President Bush will hold a news conference today at 8:30 p.m. ET in the East Room of the White House, his first prime-time news conference since April 13, 2004.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said the press conference has been planned for a couple of weeks and that it will address Social Security reform and energy policies. Bush's "60 stops in 60 days" tour ends Sunday. Bush is expected to declare the tour "a success," and to lay out some specific ideas for "moving the bipartisan debate forward."
President Bush's press conference today will be his:
sixth since Election Day, Nov. 2, 2004
fourth since Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2005
fourth prime-time press conference since taking office in 2001
Counting today, Bush has held 17 solo press conferences at the White House since taking office in January 2001. This figure counts only press conferences when the president appeared alone at the White House, not on a foreign trip or with a foreign leader. A full list of his press conferences appears below.
President Bush has notably increased the frequency of his time in front of the White House press corps since his re-election. He has held a press conference every month since Election Day, and in all, six of his 17 total solo press conferences have come since Nov. 2, 2004.
The president's last press conference came on Wednesday, March 16, before the president left for his ranch in Crawford, Texas, for a 10-day trip over the Easter holiday.
The last five press conferences have all come around a major event or just before he leaves for a vacation.
Nov. 4, 2004 (2 days after the election)
Dec. 20, 2004 (before leaving for Crawford for Christmas)
