White House Says Obama Leaks Not Accurate

Perino Calls Democrats' Stimulus Plan a 'Stretch'

"The president does support free trade, but did not suggest a quid pro quo. He did discuss the merits of free trade, but there was no linkage between Colombia Free Trade and a second stimulus package," Perino insisted.

When asked if there was some White House irritation about the leaks, Perino said, "You're not going to hear that from me. I think when you're dealing with aides who choose to be nameless rather than say what they feel ... on the record ... It happens, but the president did not suggest a quid pro quo."

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Perino added, "I'll let unidentified aides defend themselves, if you guys can find them. But I can tell you here, on the record, not afraid to say it, the president does support free trade."

Perino made clear, however, that the president does not agree with Obama that a Democratic plan for a fresh round of stimulus checks is the best way to help the country's economy.

"When it comes to a second stimulus package, what I have told you for a week or so is that so far we have not seen something that would stimulate the economy right away," she said.

"The best way for us to do that is to implement the rescue package that we are currently doing to help improve the credit markets."

At another point, Perino said that it's a "stretch" for the Democrats to call their proposal a stimulus plan.

"So far, what we've seen would not actually stimulate the economy and get money moving into the system again. ... To call it a stimulus package would be a stretch at this point," she said.

Perino also made clear that Bush and Obama disagreed on whether the president has the authority under the $700 billion bailout legislation to spend some of that money on the auto industry.

"As we read it, we don't see anything in there that would give us the authority to help individual industries. ... We have gone as far as we can with the authority Congress has given us in order to help industries."

Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs said the discussion about the car industry involved "the broad health of the industry" and was not just limited to any one of the three largest car makers.

ABC News Jake Tapper contributed to this report.