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Home > Window on Washington > Archives > 2008 > October > 28 > Entry
Bush’s secret trip
President Bush, whose official schedule showed no public events today, left the White House for a secret, unannounced excursion this morning.
As usual with such events, details were not released until he arrived at the undisclosed location. Turns out it was a campaign event, sort of, for a president conspicuously absent from the campaign trail this year.
Here’s the word from Deputy Press Secretary Scott Stanzel about the presidential pep talk at Republican National Committee headquarters:
“During the visit, he encouraged (RNC workers) to work hard for John McCain and keep turning out the vote until the final ballot is cast next week. He also took the opportunity to thank the staff for all of their efforts during this election cycle and for their support of him over the last eight years. He spoke to the staff about the importance of American leadership on the issues of the economy, the War on Terror and freedom. He thanked Chairman Mike Duncan for his leadership of the RNC.”
And then it was a short motorcade back to the White House. The trip was uneventful until arrival. The presidential limo pulled up near the Oval Office but the president did not immediately emerge. Instead, several plain-clothes Secret Service agents took position in front of the limo, holding up their machine guns (See AP photo above). Also armed and ready were several SWAT officers.
After a couple of minutes, Bush got out of the limo and walked to his office. Stanzel said there had been a disturbance at the White House fence.
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said a 23-year-old man from Baltimore, identified as Kevin Peterson, was taken into custody after jumping the fence. The man never got near Bush.
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