From: barrett@cc.gatech.edu (James Barrett)
Subject: CLINTON: Today Show Transcript (9/28)
Reply-To: barrett@cc.gatech.edu (James Barrett)
Organization: Georgia Tech College of Computing
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 22:12:19 GMT

          Clinton: I Don't Know if Perot Has Decided

    The following is the Reuter transcript of an appearance
 by Democratic presidential candidate Gov Bill Clinton, who
 appeared on NBC-TV's Today show, Monday, Sept 28, 1992. The
 NBC interviewer was Katherine Couric.
    KATHERINE COURIC: As Ross Perot grabs the spotlight once
 again, both President Bush and Governor Clinton continue to
 campaign hard vying for those uncommitted voters.
    We invited both President Bush and Governor Clinton to
 appear here to plead their cases. Governor Clinton accepted. 
    So this morning we begin a 3-part series with Bill
 Clinton. We sat down with the Arkansas governor yesterday in
 Des Moines, Iowa. I started by asking him if he thought he
 was giving too much attention to Ross Perot by sending his
 representatives to meet Perot supporters today in Texas.
    CLINTON: Oh, I don't think so. You know, he asked us to
 send some people down there to discuss the issues with his
 state directors.
    I don't know whether he's already made up his mind or
 whether they've made up their mind. But he asked, and we
 would do that for anybody that represented several hundred
 thousand people. You know, we would send people there. And I
 think-- I've reviewed his plan very carefully.
    His approach has much more in common with mine than with
 Mr Bush. Particularly when it comes to investing in
 education and when it comes to limiting the influence of
 lobbyists and political action committees, and that whole
 business designed to end the gridlock in Washington.
    We have some differences, but I think it's a good thing 
 for me to send our folks down there and make our case. We're
 not going to plead our case, we're just going to say here's
 where we are, here's where we agree, here's where we
 disagree and why, and do you have any questions.
    And I think it's an appropriate thing to do.
    QUESTION: Do you think Ross Perot will get back into the
 race?
    CLINTON: I don't have any idea.
    QUESTION: You can't be all that excited about the
 prospect. 
    CLINTON: But I just don't have any idea. There's nothing
 I can do. One thing I've learned in this work is that you
 must focus on those things you can have an impact on. I have
 no influence over that. Whatever he wants to do it's fine
 with me. I believe I've got the best plan. I think we've got
 the best program for America. It's far more specific than
 anybody else's in really critical areas.
    QUESTION: Including Ross Perot's?
    CLINTON: Yeah, it's more specific than his. Now he
 does--he raises more taxes on the middle class and 
 middle class elderly than I would.
    But in terms of how I would control health care costs,
 I've been more explicit and specific. And more specific in
 many other areas.
    So while I applaud the work he's done to put out this
 plan, and I applaud his concern with the deficit. It bothers
 me too. I've dealt with 12 balanced budgets in 12 years,
 I've cut spending twice since I've been running for
 president, as governor back home, to balance the books.
 And I'm very upset about the deficit.
    But I believe you have to have growth and deficit
 reduction. If you try to balance the budget too quickly with
 tax increases and spending cuts on the elderly, for example,
 what will happen is the unemployment will go up and the
 economy will go down, and federal revenues will drop.
    And that's what concerns me.
    So I want to pursue a very balanced program to reduce the
 deficit, but to do it while increasing investment and growth
 in this economy. We've go to get jobs and incomes up. 
    QUESTION: Do you think Ross Perot's claim that you're not
 dealing with the federal deficit doesn't hold water then?
    CLINTON: I don't deal with it in the same way that he
 does. You can't just do deficit reduction. Because if you
 do, you'll run unemployment up and get the economy in deep
 trouble for 3 or 4 years.
    QUESTION: Are you discussing with the Bush campaign the
 prospect of debates right now?
    CLINTON: No. I thought for sure they would accept the
 2d proposal of the debate commission. Because the debate
 commission said okay, we'll have 2 debates instead of 3,
 which is what Mr. Bush wanted. And then they invited us to
 come to a meeting at which we would discuss the format.
 Because he likes the interview format. So there's less room
 for fall up there.
    And so I said okay, we'll accept that. I accepted that
 immediately, and once again they turned it down.
    So I don't know where we are now. I'm going to Louisville
 on Tuesday. I was in East Lansing last Tuesday, I'll be in
 Louisville this Tuesday, and I'll keep looking for the
 opportunity to have a debate on these issues.
    QUESTION: The American public I think is really getting
 tired of this whole thing. I think they want to see a
 debate, and I think perhaps they're looking at this whole
 thing as both sides playing games.
    CLINTON: They're wrong. They're dead wrong. I have not
 played any games. There is a recognized, bipartisan debate
 commission. The co-chairman of it is Gerald Ford, a
 Republican former president, Frank Fahrenkopf is on it, he
 worked in 3 of George Bush's national campaigns. They have
 been the recognized sponsor of this.
    They made a recommendation. There was just as much
 Republican input as Democratic. And I accepted it. It is not
 true that both of us are equally at fault.
    George Bush was like a kid on a play yard. He said I
 don't want to play that way, I don't like them, we will do 
 it my way or no way. You get in a room with Jim Baker and
 let us work you around in private when the press is not
 there. We liked the debate commission 4 years ago, but now
 they want to hold me more accountable, they want me to have
 follow up questions, they don't want me to be able to dump
 on Bill Clinton with no accountability, because then--with
 the panel I get to go to the next news person and be clever
 and engaging and ignore the fact that nobody got to follow
 up my answer.
    Now, I have accepted the debate commissions. I have 
 played by the rules. This is not both party's fault. This is
 his fault.
    He refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of the
 commission that he, not me, that he, George Bush legitimized
 4 years ago. And I don't think anybody who studies these
 facts believes that I'm dodging these debates.
    Bush is ducking the debates because he wants to control
 the whole game, and he does not want to be held accountable
 for his record or for his hit jobs in the debates by follow
 up questions. 
    QUESTION: But would a debate with 3 journalists or a
 panel of journalists be better than no debate at all?
    CLINTON: It's fine with me, if that's what the debate
 commission decides they want, and that's what we agree to,
 that's fine.
    But what I am not going to do is to trash 4 years of work
 by this debate commission, because George Bush who accepted
 their work 4 years ago decides that he doesn't have to play
 by anybody else's rules.
    You know, I saw those debates with Dukakis, and Bush did
 very well. He's always done well in debates. And he'll do
 well in these debates.
    But the reason he doesn't want one moderator is because
 when you've got a panel there he gets to be very genuine and
 engaging with all the panelists, to ignore the questions,
 and no follow up.
    So he got to zing old Dukakis over, and over, and over
 again, to blow off the questions. And the reporters couldn't
 do any follow up because they had to go to the next
 panelist.
    And I understand that. That's what the debate commission
 says, they say that's the best we can do, then I'll be open
 to that. But I think that, you know, I have played by the
 rules, I accepted the debates the minute they were offered,
 June, eleven days before the first debate he canceled.
    Then they said okay, we'll do what Bush wants, we'll have
 2 debates instead of 3 and we'll talk about the forum. I
 accepted that within the hour. Then he balked at that. 
    So I have played by the rules.
    QUESTION: If Ross Perot says he'll debate will you debate
 Ross Perot without George Bush?
    CLINTON: I don't know. I want to see what the debate
 commission decides on that.
    But you know, I've done debates. I have done--how many
 debates did I do in the primary, 30 or more, I mean I just
 did them all over. I did them when people said I shouldn't
 do them, when people said I had a commanding lead and only
 Jerry Brown was left, I shouldn't debate him. I debated him
 at length in New York.
    I like discussions of the issues. But I am not about to
 see this debate commission and all the work of 4 years be
 trashed for the manipulative purposes of Mr Bush and
 Mr Baker. That's what's going on now.
    QUESTION: Why won't the draft issue go away?
    CLINTON: I think it has gone away. I think the--it's gone
 away with everybody except Republicans back in Arkansas who
 keep stirring it, and they come up with new convenient 
 memories every so often. Every time anybody who had an
 official role in it's asked, they say that nothing was done
 wrong.
    And I've answered all the questions about it. I guess
 I'll keep answering the questions. But the answers are not
 going to change, because the facts won't change. I mean the
 man that's behind all this was running newspaper ads against
 me in New Hampshire in February on issues that had nothing
 to do with the draft.
    He is the obsessive operative of the Republicans at home 
 trying to keep me from winning the presidency. I don't know
 why the press takes his allegations as credible. But I don't
 think the people do. I just keep answering the questions as
 they come up.
    QUESTION: There are still some voters, however, Governor
 Clinton, who seem not to feel totally comfortable with the
 way you handled the whole draft issue or the questions
 that--
    CLINTON: I don't think I've always handled it very well,
 because I don't have--I didn't have total recall of what 
 happened 23 years ago. And from the first time the draft
 issue was raised against me in Arkansas, in 1978, until
 1991, not a soul who had any direct knowledge of the facts
 said I did anything wrong. They all said quite the reverse,
 I'd never done anything wrong.
    It was only in 1992 that anybody suggested that anything
 wrong was done. And almost all the stories have been
 supplied by local Republicans.
    Now, let me just tell you, everybody--the facts have not
 changed. And the facts are clear. And I think most Americans 
 when they saw Admiral Crowe, who was the chairman of the
 joint chiefs of staff under Presidents Reagan and Bush, and
 who served 47 years in uniform endorsing me for commander in
 chief, I think most Americans felt the way most Vietnam
 veterans do that I talked to in my rallies an the people
 that come up and all the medal of honor winners who have
 endorsed me, they think they have heard enough, they know
 the facts.
    QUESTION: Do you wish you had handled it differently at
 all? 
    CLINTON: I wish that I could have predicted that
 everybody would change their story. Or that local
 Republicans would come up with fresh memories and be taken
 seriously by the press. If I had done that, then I would
 have tried to remember every last thing that happened 23
 years ago in proper sequence and had it all there in the
 beginning. But I didn't, I didn't anticipate that.
    I think that it's interesting, however, that we now have
 all the evidence--so-called evidence against me has been
 supplied by people who either changed their stories, have no
 direct knowledge, or are involved with the Republican party.
    Now, by contrast, on this Iran-contra thing, all the
 evidence against Mr Bush has been supplied by people who
 were on his side. Memorandums from cabinet members of the
 Reagan- Bush administration, from General Secord, who was
 part of their team, another direct story coming out of the
 New York Times this week. And he never answers any of that.
    And this is something that happened when he was well into
 his term as vice president of the US, when there was plenty
 of official records left, and when all the evidence against
 him is being supplied by people who are on his team, and
 there is documented evidence there.
    So I think it's interesting that you folks have asked him
 fewer questions about this, apparently, or gotten fewer
 answers than I've given about the draft. There have been a
 lot more stories about the draft and I've answered a lot
 more questions about it than Mr. Bush has answered about
 Iran-contra, something that happened more recently, when he 
 was vice president, where the evidence against him is being
 provided by people who are on his side.
    QUESTION: Later this week we'll hear more from Governor
 Clinton. On Wednesday we'll talk with him about his economic
 program, and on Friday his health care plan.
 
 
 
   ***END OF REUTER INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT***
                                               

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James C. Barrett (barrett@cc.gatech.edu)|"If your so damned smart, why are
Georgia Tech College of Computing       |  you doing what you're doing, and I'm
                                        |  president of the U.S.?" - G.Bush
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