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US President George W. Bush said Thursday that there would be some changes to the cabinet for his second term.
"There will be some changes" to the cabinet, but "I don't know who they will be," he said at the first post-election news conference at the White House, during which he outlined his agenda for his second term.
Cabinet changes happen in every administration, and he was "about to head into the period of intense speculation as to who is going to stay and who's not going to stay," he said.
After the first cabinet meeting earlier in three months Thursday morning and the press conference, Bush would fly to Camp David, where he said he would "begin the process of thinking about the cabinet and the White House staff."
"We'll let you know at the appropriate time when decisions have been made," he promised.
Earlier at the press conference, Bush sidestepped a question about possible changes to the cabinet for his second term. "I haven't made any decisions on the cabinet yet," he said.
The New York Times reported Thursday that Attorney General John Ashcroft and the secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, were considered the most likely to relinquish their posts in Bush's new cabinet.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has long been described as likely to leave office, but it was not so certain for the time being. If he were to resign, the report said, the most likely successors were Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and former Senator John F. Danforth.
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had an interest in staying in the job to complete some of the changes he initiated, like the troops deployment, the report quoted people working with Rumsfeld as saying.
(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2004)
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