Posted on 03/06/2003 6:38:55 AM PST by Dog
Bush to hold rare prime-time news conference
Last Updated Thu, 06 Mar 2003 10:50:33
WASHINGTON - The U.S. president plans to hold a prime-time news conference on Thursday night, but a White House spokesman says it won't be an announcement of war.
The rare prime-time appearance, set for 8 p.m. ET comes as tensions are on the rise over the Iraq crisis. But White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer says the session doesn't mean that President George Bush has decided to use force.
Bush plans to speak about Iraq and the ongoing so-called war on terror.
Fleischer has said that Bush would want to talk to the nation should he decide to send American forces into action.
But this news conference is not that occasion, he said.
Secretary of State Colin Powell is at the United Nations on Thursday trying to bolster support for a resolution authorizing war.
Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix is due to report to the Security Council on Friday.
Man, this is getting 'in tents'.
With Lott I would be certain that the R's just caved. With Frist, I'm not so sure and this may be the exact best strategy.
To tell you the truth if it were me calling the shots, I would take the censure vote in order to set up my targets and then I would wait for the next censue vote until after the bulk of the Iraq war is over and Bush is riding high in the polls. All along I would be putting moderate pressure via ads and campaigning at those Rats who are up for election next. I would target the next big push for a cloture vote right after Iraq victory and use Bush to go into each state and hit them hard.
However, if I were doing strategy for Lott I would make big empty promises that I would keep bringing this back again and again.
Or, a dual announcement;
We have Bin Laden and proof of WMDs in Iraq.
But we played with him trying to get network coverage for this next week, all nite here. This being announced this am is sudden.
UK Telegraph is reporting he will do so next week
Freeper JustPiper says on another thread :
"And now MSNBC just announced W is not having his speech next week it will be at 7pm CST tonight!"
So I guess tonight may be the 72 hour warning...
WASHINGTON — President Bush will hold a press conference Thursday evening at 8:00 p.m. EST, the White House announced Thursday morning.
The press conference, the president's first in four months, will be held at the White House.
"Now was an appropriate time to talk to the American people as directly as possible," said Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.
Fleischer said that Bush will not announce any imminent or critical information about the crisis with Iraq. He will discuss the importance of disarming Iraq, but he will not say whether he has decided on military action.
"This is a news conference. This is not a scheduled announcement of anything," Fleischer said.
The president will open the question-and-answer with a list of successes in the war on terrorism, Fleischer said.
The president may also discuss the nomination of embattled judicial nominee Miguel Estrada. Senate Democrats have complained that Estrada has not been forthcoming and say they want more answers to their questions, but a White House source told Fox News that there have been no requests from Senate Democrats for Estrada to respond to questions.
The White House did not ask the networks to cut into their prime time programming to cover the press conference. Fox News Channel will carry it live.
Fox News' Tony Snow and Wendell Goler contributed to this report.
Ari said it won't be an announcement of war, however it could be interpreted as 'one last chance'.
The only thing even remotely similiar is about 60 Russians left for home with their families.
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