President Bush will answer most of the questions from members of the September 11 commission when he makes a joint appearance with Vice President Dick Cheney tomorrow morning at the White House.
The president and vice president will meet in a private session with all 10 commission members at 9:30 a.m. The White House has requested that no stenographer record the meeting, although one aide from the commission and one White House staffer will be allowed to take notes.
“I expect most of the questions are going to be directed to the president,” Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said. “So I expect the president will be answering most of the questions. Obviously, if they have specific questions to the vice president, they can direct those to the vice president in that meeting.”
Critics have charged that the White House is having the president and vice president appear together to eliminate contradictory testimony. But Mr. McClellan said “that same line of argument could be made even to a greater extent” if Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney appeared separately.
“So I just reject that outright,” he said. “We believe that having the president and the vice president meet together with the commission will better help the commission piece together all that information that we have already provided them, and better help the commission provide the American people with as complete a picture as possible, so that [commission members] can make recommendations based on what they learn.”
The commission’s Republican chairman, Thomas H. Kean, and Democratic vice chairman, Lee H. Hamilton, made the rounds on Capitol Hill yesterday, meeting with leadership from both parties to update them on the commission’s progress and quell any concerns over the partisanship that has dominated commission activity in recent weeks.
“It was a good meeting,” said House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican. “I’m not comfortable talking about any of the content of it.”
But, he said, he stood by a press release he issued earlier in the day denouncing former Sen. Bob Kerrey, Nebraska Democrat, a member of the commission, for appearing on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” Monday night.
“Bob Kerrey already turned the 9/11 commission into ’Comedy Central’ when he chastised National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice for forgetting specific details of brief conversations held three years ago — all the while, he was unable even to remember her name,” Mr. Blunt said. “What’s worse, Senator Kerrey proved last night with his appearance on Jon Stewart’s show that, at least for some members, the commission is more about political posturing than planning for a safer America.”
In preparing for his session with the commission, Mr. Bush has met with Miss Rice, Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and is reviewing documents from the months leading up to September 11.
“Remember, this is some 2 to three years ago, so he’s going back to refresh his memory so that he can provide the commission with an accurate account and as complete an account of events as possible,” Mr. McClellan said. Mr. Gonzales is expected to be at tomorrow’s session, along with perhaps another member of the counsel’s office and other White House officials, he said.
The spokesman said the exclusion of a stenographer — standard practice when other White House officials have met with members in closed-door session — is a topic “we discussed with the commission, and they were fine with it.”
Neither former President Bill Clinton nor former Vice President Al Gore was under oath while meeting with the bipartisan commission.
• Charles Hurt contributed to this report.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.