THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release October 12, 2000
PRESS BRIEFING
BY
JAKE SIEWERT
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
6:07 P.M. EDT
Q Can I ask, the President been focused all day on this? Does
that mean that somebody else is focused on what's going on in Yemen?
Q Good point.
MR. SIEWERT: No, the President has been focused on this, as well.
I said that he had been briefed as early as 7:15 a.m. this morning about
the situation in Yemen. When he went to the Situation Room, he was
briefed by Secretary Cohen and some of Secretary Cohen's staff about the
developments there.
You heard about as much as we know from Secretary Cohen. There may
be a little bit more information and when we're more certain of that,
I'm sure you can find that out from the Pentagon.
Q Jake, the President canceled his appearances tonight in
Washington. What about the trip that's supposed to begin tomorrow
morning?
MR. SIEWERT: That trip is still on at the moment, but I think for
those of you who are planning on traveling, we'll let you know if we
have any change.
Q Will he make departure statements, do you think?
MR. SIEWERT: I expect the President to be in the White House for
the rest of the day, and we'll let you know if tomorrow changes.
Q At what time tomorrow is he supposed to leave?
MR. SIEWERT: He's expected to leave around 9:15 a.m. from the
White House. We'll either let you know tonight or first thing in the
morning if that situation changes.
....
Q How will the President be spending his evening?
MR. SIEWERT: He'll probably be, as he has spent most of the day,
he's probably made a dozen phone calls today just to various leaders in
the region. He'll probably continue to do that, and to meet with his
team.
Q He's not going to address those events that he's not going to
attend?
MR. SIEWERT: No.
Q Is the Vice President joining him in any of these phone calls?
MR. SIEWERT: The Vice President returned to the White House
shortly before 5:00 p.m., I believe, or at least he was scheduled to.
He was being briefed by Secretary Albright and Sandy Berger. He's been
kept abreast of these matters by his own National Security Advisor, Leon
Fuerth, who's been in all the big meetings today, and the President is
meeting with him, I think as we speak. It may in fact be over. We'll
try to get a photo out of that. But the President and he were going to
talk. In fact, the President did speak with him over the weekend, too,
about the process, I think Saturday or Sunday.
Q Jake, the Vice President has been absent from the White House
for so many months, does it really matter whether he's on the scene or
not?
MR. SIEWERT: He's been an integral player in the Mideast peace
process throughout the administration. He's traveled to the region at
least four times. The President values his advice, and trusts his
judgment. As I said, they talked about it just over the weekend. They
talked about this U.N. resolution. The Vice President supported our
position, and you heard him talk a little bit about that in the debate
the other night.
Q Jake, was he summoned back, or did he come on his own?
MR. SIEWERT: He was scheduled to come back into town this evening
in any case, and he just came back a bit early to meet with the national
security team, and to get an update on what had happened.
Q Was this the first time they have actually met
person-to-person since they --
MR. SIEWERT: I'll have to check. The last time that I can
remember them seeing each other was in Michigan, the day after the
convention. But they talk on the phone all the time. They talked last
night, in fact, after the debate.
END 6:16 P.M. EDT
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