[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
[October 22, 1993]
[Pages 1800-1801]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters Prior to a Meeting With Members 
of Congress
October 22, 1993

NAFTA

    The President. Ladies and gentlemen, just let me make one opening 
remark, and I'll answer a couple of questions. I want to thank Mr. 
Michel for once again bringing a group of Republicans in--that he and 
Mr. Gingrich have arranged for some first-term Republicans to come in 
and meet with me and Ambassador Kantor and Mr. Frenzel and Mr. Daley. 
And we're glad to have a chance to discuss NAFTA.
    This has been a hard week for us, a hard working week. I have made 
several congressional meetings, and of course we had the great products 
fair with Mr. Iacocca. We're trying to work out some of the practical 
details now on how to deal with the reduction of the tariffs that will 
come from NAFTA and all that. But I feel much better than I did on 
Monday about where we are.
    I've made, also, a large number of personal phone calls to Democrats 
this week, and I think we're making some good progress.
    Q. Mr. President, do you think you're working hard enough so that 
Mr. Gingrich would no longer describe your efforts as ``pathetic''?
    The Vice President. He didn't say that, did he?
    Q. He somehow said that, Mr. Vice President. I don't know how. 
[Laughter]
    The President. He didn't----
    Q. Could you----
    The President. You know, one of the things that I've noticed about 
Washington is that when you're in a tough fight, you know, some people 
are always wondering about what happens if you don't make it. I'm just 
worried about making it. If I make it, I don't care who gets credit for 
it.
    I'll tell you this: I'm trying to win it. And the Democrats have 
been--some of them have been asking me to ease up. They said every time 
they turn around, there's another member of the Cabinet in their office, 
and they're calling them at 11 o'clock at night. So I think we're doing 
a pretty good job. But if we win, it won't matter.

District of Columbia

    Q. What do you think about sending the National Guard, or allowing 
the National Guard to patrol the city here?
    The President. I think it should be reviewed. I've given a lot of 
thought to it, and I've asked our legal counsel to get with the Justice 
Department and look into the legality of it and what the legal hurdles 
are and also what the practical

[[Page 1801]]

problems are.
    Keep in mind, guardsmen are not full-time military people. They do 
weekend duty, by and large. And except in the summertime, again by and 
large, they're not on full-time duty. So if you call out the Guard in 
other times in any substantial numbers, you can be disrupting the normal 
work lives of a lot of people.
    But I'm very sympathetic with the problems that the Mayor has and 
that Washington has. There are 1,500 shootings here a year now. It's one 
reason--I certainly hope that we can pass this crime bill in a hurry. If 
we do, we'll have another 50,000 police officers on the street, and it 
will reduce the pressure for National Guard officers.
    But I will review it, and I think it deserves to be reviewed. It 
obviously is not a precedent that can easily be confined just to 
Washington, DC. So there are lots of questions that have to be thought 
through here. But I want to wait until she sends me the letter and then 
review the specific proposal.
    I hope that we can use this moment to emphasize the need to move on 
the Brady bill, the crime bill, the question of whether minors should be 
restricted in the ownership of handguns, the questions of the assault 
weapons. I think all of these things are part of a rising tide of anger 
and fear and frustration on the part of the American people that we need 
to respond to.

Haiti

    Q. Mr. President, are you beginning to be concerned that the 
sanctions won't work in time for Aristide to go back next Saturday as 
scheduled?
    The President. I've always been concerned about that.
    Q. Will it have to be today?
    The President. I think that the sanctions are very tough now. And I 
think what the others have to think about is what it's going to be like 
to them a few months from now, what it is that they're fighting so hard 
to hold on to if these sanctions are fully implemented. We never thought 
that they could have an impact on their own merits within a week, 
although they are having some impact already. But I think that the 
reason we got the Governors Island Agreement in the first place is 
because of the sanctions. I don't know why they thought that they could 
ignore it and not have sanctions, but I think now they know they can.
    Thank you very much.

Visit to Russia

    Q. [Inaudible]--going to Moscow?
    The President. Helen [Helen Thomas, United Press International] 
asked me a question about it this morning. I still don't believe we've 
finalized a date. But the Vice President is going next--I mean, not next 
month but in December. And I plan to go in January, but we haven't 
finalized the date. We may do it before the day's over. We don't have a 
date.
    Thank you.
    Q. It's pretty cold in January.
    The President. I've been there in January. It's light about 4 hours 
a day. Shows you my timing.

Note: The President spoke at 9:17 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these 
remarks.