White House press slams McClellan on Rumsfeld...(Transcript)

[kpete]

White House press slams McClellan on Rumsfeld...



White House signals it won't engage retired generals who have criticized Rumsfeld

RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday April 18, 2006


Questions about the White House response to criticism from retired generals over Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld continued to plague the White House at Tuesday's press briefing.

Rumsfeld occupied most of the press' attention -- and reporters repeatedly hammered White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan on why Bush came out with a strong defense of Rumsfeld, and why the White House isn't engaging the retired generals.

In response, McClellan said, "I think that their views have been expressed."

The transcript follows.

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Q Getting back to staff changes, I thought the president spoke most forcefully about somebody who appears not to be going anywhere, which was Secretary Rumsfeld. Can you sort of explain to me the president's tone -- I think was a strong one -- about his strong feelings about Secretary Rumsfeld? Why did he feel the need today to address that so strongly and so specifically?

MR. MCCLELLAN: Well, he addressed it the other day, and it's an issue that's been getting much attention. And that's why the president made it very clear where he stood. He reiterated his strong and full support for Secretary Rumsfeld.

Q Do you think if Secretary Rumsfeld left the job, it would invite more criticism, because the chief architect -- or one of the chief architects of the war plan goes, the obvious school of thought is that there must have been some --

MR. MCCLELLAN: Well, that's quite the hypothetical question given the comments that have been made over the last few days, both by the president and Secretary Rumsfeld and generals who have worked closely with Secretary Rumsfeld and fully support his leadership.

Q Is that why the president wants to be so strong in his defense of him?

MR. MCCLELLAN: The president wanted to reiterate when he was asked a question his full support for Secretary Rumsfeld. The question was specifically asked about the Cabinet.
transcript at:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/White_House_signals_it_wont_engage_0418.html

[bryant69]

1. I think it would be nice if they let Rumsfeld go

But they know what that means as well as I do - they basically are done with their current foreign policy position and are going to have to come up with something else. They don't want to do that, so they won't send Rumsfeld out to pasture.

Bryant
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