*EPF101 05/20/2002
Transcript: White House Daily Briefing, May 20
(Cuba/President's speech, Florida Republican Party/fundraiser, Cuba/President Carter's trip, Cuban government, President's initiative/promote democracy, Vice President's comments/terror threat) (2020)

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, and a senior administration official briefed reporters on Air Force One May 20 as they accompanied President Bush on a trip to Miami, Florida.

The President will deliver a major policy speech on Cuba, and will participate in the 100th anniversary of Cuban independence. Later in the evening, Bush will participate in a fundraising dinner for the Florida Republican Party.

Following is the White House transcript:

(begin transcript)

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Miami, Florida)

May 20, 2002

PRESS GAGGLE BY ARI FLEISCHER

Aboard Air FORCE
One En route Miami, Florida

1:48 P.M. EDT

MR. FLEISCHER: Good morning, or afternoon. Hello, everybody. I'll give you a brief rundown on the President's day, and then we're joined today by a senior administration official -- I have to request to do this on background. If you have any follow-up questions about the President's Cuba speech, our senior administration official can help you.

As you know, the President made a speech today on Cuban policy -- I won't get into any more. He'll participate in the 100th anniversary of Cuban independence today at his event down in Florida. And then he will participate in a fundraising dinner for the Florida Republican Party, it's expected to raise $2 million.

Just so you know, yesterday and today the President reached out and spoke to President Fox, President Lagos and President Cardoso, prior to his speech, to touch base and fill them in on what he was going to announce for the new Cuban initiative.

With that, I'm happy to take your questions.

Q: Is that hard or soft money for the $2 million?

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, it's for a state party, so hard only applies to federal races under the federal law -- state party money.

Q: Ari, is the President's Cuba speech any kind of a shift in policy?

MR. FLEISCHER: In terms of the fact that we maintain the fundamental policy, which is the freedom of the Cuban people, it's not. What it is, is a way to get freedom to the Cuban people faster. So it builds on the existing policy; it opens up new doors for trade if Fidel Castro reforms and performs.

Q: Did Jimmy Carter's trip have any effect on the President's thinking or the speech today?

MR. FLEISCHER: His speech was a result of a long-standing policy review. So the direct answer is, this is a reflection of the President's policy based on a policy review. President Carter spoke today to a senior State Department official, to fill him in on the trip. But what will be interesting to note is whether or not President Carter's trip, where for the first time Cubans got to see a message of human rights and democracy on live television, this speech, whether or not that helps Fidel Castro to change his ways and bring democracy and freedom to the last place left in the hemisphere that doesn't really have democracy.

Q: But before the President had a very -- had a tough line. He wasn't going to lift the trade embargo. Now he's saying, I might do that if. I mean, that's a shift.

MR. FLEISCHER: It's a reflection of the long-standing policy. Maybe if you want, on background.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The embargo is not the policy. The embargo was a tool to move the Cuban government towards democracy. It's a restatement of the same policy, just in a different way. This is a challenge to the Cubans. We're giving them an opportunity to join the rest of the hemisphere of free, democratic nations. This is their challenge. Okay. This is an initiative within an existing policy.

Q: What new avenues for trade open up? You mention that, open up new avenues for trade if Cuba acts in certain ways. How is that different from the earlier policy, which says there -- the embargo can't be lifted unless Cuba implements the policy elements --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, clearly as the President said, you know, democracy comes in steps and we're prepared to reward those steps. We'd like to see some clear fundamental change not only in his political system, but the economic system. Overall lifting of the embargo is codified by law, and that' s why -- the statement is we'll work with Congress to ease any of the existing sanctions. That's the instinct. It's not what we're willing to do tomorrow.

Q: The President said that normalization of relations would come with what he said was a new Cuban government. Is part of the point of this regime change?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The point of the President's initiative is to promote democracy. Obviously, if you have a system which lets everybody vote -- opposition candidates, a free press -- and you lay out the same ground rules in Cuba that you do in every other country, we're not creating a lower bar, we're not creating a Cuba exception. If you give the Cubans the same rights everybody else has, you may very well have a regime change. But we'll never know until we get there.

Q: And how much did domestic politics have to do with this policy, with the speech?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: This is a foreign policy speech.

Q: Did Jeb Bush have any input into the review, into the development of this speech?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Not to my knowledge, no.

Q: Is the policy review over?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No. If anything, it's just beginning, again. This isn't going to be a stay document that is the end result of a product. This is going to be the beginning of an initiative by the administration. So we're going to be meeting, we're going to be getting together. This is going to be a living work in progress, and we're going to be taking this on on a regular basis. So this is not just an end state where we had a review, we have a finding and we're going to move on.

Q: There's been some skepticism about Bolton's speech two weeks ago. Skeptics saying, we need some proof -- the Cubans are saying that in Havana. Is there any thought being given to making public the basis for the accusations made by Bolton?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: You would have to ask the State Department on that. A bigger issue, though, is Cuba does have a biotechnology capability. Cuba is closely allied with countries that have used biochemical weapons against its own people. That should be pause for reflection right then and there.

MR. FLEISCHER: Let me go back to the previous question, too. I think you can find in what the President is saying, a helpful parallel in events from approximately a decade ago in eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union; clarion calls to freedom and to democracy are welcomed by people who seek to be free. And that's an important part of our ongoing policy with the people of Cuba.

Q: Is this similar to the millennium fund approach, where you get -- where the President announced in his speech before he went to Mexico?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don't see how the millennium fund could be used for a country with which we had no relations.

Q: It says that if you do this, you get this. You know, if you meet our standards for democracy and an open government, good things will happen.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good things should happen.

Q: It's not comparable, it's not part of the same sort of approach?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: With regards to the millennium fund, no.

Q: Are there any proposals for increasing the broadcast to Cuba, aid to dissidents, any changes in travel policy, remittance policy that will come out as a --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Those are follow-on issues that we're going to look at throughout the year.

Q: -- here today?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Not that I know of, no.

Q: Weren't you talking about direct help for dissidents a year ago, or so? Is that still being considered?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I wasn't here a year ago.

MR. FLEISCHER: I don't know.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I can't answer that right now.

Q: -- hearing that now? So why aren't we hearing any of those steps now?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Listen, it's not a matter that we're not considering them. It's, like you said, you may not be hearing them, but as we move on throughout the year, we're going to be looking at all the steps at our disposal, so that we could push this issue forward.

Q: And, Ari, on the Vice President's comments this weekend, that terror threat is a certainty, has the White House made a decision to be more forthcoming about threat information, about the level of concern within the administration? Is there going to be more information, more sharing with the public threat spikes and that kind of thing?

MR. FLEISCHER: Our efforts will be the same as previously. We will carefully review all information and all times make that difficult judgment call and find that balance between sharing everything we possibly can, when what we have is helpful, knowable, credible. So every case presents its own merits.

Q: So there's no new policy? Because there's some -- there's some talk from intelligence sources the White House is pushing for more information to be made public than the intelligence community is comfortable with.

MR. FLEISCHER: If you recall from September 11th forward, there have been a series of alerts that have been put out -- most recently prior to this weekend about the banks in the northeast. It wasn't so long ago. So it always depends on the quality of the information. The determination is can it be put out in a way that deters attack, helps law enforcement to deter attack or warns a terrorist that we know they're coming and therefore stops an attack from ever taking place.

Of course, the difficulty of that is if you stop something from taking place, you never know that you are successful. Maybe you were, maybe you weren't. So it's always a difficult call.

Q: On Cuba, Ari, supporters even of a tough line on Castro have described the administration's fighting a rear guard action against all the pressure to ease the embargo, ease travel restrictions. Is that some of the reason why we're not seeing new specific measures now, tightening sanctions.

MR. FLEISCHER: From what we've heard from supporters, they've welcomed the President's new initiative. If you have something specific --

Q: In terms of?

MR. FLEISCHER: "Even supporters are saying it's a rear guard action," can you site some specifics?

Q: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, she was referring to the restatement of the President's policy as something they desire, but they did not expect to see measures such as strengthening of travel restrictions and so forth.

MR. FLEISCHER: I'm a little confused. Are you saying that she suggested that this is a rear guard action?

Q: She said that what the administration is in a position now of defending the existing policy, rather than tightening -- further tightening the existing policy because it's politically not sustainable to do that.

MR. FLEISCHER: I'd just say that what you've heard the President say this morning is a new initiative based on helping bring freedom to the people of Cuba.

Q: Ari, are either Senator Graham or Porter Goss traveling on Air Force One today, or any plans for the President --

MR. FLEISCHER: I don't know.

MR. DICKENS: I'll bring you a list back.

MR. FLEISCHER: I don't know who's traveling, I'll have to take a look at the list.

MR. DICKENS: I'll come back and read them out.

Q: Could you bring me a copy of the speech which I don't have? Please.

Q: Do you have any printed copies?

MR. FLEISCHER: Can we get copies of the speech to everybody.

MR. DICKENS: Absolutely.

END 2:00 P.M. EDT

(end transcript)

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