resources to Afghanistan.
Gibbs said there never was a timetable for an imminent decision. He did not expect anything to happen for many, many weeks. The President made some decisions early on. All of the resources encompassed in those decisions have not gotten to Afghanistan.
Asked if the President was concerned that he is losing members of his own party on Afghanistan, Gibbs said there is not an imminent decision. They would work to get the policy right. For a long time there was not a sufficient focus on getting Afghanistan right. That is what the President would do working in the administration and with members of Congress.
Previewing Monday’s Speech on Wall Street
Gibbs said that it will be on Wall Street because the financial instability started there and it caused it to be felt everywhere else on Main Street. It is the collapse of Lehman Brothers one year later and the financial instability that that signified and its dramatic impact on the economy. The President, even before that, but certainly on that day and the days that followed, has focused on ensuring that the U.S. gets its stability right, and there has been great progress on that. The speech will focus on the need to take the next series of steps on financial regulatory reform to ensure that after what happened a year ago, there are sufficient safeguards to ensure that does not happen again.
Asked if there was a new time frame for legislation, Gibbs said both chairs would say it is a big focus of their fall. The administration has outlined a financial plan and is working with Congress to implement it. It wants to demonstrate why it needs to move forward and why this can’t wait.
9/12ers Rally
When told about the “9/12ers” rallying on Washington on Saturday against the President’s health care reforms, Gibbs said he did not know what they were. “Have fun”, he said.
President's Minnesota Speech on Saturday
Gibbs said the President will talk about the perils of not acting, and what happens if we delay again, health insurance reform. Ticket distribution will be open to the public, first come, first served. There will be other rallies like this. Asked whether the event is a political event or a Presidential event, Gibbs replied that it is a Presidential event.
Health Care Mandates For Low Income People
Nancy Ann DeParle was on a Yahoo Chat yesterday and spoke about low income people and health care and fines. A question was asked in some detail about this. Gibbs said there are hardship waivers for individual mandates to avoid penalties.
Health Care For Illegal Immigrants
Asked about a back and forth yesterday about whether illegal immigrants could buy insurance on the health exchange, Gibbs said illegal immigrants would not be allowed to access the exchange that is being set up. Asked if people would have to show proof of legal residence or citizenship, Gibbs said that is something they would work out with Congress, but yes.
Paying For Health Care
Asked about criticism from moderate Democrats that there was not enough specificity in the speech Wednesday about how the President was going to pay for health care reform, Gibbs said there was a very constructive meeting with moderate Senate Democrats on Thursday. Some people are surprised that the President is actually going to pay for a proposal, Gibbs said.
Coast Guard Exercise
Gibbs said that to his knowledge they had no advance warning, and that there were exercises going on all over the country. We are all safer because of them. Before people report things like this, he said, checking would be good. He did not question law enforcement in trying to keep the nation’s capital safe. As best he could tell, there was reporting based on listening to a police scanner that was not verified. A lot of this might have been avoided. He saw no analogy to the Air Force One fly over in New York.
Asked whether the President has an opinion about whether the public should have been informed that there was a training exercise on September 11th, Gibbs said he did not think the President knew about every training exercise federal, state or local law enforcement do in preparation for something happening again. It was hard to divorce the media coverage from the question. He suggested people should call the White House. If anybody is unnecessarily alarmed based on erroneous reporting that claimed that shots had been fired, everybody is apologetic. It is a Coast Guard decision. Neither the Commander in Chief nor his spokesperson are going to micromanage the training exercises.
Gibbs said there are a lot of responsibilities. People owe it to everybody, not just in the memory of what happened eight years ago, but in the memory of whatever could happen again, that we may not get this story first, but we may be the first ones to get it right.
Senator Carl Levin on Afghanistan
Asked about Senator Levin’s statement on not sending more troops to Afghanistan until the Afghan army and police have been built up, Gibbs said he has not seen Levin’s statement. The administration continues to assess the situation as it has done since the transition. Reorienting the strategy and getting it right is of the utmost importance to the President. There is no imminent decision on increased resources to Afghanistan.
Gibbs said there never was a timetable for an imminent decision. He did not expect anything to happen for many, many weeks. The President made some decisions early on. All of the resources encompassed in those decisions have not gotten to Afghanistan.
Asked if the President was concerned that he is losing members of his own party on Afghanistan, Gibbs said there is not an imminent decision. They would work to get the policy right. For a long time there was not a sufficient focus on getting Afghanistan right. That is what the President would do working in the administration and with members of Congress.
Previewing Monday’s Speech on Wall Street
Gibbs said that it will be on Wall Street because the financial instability started there and it caused it to be felt everywhere else on Main Street. It is the collapse of Lehman Brothers one year later and the financial instability that that signified and its dramatic impact on the economy. The President, even before that, but certainly on that day and the days that followed, has focused on ensuring that the U.S. gets its stability right, and there has been great progress on that. The speech will focus on the need to take the next series of steps on financial regulatory reform to ensure that after what happened a year ago, there are sufficient safeguards to ensure that does not happen again.
Asked if there was a new time frame for legislation, Gibbs said both chairs would say it is a big focus of their fall. The administration has outlined a financial plan and is working with Congress to implement it. It wants to demonstrate why it needs to move forward and why this can’t wait.
9/12ers Rally
When told about the “9/12ers” rallying on Washington on Saturday against the President’s health care reforms, Gibbs said he did not know what they were. “Have fun”, he said.
President's Minnesota Speech on Saturday
Gibbs said the President will talk about the perils of not acting, and what happens if we delay again, health insurance reform. Ticket distribution will be open to the public, first come, first served. There will be other rallies like this. Asked whether the event is a political event or a Presidential event, Gibbs replied that it is a Presidential event.
Health Care Mandates For Low Income People
Nancy Ann DeParle was on a Yahoo Chat yesterday and spoke about low income people and health care and fines. A question was asked in some detail about this. Gibbs said there are hardship waivers for individual mandates to avoid penalties.
Health Care For Illegal Immigrants
Asked about a back and forth yesterday about whether illegal immigrants could buy insurance on the health exchange, Gibbs said illegal immigrants would not be allowed to access the exchange that is being set up. Asked if people would have to show proof of legal residence or citizenship, Gibbs said that is something they would work out with Congress, but yes.
Paying For Health Care
Asked about criticism from moderate Democrats that there was not enough specificity in the speech Wednesday about how the President was going to pay for health care reform, Gibbs said there was a very constructive meeting with moderate Senate Democrats on Thursday. Some people are surprised that the President is actually going to pay for a proposal, Gibbs said.
U.S. Coast Guard Says No Apology Needed For Drill
Reports of fired shots on the Potomac River were enough to scare civilians and news agencies in Washington, D.C. on the eighth anniversary of September 11, 2009.
Reports of the shots came just before 10 am Friday morning, and by noon, the U.S. Coast Guard released a statement explaining that the incident was actually a training exercise that did not consist of fired shots.
In the statement, U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral John Currier said that while the agency was sensitive to the anniversary of September 11, 2001, an apology for planned training exercises was unnecessary.
"I am not issuing an apology because, althought it is unfortunate that it escalated to this level, what you're seeing here is the result of a normal training exercise," Currier said.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today that when it comes to keeping the nation safe, he tends not to question law enforcement- even on September 11th.