Bush calls on White House staff for full cooperation in transition

The outgoing US president George W. Bush gathered the White House staff Thursday, Nov. 6, to stress that their primary task in the 75 days left of his administration is to ensure a successful transition to Barack Obama. The incoming president received his first intelligence briefing from Central Intelligence Director Michael Hayden earlier Thursday. Bush will discuss the economy and Iraq war with him next week. Transitional team members are being given security clearances.
Flanked by the First Lady, Vice President Dick Cheney and members of his cabinet, Bush bid farewell to the more than a thousand-strong White House staff gathered for the occasion.
White House departments are already preparing extensive background materials, Bush said, so that there are no disruptions in the first presidential wartime transition in four decades. He stressed once again: “We continue the struggle to defeat the extremists abroad so that we do not have to face them at home.”