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President George W. Bush

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"Well, I get up at about five in the morning and have breakfast for about an hour where I read the newspapers. I get in to the office at about 7 o'clock, 7:15, and I meet with my staff to go over any issue that we see in the newspapers that could present a problem for the administration.

Then I go to senior staff meeting at 7:30 and have a couple of more staff meetings to help me prepare for the gaggle. And then I do the gaggle."

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"The gaggle is — I do two briefings a day, interestingly — the gaggle is the first one; it's at 9:45 in the morning, and it's on the record. But it's off-camera and not allowed on radio. But it counts. It's a regular briefing for 15 minutes. And it's my way to describe to reporters what the president is doing that day and a way for reporters to start asking questions to start their day and to provide helpful intelligence for the White House about what issues the president is working on."

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"Then I go from the gaggle into preparing for the briefing, attending many meetings, often with the president, because the best way to speak for the president is to listen to him. And then I do a lot of reading, and that's how I prepare for the briefing. And I spend most of the afternoons returning reporters' phone calls and checking e-mails."

Ari Fleischer interview