[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
[June 14, 1993]
[Page 846]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters
June 14, 1993

Senator Arlen Specter's Illness

    The President. [Inaudible]--and obviously I was very concerned--need 
for the operation, but our prayers are with him. And we're pulling for 
him.
    Q. Have you spoken to his family at all today?
    The President. No, I wanted to wait until, frankly, until I had all 
this out of the way and until there was time to, you know, get through 
the operation. Then I thought I'd call them--later. We have a time 
scheduled to call, but I haven't talked to them yet.
    Q. Were you shocked and surprised?
    The President. Yes. He was just here last week, and he was--you 
know, he brought in the family from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We've 
had a great visit, and we were talking about a number of different 
things.
    Q. Are you hopeful he'll come back?
    The President. Oh, absolutely. And I think he will. We're certainly 
hopeful.

Supreme Court Nomination

    Q. Mr. President, on your nomination, was it tough for you to pass 
over Judge Breyer and Secretary Babbitt? Was it a hard decision?
    The President. Well, it was hard in the sense that they were all 
qualified. And there were two or three others I thought were 
exceptionally well qualified. But once I talked to her, I felt very 
strongly about her. This is not a negative thing on them. And as I said, 
out there in the crowd I had a half a dozen people come up to me and 
thank me for leaving Secretary Babbitt at the Interior Department. They 
say he's the best Interior Secretary they'd ever seen. So that was a 
real problem, but I like them all. I thought they were all superbly well 
qualified. And I think that they will be in the future.
    There was no negative--it was a positive position being able to pick 
the person I thought would be best at this time, a purely positive 
choice. In that sense it was a joy to make, but not easy. You can see 
today from--she's an extraordinary woman. She has incredible inner 
strength and character. And I think it will communicate itself and 
really help to create a good atmosphere at the Court.

Note: The exchange began at 4:55 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of this 
exchange.