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October 10, 2003

Q. He mentioned his team was out of it. Does he have a team? (Laughter.)

Q. In June.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: In June, yes. (Laughter.) Let’s be correct on that. (Laughter.) I’m sorry, what was the last part?

Q. Does he have a team that he wants to see in the World Series?

MR. McCLELLAN: He wants the best team to win. (Laughter.)

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October 8, 2003

Q. You mean I can’t have two?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: I didn’t come back to you yet. David hasn’t even had one.

Q. Oh, I will yield.

MR. McCLELLAN: This is multiple question Friday. (Laughter.)

Q. Open phones. (Laughter.)

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October 8, 2003

SCOTT McCLELLAN: This is multiple question day. (Laughter.)

Q. Yes.

MR. McCLELLAN: Is this your third time or second time?

Q. Just second. The Governor-elect of California has –

Q. But they’re so good. (Laughter.)

Q. You can get another one, then. (Laughter.)

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October 8, 2003

Q. A question: How late did the President stay up last night? Was he watching the California results? And who told him –

Q. Or the Cubs?

Q. Or at baseball game?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: No, I did not — no, I don’t believe he made it through either of them. (Laughter.)

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October 8, 2003

Q. Page one of yesterday’s Washington Post reported, “Just a few months ago, Governor Gray Davis disparaged the recall movement as a joke. Nothing more than political mischief by a bunch of right-wing gadflies and talk radio jocks.” And my question, does President Bush in any way share Governor Davis’ very low esteem of talk radio? (Laughter.)

SCOTT McCLELLAN: The President believes that all media outlets have an important role to play in keeping the American people informed about the decisions that are being made here in Washington, D.C.

Q. Particularly talk radio, right, Scott?

Q. Scott, on the leak –

MR. McCLELLAN: That’s one of the important media outlets.

Q. Thank you, very much.

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October 8, 2003

Q. Will the President see the Governor-elect next week in California?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Didn’t we ask that earlier? (Laughter.)

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October 7, 2003

Q. Scott, can you clear — this week, two Republicans, both are sons of immigrants –

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Let me ask one thing. Are we staying on this subject?

Q. Same subject.

MR. McCLELLAN: Let’s stay on the same subject. You’ve got the subject? Okay, let’s stay on this, since there’s some interest in this today. (Laughter.)

Q. Since the President raised the possibility that the criminal investigation –

MR. McCLELLAN: Don’t leave. It’s just getting fun. (Laughter.)

Q. — that a criminal investigation could lead — could end without the leaker being identified or prosecuted, would the President be willing to let the matter be closed there? Would it be over there? Or would he want to go out and find out, somehow, internally, look into this more and find out –

MR. McCLELLAN: This is the hypothetical stage. Let’s talk about –

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October 6, 2003

Q. Scott, if I could, on a slightly different thing. On this — on the support group that the President is talking about, from the NSC, for Mr. Rumsfeld and Bremer, I’m still a little fuzzy on this. (Laughter.) Could you explain in a little more detail what it is that they’re doing and why, if there is a support group needed now, it wasn’t needed before? I’m a little fuzzy.

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October 6, 2003

Q. Turning to the domestic front, and something in the news here, you and the President both said before the President left for Texas that the decision in California was up to the voters –

SCOTT McCLELLAN: I knew you were going to ask about California. (Laughter.)

Q. Given the fact that the official Republican State Committee has endorsed Mr. Schwarzenegger, has that position changed? And does the White House have any opinion on the charges leveled against Mr. Schwarzenegger in the past week?

MR. McCLELLAN: We recognize there is an election going on in California. We continue to believe that that is a matter for the people of California to decide. And we have confidence in their judgment.

Q. How about the second part of my question?

MR. McCLELLAN: We recognize there is a campaign going on, and those are issues being discussed in the campaign and that’s in the context of the campaign. It’s a nice way to try to draw us into an election that’s going on right now, but we believe it’s a matter for the people of California to decide.

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October 6, 2003

SCOTT McCLELLAN: There we go again, trying to draw me back into California. (Laughter.) We have great confidence in the people of California to decide this matter. And they will do that tomorrow.

Q. But, Scott, hang on, let me — the question I asked was, is Schwarzenegger the type of person that the President would like –

MR. McCLELLAN: No, no, John, this is a nice end around — this is an end around to try to draw us into an election that is ongoing right now. You know that as well as I do — by the smile on your face, I can tell. (Laughter.)

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October 2, 2003

Q. What’s the President’s view of the comment that got Rush Limbaugh in trouble?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: I think that Rush Limbaugh addressed the matter.

Q. You know, Scott, when you click onto the White House website and you enter the word, “bigotry,” the President has addressed this issue 136 times. Why would not — why wouldn’t you, on his behalf, want to address it in this instance, where someone has associated the selection of athletes on the basis of their race for certain positions on the field?

MR. McCLELLAN: I did answer the question, and I think that he addressed the matter — I think that Rush Limbaugh addressed the matter.

Q. Is it because Limbaugh is a political ally and often someone who supports administration causes and so forth that you don’t want to address this yourself?

MR. McCLELLAN: You’ve asked the question, and I’ve responded to it.

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October 1, 2003

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Yes, I know, I expected — I could be at that lunch right now, but I thought it would be more fun to come out and answer all these hypotheticals. (Laughter.)

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October 1, 2003

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Well, do we want to stay on this subject? Does anybody have some –

Q. Yes.

Q. Yes, could you just lay out –

MR. McCLELLAN: All right. Let me stay on this subject so we can go through some more hypotheticals. (Laughter.)

Q. To get away from hypotheticals, would you lay out the details of what Counsel Gonzales has now told White House staff they must preserve? I mean, it’s a rather detailed –

MR. McCLELLAN: You have it all in the memos. You have it in the memo — we released those two memos. I didn’t bring them with me to read through that. But it was very specific information that was sent to us yesterday afternoon from the Department of Justice.

All right, who has a hypothetical? (Laughter.) No, you’ve already had one. We’ll come back — we’ll try to get back to people later.

Q. Thank you.

MR. McCLELLAN: You have a hypothetical? (Laughter.) I asked for a hypothetical. No, no. (Laughter.)

Q. I’m no Bob Novak, but my feelings are really hurt that nobody leaked anything to me. (Laughter.)

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