From: Clinton for President <75300.3115@compuserve.com>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: NBC-TV's Today show, Monday, Sept 28, 1992
Date: 10 Oct 92 06:50:32 GMT

[Reuter's transcript of Clinton Interview]


           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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