[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 17 (Monday, May 1, 2006)]
[Pages 797-798]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing the Appointment of Tony Snow as White House Press 
Secretary

April 26, 2006

    Good morning. I'm here in the briefing room to break some news. I've 
asked Tony Snow to serve as my new Press Secretary.
    Tony already knows most of you, and he's agreed to take the job 
anyway. [Laughter] And I'm really glad he did. I'm confident Tony Snow 
will make an outstanding addition to this White House staff. I am 
confident he will help you do your job. My job is to make decisions, and 
his job is to help explain those decisions to the press corps and the 
American people.

[[Page 798]]

    He understands, like I understand, that the press is vital to our 
democracy. As a professional journalist, Tony Snow understands the 
importance of the relationship between Government and those whose job it 
is to cover the Government. He's going to work hard to provide you with 
timely information about my philosophy, my priorities, and the actions 
we're taking to implement our agenda.
    He brings a long record of accomplishment to this position. He has 
spent a quarter of a century in the news business. He's worked in all 
three major media--print, radio, and television. He started his career 
in 1979 as an editorial writer for the Greensboro Record in North 
Carolina. He's going to--went on to write editorials for the Virginian-
Pilot in Norfolk. He ran the editorial pages in both the Daily Press of 
Newport News and the Washington Times. He's written nationally 
syndicated columns for both the Detroit News and USA Today.
    During his career in print journalism, he's been cited for his work 
by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, and 
Gannett. For 7 years, he served as the host of ``FOX News Sunday.'' Most 
recently, he reached Americans all across our country as the host of 
``The Tony Snow Show'' on FOX News Radio and ``Weekend Live with Tony 
Snow'' on the FOX News Channel.
    He's not afraid to express his own opinions. For those of you who 
have read his columns and listened to his radio show, he sometimes has 
disagreed with me. I asked him about those comments, and he said, ``You 
should have heard what I said about the other guy.'' I like his 
perspective; I like the perspective he brings to this job; and I think 
you're going to like it too.
    Tony knows what it's like to work inside the White House. In 1991, 
he took a break from journalism to serve as Director of Speechwriting 
and Deputy Assistant to the President for Media Affairs. He's taught 
children in Kenya. He belongs to a rock band called Beats Workin'. He's 
a man of courage; he's a man of integrity; he loves his family a lot. He 
is the loving husband of a fine wife and the father of three beautiful 
children.
    He succeeds a decent and talented man in Scott McClellan. I've known 
Scott since he worked for me in Texas. We traveled our State together; 
we traveled our country together; and we have traveled the world 
together. We have also made history together. Scott should be enormously 
proud of his service to our Nation in an incredibly difficult job. I've 
always--I will always be grateful to him. I will always be proud to call 
him friend.
    I appreciate Scott's offer to help Tony Snow prepare for his new 
job, and I'm proud to welcome Tony as part of our team.
    Tony Snow. Well, Mr. President, I want to thank you for the honor of 
serving as Press Secretary. And just a couple of quick notes--I'm 
delighted to be here. One of the things I want to do is just make it 
clear that I--one of the reasons I took the job is not only because I 
believe in the President, because believe it or not, I want to work with 
you. These are times that are going to be very challenging. We've got a 
lot of big issues ahead, and we've got a lot of important things that 
all of us are going to be covering together.
    And I am very excited, and I can't wait. And I want to thank you, 
Mr. President, for the honor, and thank all you guys for your 
forbearance. And I look forward to working with you.
    Thanks.

Note: The President spoke at 9:10 a.m. in the James S. Brady Briefing 
Room at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Jill Snow, wife 
of Tony Snow.