Thursday, June 3, 2004

Busy day. Went to Ali’s Lower School Graduation and rushed to testify at House Select Committee on Homeland Security chaired by Chris Cox with Jim Turner as ranking minority. Chris Hayes and Joe Barton were there. Many tough questions since the Presidential race is heating up and the Dems want to give the impression that the Administration is not doing enough on Biodefense even though we have accomplished a lot. I did very well. Immediately after the Hearing I rushed to DHHS and briefed Sec. Thompson on the G-8 meeting and the HIV Vaccine Enterprise. Then I rushed to the White House for a meeting called in the West Wing by Kristen Silverberg on the POTUS proposal (maybe) to facilitate vaccine development by addressing liability, intellectual property, tax benefits, and monopoly issues. After WH rushed to go to Jenny’s Sports Banquet. She received MVP for the Diving Team. June 8-10, 2004 – Went to Savannah, GA (Sea Island) for the G8 Summit hosted by the USA. I was part of a White House Team that served as Presidential Surrogates to brief the Press before, during and after the President’s proposals of initiatives to the G8 leaders gathered in Sea Island (UK – Tony Blair, France – Jacques Chirac, Germany – Gerhard Schroder, Italy - Berlusconi, Japan, Canada - , Russia - Putin, and USA). The other surrogates on the Team were: Elliott Abrams (Special Assist. To the president and Senior Director for Near-East and North African Affairs at NSC); Andrew Card (WH Chief of Staff); John R. Bolton (Under Secretary of State, Arms Control and International Security); James L. Connaughton (Chairman, Council on Environmental Quality); Glyn T. Davies (G8 Political Director); Kristen Forbes (Member, Council of Economic Advisors); Jendayi E. Fraser (Special Assistant to the president and Senior Director for African Affairs at NSC); Robert Joseph (Special Assistant to the president and Senior Director for Proliferation Strategy, Counterproliferation and Homeland Defense); Alan P. Larson (Under Secretary of State, Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs); Constance Berry Newman (Assistant Administrator for Africa of USAID); Randall Quarles (Assistant Secretary of Treasury for International Affairs); Condoleezza Rice (National Security Advisor to the President); Frances Fragos Townsend (Assistant to the President and Homeland Security Advisor); Dan Bartlett (White House Communications Director); Scott McClellan (Assistant to the president and White House Press Secretary); Gordon Johndroe (Laura Bush’s Press Secretary); and Jim Wilkinson (Deputy National Security Advisor for Communications at NSC). My job was to brief the press at formal and informal briefings on the Health Issues which were mainly the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise (see above), the Polio Eradication Initiative, and to a much lesser extent, the Famine Initiative. I also briefed on the progress of PEPFAR the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria and TB and the issues on Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) and co-packaged anti- HIV drugs. The weather was beautiful and we stayed at the Westin Resort Hotel on Hutchinson Island in Savannah. All I did was work and did not get off the compound. The security to get on and off the compound was as tight as I have seen anywhere except for Iraq. The Press center was adjacent to the Hotel. I spent most of the time in the White House press unit with White House staff led by Pamela Stevens, Paul Morrell, Jim Wilkinson, Barry Bennett (Deputy of Communications, G8 Summit Planning Organization, Colby Cooper, Dana Perino, M.C. Koch, Jana..?, Corey..? and others. It was exciting to be there and I ran into virtually all of my reporter friends on the White House Press Corps including among others, David Gregory, Terry Moran, Norah O’Donnell, Ann Compton, Bill Plant, John Roberts. I had a great interview with an AP reporter Scott Lindlaw, whom I had not met before. The initiatives were very well received. However, as I have seen before, unpredictable events shape everything. Former President Ronald Reagan and died a few days before and the press was totally saturated with Reagan history and funeral news to the point that the G8 issues were literally pushed from the front page. I appeared on TV only one time on CNN and that was for an interview with Anderson Cooper on my impressions of Reagan’s legacy on AIDS, particularly during the early years when he did not even mention AIDS publicly. I stated on camera that the criticism of this silence on the part of the activists was certainly justified; however, the activists are being too harsh (Larry Kramer wrote a piece calling him worse than Hitler) since many things occurred behind the scenes that were good. For Example he allowed me to go out and be proactive and speak on behalf of the gay constituents. Also, Surgeon General Koop was allowed to mail his report to every household in the USA. I also got some press with interview in foreign TV such as VOA, Al Jazeera, Canada National TV, BBC, etc. Also, a few mentions of my briefings in WSJ, and many papers that picked up the major AP story by Scott Lindlaw. Otherwise, there was much less press for the G8 in general and for me than would have occurred had not Reagan died.