The Albuquerque Journal reported yesterday that President Bush and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) had a phone conversation about U.S. Attorney David Iglesias sometime after the election last year, but before he was fired. The White House has yet to directly respond to that. Today we found out why.
White House spokesperson Dana Perino said today that she hadn’t asked Bush whether there had been such a conversation. “I haven’t asked him,” she said, but continued to say that she didn’t “think” such a conversation had occurred, because she’d never heard anything about it. When pressed again, she said, “I’m not going to rule it out.”
Transcript below…
From the press briefing:
Q Does the President not remember having a phone conversation with Senator Domenici about U.S. attorney Iglesias? Or is he clear that one did not take place?MS. PERINO: I’ve never asked him that question. I do know that his vague recollection was that he had heard complaints. And then I’ll refer you to his statement — or his answer to a question that he got in Mexico, in which he was asked that question, and he said that he recalls being at a meeting on the Hill in which this issue was brought up — a meeting of senators on the Hill in which it was brought up. But I’ve never heard anything about a phone call.
Q So he’s never actually answered the question.
MS. PERINO: He answered the question. And I don’t know anything about a phone call; I’ve never heard that — except for questions from you all.
Q You mean the phone call —
MS. PERINO: I don’t know that the President ever received a phone call. I don’t have any record of that, or any recollection of it, and I’ve been dealing with this issue for many weeks.
Q When he was at the meeting on the Hill where it was brought up, it was Senator Domenici —
MS. PERINO: I don’t think people remember, necessarily, who it was. And, remember, complaints about voter fraud cases were coming in from various different places.
Q Right. Just to be clear about this, then, Senator Domenici and the President, has there ever been a direct conversation between the two?
MS. PERINO: I don’t know. I don’t believe so, necessarily, about this particular issue, but remember, when — the President sees members of Congress all of the time, and as I think I said last week, whenever a senator has the President’s ear, whether the issue — whether the topic of the meeting is the Iraq war supplemental, if they have a chance to talk about other issues, they will. And so I’m not going to rule it out, but I just can’t say that Senator Domenici and the President ever had a one-on-one conversation about it.