page_title: Helen Thomas
section_title: George W. Bush administration
hierarchical_section_title: Helen Thomas / Presidential correspondent / George W. Bush administration
caption_attribution_description: English: The "James Brady Press Briefing Room" a half hour before the morning gaggle. In the front rank, Helen Thomas
context_page_description: Helen Amelia Thomas was an American reporter and author, and a longtime member of the White House press corps. She covered the White House during the administrations of ten U.S. presidents—from the start of the Kennedy administration to the second year of the Obama administration.
  Thomas worked for the United Press and post-1958 successor United Press International for 57 years, first as a correspondent, and later as White House bureau manager. She then served as a columnist for Hearst Newspapers from 2000 to 2010, writing on national affairs and the White House. Thomas was the first female officer of the National Press Club, the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents' Association and the first female member of the Gridiron Club. She wrote six books; her last was Listen Up, Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do.
  Thomas retired from Hearst Newspapers on June 7, 2010, following controversial comments she made about Jews, Israel, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and her claims that "Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street are owned by Zionists", leading to multiple accusations of antisemitism.
context_section_description: During President George W. Bush's first term, Thomas reacted to Press Secretary Ari Fleischer's statements about arms shipments to the terrorists by asking: "Where do the Israelis get their arms?"
  He responded: "There's a difference, Helen, and that is—"
  "What is the difference?" she asked.
  He responded: "The targeting of innocents through the use of terror, which is a common enemy for Yasir Arafat and for the people of Israel, as well as—"
  She interrupted him, saying: "Palestinian people are fighting for their land."
  He responded: "I think that the killing of innocents is a category entirely different. Justifying killing of innocents for land is an argument in support of terrorism."
  In January 2003, following a speech at a Society of Professional Journalists banquet, Thomas told an autograph seeker, "I'm covering the worst president in American history." The autograph-seeker was a sports writer for The Daily Breeze and her comments were published. After that she was not called upon during a press conference for the first time in over four decades. She wrote to the President to apologize.
  For many years, Thomas sat in the front row and asked the first question during White House press conferences. However, according to Thomas in a 2006 Daily Show interview, this ended because she no longer represented a wire service. During the Bush administration, Thomas was moved to the back row during press conferences; she was called upon at briefings on a daily basis but no longer ended presidential news conferences by saying, "Thank you, Mr. President." When asked why she was seated in the back row, she said, "They didn't like me. . . . I ask too mean questions."
  On March 21, 2006, Thomas was called upon directly by President Bush for the first time in three years. Thomas asked Bush about the War in Iraq:
  I'd like to ask you, Mr. President, [about] your decision to invade Iraq . . . Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is: Why did you really want to go to war? . . . You have said it wasn't oil . . . quest for oil, it hasn't been Israel, or anything else. What was it?
  Bush responded by discussing the War on Terror, stating as a reason for the invasion that Saddam Hussein chose to deny inspectors and not to disclose required information. Thomas was criticized by some commentators for her exchange with Bush.
  In July 2006, she told The Hill, "The day Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I'll kill myself. All we need is another liar . . . I think he'd like to run, but it would be a sad day for the country if he does."
  At the July 18, 2006, White House press briefing, Thomas remarked: "The United States . . .  could have stopped the bombardment of Lebanon. We have that much control with the Israelis . . . we have gone for collective punishment against all of Lebanon and Palestine." Press Secretary Tony Snow responded: "Thank you for the Hezbollah view."
  In a press conference on November 30, 2007, Thomas questioned White House Press Secretary Dana Perino as to why Americans should depend on General David Petraeus in determining when to re-deploy U.S. troops from Iraq. Perino began to answer, when Thomas interjected with "You mean how many more people we kill?" Perino immediately took offense, responding:
  Helen, I find it really unfortunate that you use your front row position, bestowed upon you by your colleagues, to make such statements. This is a...it is an honor and a privilege to be in the briefing room, and to suggest that we, the United States, are killing innocent people is just absurd and very offensive.
  Refusing to back down, Thomas responded immediately by asking Perino if she knew how many innocent Iraqis had been killed and then questioned the worth of regret when Perino responded that the administration regretted the loss of all innocent Iraqi lives.
caption: Thomas in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room half an hour before morning gaggle, 2007
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