EDITOR’S NOTE: The following interview with Dana Perino was originally published on April 29, 2007.
With Tony Snow expected to return to the White House on Monday after a month-long absence following a recurrence of cancer, acting press secretary Dana Perino will return to a behind-the-scenes communications role.
The 34-year-old Parker native and CSU-Pueblo graduate spoke Friday with Denver Post staff writer Christa Marshall about her time in the spotlight.
Question: (In the past month,) what’s the toughest thing you’ve had to deal with?
Answer: Tony Snow is clearly more comfortable at the podium than I am. He’s got years more experience, so I would say at first it was pretty intimidating because you know you’re being compared to somebody who is considered to be the best press secretary ever to hold this position.
Q: How often do you meet with the president?
A: A lot more than I did as deputy, when weeks might go by without seeing him. As acting press secretary it’s been almost daily.
Q: Does anything about the White House press corps frustrate you?
A: Well today, I did ask them if today was “hypothetical question day.” They kept asking a lot of “ifs,” and we don’t answer ifs. But for the most part I don’t get frustrated. I really respect everyone in that briefing room.
Q: What do you think you’ll do when Bush leaves office?
A: I have a thing called the “fantasy road trip” planned out in my head. I would like to make a circle up through Canada and spend some time in Denver.
Q: How hard is it to “sell” the administration’s stance on the war when it is so unpopular?
A: Well, what I always do is I look to the president for leadership. The reason why is, I believe he is the right president at the right time making the right decisions for this country, based on what he believes is right and what is in the long-term security interest of the country.
Q: There was a widely reported contentious exchange between you and (veteran White House reporter) Helen Thomas. What happened?
A: It is women like Helen Thomas who blazed the trail for us, and I’m forever grateful for that. It’s just sometimes very hard to concentrate when she continues to talk when you answer a question. I unfortunately got frustrated and I voiced it.
Q: How does the White House formulate its message of the day?
A: There’s planning meetings and we think about what we want to do. Like, for example, we know that on immigration the Senate has said it wants to get a bill out of its chamber by the end of May, so you’ll see the president talking a lot in public about that issue. It’s strategic. We knew the supplemental fight would be this week, so we added additional events on that.
Q: What does the average person not know about how the White House operates?
A: Unlike the movies, it’s more of a calm place to be. People don’t run around in the hallways making rash decisions.
Q: How do you let loose?
A: Red wine and chocolate! And I exercise a lot.
