[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[January 20, 1994]
[Pages 106-116]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Interview With Larry King
January 20, 1994

First Year in Office

    Larry King. And thank you very much for joining us. We'll, of 
course, be including your phone calls. The phones will flash on the 
screen.
    What a year. Biggest surprise?
    The President. It was a little tougher to change things than I 
thought it would be. There was in this city a culture that I knew 
existed that tended to sometimes major in the minor and minor in the 
major, as you know. But I still found that if we stayed after it we 
could make change. It just turned out to be harder than I thought it 
would be.
    Mr. King. Adjustment tough? This is not Governor, right?
    The President. No. It wasn't tough to adjust to the job. I like the 
job. But it's a very different life. And I was very concerned about how 
it would affect my family. Hillary and I wanted to--we had a good life 
before, a good family life, good work life. And we were very concerned 
about Chelsea, who loved her school, her activities, her friends at 
home. But I'm proud of the transition she's made. And over the holidays 
when we were sort of reminiscing, we were most proud, I think, that our 
daughter had adjusted to her new school, made worlds of good friends, 
and has her ballet and other things.
    Mr. King. The saddest day had to be the loss of your mother----
    The President. Yes.
    Mr. King. ----and no time to really grieve, right?
    The President. She was real important to me. I loved her a lot. And 
the night she died she called me. We had a wonderful talk. And then I 
went home, and we put the funeral together. And then I went to Europe, 
and I came back, took a physical, and then went to California.
    Mr. King. So you've had no time to grieve.
    The President. No real time, no. You remember when she called on 
your show?
    Mr. King. You were in Ocala.
    The President. We were in Ocala, Florida, and you set me up.
    Mr. King. And you said, ``Where are you?''
    The President. My mother called me from Vegas.
    Mr. King. Vegas, where else?
    The President. Last trip she took, you know, which is what she 
should have done.
    Mr. King. I saw some people who were with her the night before she 
died. You would have never known she was ill. She was all right.
    That had to be the worst; what was the best day of this year? And 
then we'll discuss a whole bunch of things and take calls. What was your 
best day?
    The President. Well, I think my best personal day was Christmas 
because we had our families here. And it's a family holiday. It's always 
very important to me. Hillary loves it. Chelsea loves it. And we had 
Mother here and her husband, Dick, and my brother and Hillary's family. 
It was good.
    Mr. King. Best political day?
    The President. Best political day, that's tough. Probably the 
passage of the economic plan, because it made possible all the other 
things, the victory of NAFTA, the GATT agreement, the passage of family 
leave, national service, all the other things. If the economic plan 
hadn't happened, we couldn't have turned the economy around, and we 
couldn't have had all those other successes in Congress.

Los Angeles Earthquake

    Mr. King. Let's run down some things real current. You're just back 
from L.A. Apparently

[[Page 107]]

it's going to rain there this weekend. Are they going to have tents 
outside for those people?
    The President. They're working on that. They're also working on 
whether we can get some more trailers in and other things.
    Mr. King. What was that like to go there? I mean, we were there for 
it----
    The President. You were there when it happened, so you know better 
even than I. But I must tell you, standing on those pieces of broken 
interstate highway and to realize that happened in a matter of seconds, 
that massive--tons and tons of concrete moved, and then, of course, 
seeing all the homes ruined and businesses cracked open, it was an 
amazing thing.
    Mr. King. What's a President's role there?
    The President. Well, I think the first and most important role is to 
assure that the federal emergency management program is working, that 
we're getting the emergency help to people they need, the food, the 
shelter, and the money in some cases, people have lost everything; 
secondly, that we put in motion the rebuilding process to get housing to 
people and to deal with the longer term needs; and thirdly, that in the 
case of Los Angeles, that we start rebuilding those highways as quickly 
as possible. You know, it's a highway-driven place, southern California. 
We're finally beginning to get the economy turned around out there, 
finally, and then this happens. So we've got to do this in a way that 
doesn't upset the economy.
    Mr. King. There are some, as you know, among us in America who will 
say, ``Well, it's their problem. They chose to live in that area. That's 
an area where earthquakes occur. Why should Des Moines pay?''
    The President. Well, because California paid for Des Moines when we 
had that awful flood. Americans are normally at their best in times of 
grave natural disaster. And I must say, after all the people in 
California have been through--they had the riots, and then they had the 
fires, and they've had all the losses of jobs because of the defense 
cutbacks and the national recession--to have this put on them. And yet I 
met so many brave people. I met a women who said, ``You know, I lost my 
house, but I'd like to say I hope nobody will take advantage of the 
Federal Government. Don't apply for aid you don't deserve. Don't ask for 
something you don't need. Somebody else may need this later in the 
year.'' That's the kind of spirit you get.
    And I would hope that the people of America would want to help those 
folks who through no fault of their own were really dislocated. I also 
would tell you when there is a severe economic disruption, whether it 
was the Middle West because of the horrible floods in the Mississippi 
River Valley and the adjoining rivers or now southern California in the 
case of this earthquake, it hurts the whole rest of the American 
economy. So we've got to be family in emergencies. And I think that's 
what America wants to do.

Administration Nominations

    Mr. King. All right, switching gears. What do you make of the Bobby 
Inman story? What happened there--Safire, Dole, that explanation?
    The President. I don't know. You may know as much about that as 
anybody. All I can tell you is that I accept his statement. He made a 
decision. I don't think we should lose sight of the fact that he was a 
four-star admiral. He gave 30 years of service to his country. He was 
confirmed by the United States Senate four times. I just----
    Mr. King. You think maybe he really didn't want the job?
    The President. Down deep inside, I think maybe he wasn't sure he 
wanted to go back. There are a lot of people--I had a Cabinet member 
tell me the other day that if he had to do it all over again, he wasn't 
sure he would go into public service today because----
    Mr. King. Because?
    The President. ----it's just too brutal, what you're put through. 
That's what he said.
    Mr. King. Are there days you think that?
    The President. Not for me, no.
    Mr. King. You like it too much?
    The President. I like it. But the only thing I've ever cared about 
on that is my family. You know, when Hillary or Chelsea get hurt or when 
my mother was hurt by something that was said or done, that really 
bothered me, especially for Hillary and Chelsea. They really didn't sign 
on for all that. But for me, I figure, if you look around the Western 
world and you look at the recent history of the United States, if you 
sign on for a political career in the latter half of the 20th century, 
you just have to expect a level of that that didn't exist before.
    Mr. King. Goes with the territory?
    The President. Yes. And so I always say, if you want to get into 
this business, you need

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to know who are, what you believe in, and where you stand with what you 
believe because you can't let yourself be defined by what happens 
outside.
    Mr. King. The reports today are that it was offered to Sam Nunn and 
he declined. True?
    The President. Well, I can't discuss that, otherwise I would have to 
deal with all the other personalities I've considered, and so I don't 
want to discuss personalities.
    Mr. King. Would you say he would be on the list?
    The President. I will say this--that he would be a great Secretary 
of Defense, but he's got an awfully influential position now. We've been 
friends a long time. But let me just say this: I'm going to proceed in a 
deliberate but fairly quick way to name a Secretary of Defense, and then 
I'll talk about the process.
    Mr. King. Is it a short list? Yes? Why in this year did we have so 
many appointment problems?
    The President. First of all, I think most of it was because the 
rules changed on the household help issue. That had never been an issue 
before. And all of a sudden it was a big issue, and the press was 
pillorying people that had the problem. And it was a problem. And so we 
had to get that worked out. I don't think it will ever happen again now 
because now there are fairly clear rules: if you've had this problem but 
you pay your taxes and then now you won't be--so that was the first big 
problem.
    The second thing was that people's writings became an issue for jobs 
other than the Supreme Court. That is, Judge Bork's writings were an 
issue but that's because the Supreme Court got to read, interpret the 
Constitution, and it was a lifetime job. The Senators and others decided 
this year that they'd make that an issue for everybody for confirmation, 
which I think is a questionable standard, but it did.
    Mr. King. You're talking about Lani Guinier and----
    The President. Yes. And one or two others that became an issue even 
though we got a couple through. So I think that these standards are 
always being raised and heightened. And I think, frankly, the process 
takes too long now. I talked to several Republicans and Democrats who 
have no particular axe to grind now who think maybe it's time to have a 
bipartisan look at this whole appointments process. It's entirely too--
it takes too long to get somebody confirmed. It's too bureaucratic. You 
have two and three levels of investigation. I think it's excessive.

Civil Rights

    Mr. King. In that area, are we going to get a Deputy Attorney 
General for Civil Rights?
    The President. Well, I certainly expect one soon. The civil rights 
bar basically was heavily involved in the nomination of the last 
candidate who withdrew. And the Attorney General is working hard on it. 
And basically I've given her my proxy on the thing, ``Just work with 
them. Work with people who are committed to having a strong civil rights 
enforcement.''
    Interestingly enough, last year just when the Attorney General 
herself was in office and we didn't have a full-time director of the 
division, civil rights enforcement was way up at record levels in many 
areas. So we've got a good record, but I think it's important to have 
somebody in there who's good.
    Mr. King. So you're giving Janet Reno a proxy meeting--if she comes 
to you tomorrow and says it's ``Joe Jones''----
    The President. This is the person I'd like to nominate, unless 
there's some reason that I shouldn't, something I know that she doesn't 
know, then I will be strongly inclined to go with her judgment.
    Mr. King. Of course, in your popularity ratings, which, 
congratulations, keep going up--went up today--you scored the highest in 
the area of race relations. Does that surprise you?
    The President. No. I think the American people know how much I care 
about it. It's been a part of me ever since I was a little child. It was 
a big part of my work as Governor. And I think the American people know 
that I'm committed to both equality and excellence, that I want people 
without regard to their race to have a shot at the brass ring in 
America. And I think also the American people know that we can't solve 
the other problems, the crime, the violence, the family breakdown, all 
these other things, unless we reach across the racial divides. We just 
can't do it. We're not going to make it if we don't.

Attorney General Janet Reno

    Mr. King. About Ms. Reno--we keep reading--she goes up and down, and 
again these are pundits who say this. Where does Janet Reno stand 
tonight, one year in?

[[Page 109]]

    The President. I think she's terrific. I told her when she was hot 
as a firecracker, you know, with the public and with the press when she 
got here, and I was joking with her once, I said, ``You know, Janet, you 
go up and you go down in this business, and if you stay out there long 
enough, you'll take a few licks.'' And she's taken a few licks, but she 
has an enormous feel for simple justice, which is what I think people 
want in the Attorney General. She's got a steel backbone, and she 
understands what really works. She, like all the rest of us--none of us 
are perfect; we all make mistakes. But boy, she goes to work every day 
and really tries to do what's right for ordinary Americans.
    Mr. King. So she's staying?
    The President. If it's up to me, she is. I think she's done a fine 
job.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher

    Mr. King. Rumors are part of this scheme. Warren Christopher, is he 
in strong?
    The President. I think he's done a good job. And I think if you look 
at this last trip we took to Europe, and you look at the work that he 
has done, along with others in the national security and foreign policy 
team, the United States was very well received in Europe on this trip. 
They know that we're trying to unify Europe for the first time in 
history. Never in the whole history of Europe has it not been divided. 
The divisions of Europe caused these two awful World Wars in this 
century, caused the cold war. We've got a chance to unite it. We may not 
make it, but we've got a chance to unite it.
    Mr. King. And he's the right man in----
    The President. And he has worked hard on that, that's right. And I 
think he's really done a good job with the Middle East peace. He's 
managed this process. He's been to the Middle East a lot. And he's got 
good strong support at the State Department. So I think he's done a good 
job.

President Boris Yeltsin of Russia

    Mr. King. What do you make of Mr. Yeltsin's grip there--strong? On a 
scale of 10, where would you rate it?
    The President. I think he's got a strong grip because he's got a 4-
year term and a constitution which gives him more power, for example, 
than I have here, just pure legal power. I think that in the last 
election, a lot of people who are not friendly to some of his policies 
did very well, partly because the reformers didn't campaign as one group 
and didn't do a very good job in the mass media and all that sort of 
stuff, partly because the average Russian's having a tough time now. One 
of the things that I did when I was in Russia, and you know, through 
that town meeting--kind of like we do--and let people ask me questions, 
and I tried to establish some link between them and these processes of 
reform that are sweeping the world. Because times are tough for them 
now. And I think anytime times are tough--and keep in mind, they've just 
been a democracy a little while. We've been at this 200 years. And we 
kind of feel haywire from time to time, and we've been working at it for 
two centuries. They just got started. And so they elected some pretty 
extremist people and some people that are calling them to a past that is 
romanticized. And I think he's going to have a challenging time. But I 
think if they--he's a very tough guy. He believes in democracy. He's on 
the right side of history. And I think he will continue to listen and 
learn and work, and I think he'll do----
    Mr. King. On the first anniversary of his Presidency, a special 
edition of ``Larry King Live'' with President Bill Clinton. Some more 
talks and questions from me, and then he'll take your calls. Don't go 
away.

[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]

Natural Disasters

    Mr. King. We're back to this talk with the President on this one-
year anniversary. You will notice that the White House is not as 
brightly lit as it is normally lit. The lights are a little dim. That's 
because we are in a winter--terrible situation here in--you can't--you 
have a lot of power, but you can't do anything about ice storms. You 
can't do anything about zero degrees.
    The President. That's right. We haven't been asked to do as much as 
we were for the earthquake or the flood for that matter.
    Mr. King. More people have died in the Northeast----
    The President. That's right. It's a 100-year cold in a lot of these 
places. We have, first of all, tried to cut down on the Federal 
Government's power usage. We shut it down yesterday, shut it down today, 
and we're going to open

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late tomorrow and try to keep our power usage down so that we can give 
the power to people in their homes. Secondly, the Secretary of Housing 
and Urban Development Cisneros anticipating this, gave out all of our 
homeless money early, so that all the State and local governments all 
around here have got as much money as we can possibly give them to take 
care of homelessness and to try----
    Mr. King. Anticipating a tough winter?
    The President. Yes, just try--on the event that it happened, we just 
wanted to get everybody off the streets as much as we can. And we're 
going to be looking for whatever else we can do now. There may be some 
other problems in the next couple of days. We're praying and hoping it 
will get warmer.
    Mr. King. Nature humbles all of us. Humble you, too?
    The President. Absolutely. I was looking at that interstate cracked 
open and those houses ruined in Los Angeles yesterday, and I just remind 
you that we're not in full control----
    Mr. King. A President brings hope to that, doesn't he?
    The President. I think so.
    Mr. King. And there's a symbolic----
    The President. Oh, absolutely. Yesterday I could see--thousands of 
people came out to see me yesterday, to see the President, not Bill 
Clinton, the President. And I could see their energy, their hope. And I 
have two jobs: One is to rally them by doing my job, and the other is 
doing my job. James Lee Witt, who runs the emergency management of this 
country is doing a wonderful job, and we work at that hard. And we owe 
that to those people.

Whitewater Development Corp.

    Mr. King. More things current, Special Counsel Robert Fiske 
appointed today by Janet Reno, was that solely her appointment?
    The President. Oh, absolutely. I didn't know anything about it.
    Mr. King. Do you know Mr. Fiske?
    The President. No.
    Mr. King. Going to cooperate fully?
    The President. Absolutely. Whatever they want to do, we'll be glad 
to do it.
    Mr. King. He says he's going to probably take testimony from you and 
Hillary.
    The President. Whatever he wants to do. The main thing I want to do 
is just have that turned over to him so we can go back to work. I just 
want to do my job. I don't want to be distracted by this anymore. I 
didn't do anything wrong. Nobody's ever even suggested that I did. 
Everybody who's talked about it has suggested, as a matter of fact, to 
the contrary, that I didn't. But still, let them look into it. I just 
want to go back to work.
    Mr. King. Was it unfair, the press, or was it fair? Was it a story? 
Is it a story?
    The President. Well, let's wait until it's all over, and then maybe 
I'll have something to say then. The main thing is, it's important that 
I not be distracted from the job of being President. That's what I owe 
the American people. I've got to get up every day, no matter what else 
is going on, and try to give everything I have to moving this country 
forward to changing this country for the better. And this will take the 
onus, if you will, off of that. People will know it's being handled in 
that way, and then I can just go back to work, which is what I want to 
happen.
    Mr. King. In all candidness, a Special Counsel should have been 
appointed sooner, do you think?
    The President. Well----
    Mr. King. I mean, it would have certainly taken the story down.
    The President. It would have. I was concerned in the beginning about 
agreeing to it when--for the first time ever, no one ever--people were 
saying, ``We know you didn't do anything wrong, so appoint a Special 
Counsel.'' It wasn't, ``There's this evidence of wrongdoing. Were you 
involved in it?'' or something like that. But it was a much bigger story 
here and then eventually around the country, I think, than I had 
anticipated. So the important thing for me, again, was for people to 
feel comfortable about the way it's handled so I can go back to work. 
And I think now people will feel comfortable about the way it's handled, 
and I can go to work.
    Mr. King. The one thing most people are asking is--they'll learn 
more about this, because it is involved, obviously--is why you took a 
loss and didn't take a deduction since everybody who has a loss takes a 
deduction.
    The President. Well, that will come out in the--I think we took some 
interest deductions along, which were part of our losses, but at the end 
I did basically what we thought was the bend-over-backwards right thing 
to do and what was appropriate at the time. But let's wait

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until the investigation is over. That'll all come out, and then if there 
are questions about it, when the report's made to the American people, I 
can answer questions about it then.

Gore-Perot NAFTA Debate

    Mr. King. The night of the NAFTA debate and the passage of NAFTA, 
were you at all surprised at how well Al Gore did?
    The President. Oh, no.
    Mr. King. Because he had, you know, this wooden image and----
    The President. Yes, but I knew----
    Mr. King. ----people were predicting that Perot would beat him----
    The President. I thought he would be great here if he had a fair 
chance and an honest debate. You know, he's like all the rest of us, 
sometimes we pick up images that are on occasion right but not fully 
accurate. And this image of him as sort of wooden and stiff, anybody who 
really knows him will tell you he is very funny, he has a terrific sense 
of humor, he's got an incredibly flexible mind. And the reason I like 
this debate format that you provided is that no one could shout anyone 
else down. I mean, they were all sitting here real close, you know. You 
were sitting here. Everybody got to talk. Everybody got to answer 
questions. And I knew two things: I knew he knew a lot about it; I knew 
he believed very deeply in the position that we had taken. It wasn't 
just something he was saying--``Well, I'm the Vice President, and Bill 
Clinton is for NAFTA, and I've got to be''--he believed it deep down in 
his bones. And I knew that he would feel comfortable and confident. So I 
liked it. You know, he and I were--we might have been in the minority in 
our administration when this whole thing was first--[laughter]----
    Mr. King. To do that was his idea, and he asked you to okay----
    The President. He said, ``What do you think about it?'' And I 
immediately said, ``I think it's a terrific idea.'' And so we were sort 
of like salesmen in our own house.
    Mr. King. But the handlers said no.
    The President. Well, no, some of them did, not all of them but some 
of them. But we were beginning to make progress, you know; we were 
beginning to pick up votes already. But we were doing it by basically 
saying to Members of Congress, ``You know this is right, and you know 
it's in the national interest, and you ought to do it even if it's 
unpopular in the short run.'' We felt, he and I both did, that this 
debate here, this discussion on your program, would be the only chance 
we'd ever have to kind of break through to ordinary Americans who watch 
you and listen to you and just want to know. And that's really what--
that's what you did. You gave us a chance to talk to everyday Americans. 
And he was really--and I was so proud of him. I mean, he was really 
wonderful.
    Mr. King. Do you think we might see someday a President debate?
    The President. Well, it could be. Certainly if I run for reelection 
I'll expect----
    Mr. King. No, I don't mean that. I mean major issues coming up for a 
vote--health care----
    The President. It could be.
    Mr. King. ----you and Senator Dole, or someone, someone of the 
leadership, where a President would sit down and say, ``Let's discuss it 
with the opposition.'' I don't think that's ever happened in this 
country.
    The President. It might not--I wouldn't be afraid of doing it. I 
wouldn't want to commit in advance just because I would want to make 
sure it was the right thing to do at the time. But you know, I run a 
remarkably open Presidency. I ran for this job because I wanted to get 
the economy going, I wanted to get the country back together again, and 
I wanted people to believe that their Government belonged to them again 
and that we could be more open and accessible to them. And I've tried to 
do that. The day after I was inaugurated, we opened the White House to 
just folks to come in. And tonight in another way we're opening the 
White House again.
    Mr. King. And we're going to do that right away. When we come back 
you can call in and talk to the President of the United States on this 
special edition of ``Larry King Live.'' Don't go away.

[The network took a commercial break.]

President's Health

    Mr. King. Welcome back to ``Larry King Live.'' By the way, the 
President was fully prepared to go 90 minutes tonight, but he is very 
tired. As you might imagine, this has been a back-breaking schedule with 
the death of his mother, the funeral, overseas, back home, full 
physical, and we mean full physical, right?--

[[Page 112]]

you had what they call top-to-toe--and then out to L.A. So we understand 
fully, and we'll get to as many calls as we can.
    How was the physical, okay?
    The President. Great.
    Mr. King. Okay, Chevy Chase, Maryland, with President Clinton. 
Hello.

Somalia

    Q. Yes, Mr. President, what do you say to those who say that you and 
your administration have not done a good job about Somalia? And given 
the fact that the Somalis don't trust the UNISOM, Somalia is bound to go 
back to where it was before the U.S. intervention.
    Thank you.
    Mr. King. Thank you.
    The President. Well, I think we have done a good job in Somalia. 
We've saved a lot of lives there. But when we went there, it was 
primarily for a humanitarian purpose, to try to save the lives. I was 
told when I became President that we might be able to withdraw the 
American troops as early as one month, 2 months into my term. We've now 
been a full year, and as you know, we've got a few more months to go 
before we withdraw our troops. But the thing that caused the starvation 
in Somalia in the beginning was that a lot of people identified with 
their clans more than the country as a whole, and they were fighting 
each other. What we have done is to set in motion a process in which the 
clans can agree to a peaceable way of governing the country among 
themselves. And if they don't do that, we'd have to stay forever. And we 
can't do that. So in the end, the people of Somalia are going to have to 
take responsibility for themselves and their future. And in the 
meanwhile, we'll keep working to try to keep as many of them alive as we 
can.
    Mr. King. To Plantation, Florida, with President Clinton. Hello.

Trade

    Q. Good evening, President Clinton. How would you like to lower the 
country's trade deficit and balance the payments by giving all Americans 
and all businesses tax deductions for buying American products, by 
definition 90 percent made in America with 90 percent parts made in 
America and 90 percent profits going to American companies?
    Mr. King. Would that work?
    The President. I wonder whether it would even be----
    Mr. King. Legal?
    The President. Yes. It would certainly, I think, violate some of our 
international trade agreements, and it might cause others to retaliate 
against us. I would like to lower our trade deficit, at least that which 
is structural and permanent. Our biggest problems are with Japan and now 
with China.
    Mr. King. Are you going over there?
    The President. Yes, we're working on both of them. I understand what 
he's saying, and we do have certain ``buy America'' preferences in our 
law, but we have to be very careful how far we go without violating the 
treaties and agreements we made with other countries who take our 
products freely.

Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster, Jr.

    Mr. King. By the way, something just hit me, and it occurred in the 
last year. The last time we were here was the night Vince Foster died. 
It was 6 months----
    The President. Six months ago, tonight.
    Mr. King. Six months ago, tonight. Do we know a lot more than we did 
before?
    The President. I don't think we know any more than we did in the 
beginning because I just really don't believe there is any more to know. 
You know, he left a note; he was profoundly depressed.
    Mr. King. You didn't know it?
    The President. No. And I talked to him----
    Mr. King. The night before, right?
    The President. No, I think 2 nights before, and told him to come see 
me. Or maybe it was the night before, and I told him to come see me on 
Wednesday, which was the day after he shot himself. It broke my heart. 
We'd been friends for more than 40 years. We lived next to each other 
when we were little bitty kids. He was a remarkable man. And I miss him.
    Mr. King. This Special Counsel says he's going to look into that, 
too. Is that fair game?
    The President. Well, I think because he had some files that were 
relevant to--I think he has to look into what was there, and he'll 
just--whatever he wants to do, you know, let him do that. That's not my 
business to comment on.
    Mr. King. Detroit, Michigan, for President Clinton. Hello.

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    Q. Hello, President Clinton. Congratulations on your one year in 
office, and many more.
    The President. Thank you.

Crime

    Q. I live in Detroit where we have had 629 murders in our State, and 
I would like to know, what can you do or help us about this issue? And I 
would just like to congratulate you. You've been a President that has 
said what you're going to do, and you have done it. And regardless of 
what the media bashing, I thank you for all that you have done.
    The President. Thank you, ma'am.
    First of all, let me say that you call from Detroit, which has had a 
lot of murders. And the Children's Defense Fund said today that a child 
is killed with a gun every other hour in this country now.
    Mr. King. Unbelievable.
    The President. Unbelievable, but it's true. But this lady could have 
called from many other cities in the country and small towns, too.
    Let me tell you what I think we can do together. First of all, we've 
got to strengthen our law enforcement forces. You've got a great new 
mayor in Detroit in Dennis Archer. He's a longtime friend of mine. I 
read his inaugural address the other day. It was a brilliant way of 
getting Detroit together and getting started. But we have to put more 
police officers on the street, well-trained and working with people in 
the communities, walking the blocks, working with the kids, preventing 
crime as well as catching criminals. Our crime bill will put 100,000 
more police officers on the street. It's the first priority for Congress 
when they come back.
    Secondly, we passed the Brady bill, but we need to do more on guns. 
Specifically, we need to limit these automatic, semiautomatic assault 
weapons that have no purpose other than to kill. And I hope we can reach 
an accord with the sportsmen and quit arguing about things that are 
false issues and get an agreement on what the problem is and how to 
attack it.
    Thirdly, people who are repeated serious violent offenders shouldn't 
be paroled.
    And fourthly, you've got to give these kids something to say ``yes'' 
to. That is, we have got to go into these really distressed areas and 
rebuild the bonds of family, community, and work. There's got to be 
education opportunities. There's got to be job opportunities. There's 
got to be alternatives to imprisonment, like boot camps. There needs to 
be drug treatment and drug education programs. We can't have it all on 
the punishment. These children have to have something to say yes to. If 
you look at a lot of these high crime areas where the gangs and the 
drugs and the guns are, they fill the vacuum when family collapses, when 
work collapses. Most of us organize our lives around work, family, 
community. And a lot of these young people that are in real trouble 
today and really vulnerable are living in places where there's not 
enough community, enough family, or enough work. So I think we have to 
do both things. And then next year or this year now, I'm going to ask 
the Congress to work with me and then work with the mayors, the 
Governors, and others to really get serious about this. We've got to do 
something about it, and we've got a program that will make a difference.
    Mr. King. To Auckland, New Zealand, with President Clinton. Hello.
    Q. Greetings from New Zealand, Mr. President.
    The President. How are you, sir?

Lebanon

    Q. I'm good; how are you? In your Geneva meeting with President Asad 
of Syria, did you ask him for a withdrawal of the Syrian forces from 
Lebanon, or a least at time schedule, or Lebanon's going to be the price 
for peace with Israel? Thank you.
    The President. No, no. Lebanon was not the price for peace. He 
agreed that as part of a comprehensive peace agreement, we should 
implement the Taif accord which, as you know, calls for an independent 
Lebanon, free of all foreign forces. And President Asad clearly said 
that if he could be satisfied from his point of view in having a 
comprehensive peace agreement with Israel, Israel would also have to 
have an agreement with Lebanon, an agreement with Jordan, and obviously 
the agreement with the PLO, and that Lebanon in the end would be left a 
free and independent state, independent of all foreign forces. We talked 
about that quite explicitly, and he was quite clear in saying that he 
would support that.

President Hafiz al-Asad of Syria

    Mr. King. Was it tough to sit with Asad, who has been on a list of--
as a terror leader for years? I mean, I know Presidents have to do 
things--was that hard?

[[Page 114]]

    The President. Well, it wasn't an easy meeting. I mean, I knew it 
would be a challenging and a difficult meeting. And I think the most 
important thing for me was to make it clear that I--my overriding agenda 
was to do whatever I could to make an honorable, decent, lasting peace 
in the Middle East.
    Mr. King. Do you think he was sincere?
    The President. Yes, I think he really wants to make peace. I think 
there are a lot of reasons why it's in the interests of the Syrian 
people and in his own interest to do it, and I think he does. I also 
made it clear that we still had real differences between us in our 
bilateral relations, and one of them was what we feel about terrorism. 
And we talked about it for an hour. And he gave his side, and I gave 
mine. But the American people are entitled to know that. We talked about 
it for an hour----
    Mr. King. Did he deny that he----
    The President. We didn't skirt it. He did in a way, and he defined 
it in a different way, and he made some arguments about what Syria has 
done and not done. But the point is, we got it out on the table. He said 
what he thought; I said what I thought. And maybe most important, we 
agreed that our Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, and their 
Foreign Minister, Mr. Shara, would meet and really try to get beyond the 
charges to very specific things, that we would come forward with 
specific instances of things that we believe have been done that are a 
violation of international law that cannot be tolerated, and we would 
try to work through them. So I think that it was an honorable meeting 
from my point of view and from the point of view of the United States 
because of that.
    Mr. King. New York City for President Clinton. Hello.

Health Care Reform

    Q. A lot of companies are hiring people on a part-time or temporary 
basis because they don't want to give them benefits. Under your health 
care plan, how will people who work part-time or freelance have their 
benefits paid for?
    The President. That's a great question. Let me answer the question 
and make a general point. First of all, under our health care plan, 
part-time workers will be covered partly by their employers if they work 
more than 10 hours a week. They will pay a portion of their premiums. 
And then the rest of the premium will be paid for out of a Government 
fund set up for that purpose. But part-time workers will be covered, and 
their employers will have to pay something for their coverage, too. I 
think that's only fair. Also, if we can do something to slow the 
dramatic increase in the cost of health care and to make sure all 
workers are covered, that, I think, will help to stabilize this trend, 
and more and more employers will be willing to hire new workers on a 
full-time basis.
    And let me say, we're beginning to see that now. Since I became 
President and we got serious about bringing the deficit down, bringing 
interest rates down, getting investment up, and employment started 
coming again, as confidence gets back into this economy, then employers 
will be able to hire more full-time workers. Then this year, what I have 
to be able to do is to show the business community that this health care 
plan of ours is going to stabilize health care costs while providing 
health care for all Americans through a guaranteed private insurance 
system, not a Government system but a private system. But we have to ask 
the employers to pay something for their part-time workers, too. I think 
that's only fair.
    Mr. King. Back with more of this conversation with the President on 
his one-year in office on Larry King Live. He said he'd be with us every 
6 months--holding right to it--he was with us July 20th, this is January 
20th. We'll be right back.

[The network took a commercial break.]

    Mr. King. We're back with the President of the United States, Bill 
Clinton. More phone calls--Hawaii. Hello.
    Q. Yes, aloha, Larry, and Mr. President.
    Mr. King. Aloha.
    Q. This is the big island. Mr. President, in regards to sympathy for 
your mother, I had the opportunity to see your mother catch a fish when 
she was over here, and she's quite a fisherwoman. A great, great lady. 
I'm sorry to hear about that.
    The President. She loved that tournament.

North Korea

    Q. In regards to Korea, what's the possibility of the Koreans 
getting a nuclear weapon and maybe possibly striking Hawaii first since 
that's part of the United States now? What would the----

[[Page 115]]

    Mr. King. Yes, what is the current status of North Korea?
    The President. Well, first let me say, thank you to the gentleman 
from Hawaii for the condolences for my mother, and mine to the mother of 
the Governor of Hawaii who passed away today. A wonderful woman.
    The Korean--let me just tell you, if you follow the press you know 
that the intelligence reports are divided on the question of how far the 
North Koreans have gone in developing a nuclear weapon. But everybody 
knows they are trying to. Even if they develop one, then there's the 
question of their delivery capacity, which is in doubt.
    I wouldn't say Hawaii is in serious danger right now. What I would 
say is that we need to keep working very hard and to be very firm about 
not wanting Korea to join the family of nuclear states. You know, I've 
been out here working to reduce the number of countries with nuclear 
weapons, with Ukraine and Kazakhstan and Belarus committing to get rid 
of their weapons. We are now involved in intense negotiations, and the 
only thing I can tell you is we're working as hard as we can to be as 
firm as we can and then to be as also as firm as we can about the 
security of our people and the South Koreans in the event all does not 
go well. But we are working very hard, and I certainly have not given up 
yet on getting the North Koreans to go back into the NPT system and 
agreeing to let the International Atomic Energy inspectors in there to 
look at what they're doing. They ought to do it.
    The country is so isolated. They're isolated economically. Even 
China used to be a big ally of theirs. China now does 8 or 10 times as 
much trade with South Korea as with North Korea. And I think they 
believe that somehow this gives them some handle on national prestige. I 
think their best way to be esteemed in the rest of the world is to be a 
good citizen and give the rest of us a chance to relate to them.
    Mr. King. Birmingham, Alabama. Hello.

Criticism of the President

    Q. President Clinton, I find your political opponents' relentless 
efforts to undermine the credibility of your administration absolutely 
appalling. How much does this cost the American citizen in terms of 
wasted time and money? And does it affect the U.S. in the international 
community?
    The President. Well, first I thank you for your sentiments and your 
support. And the most important thing of all is that the American people 
be able to see through it. When they see the politics of personal 
destruction, when they see people who obviously don't want to talk about 
how we're going to get this economy going or how we're going to get 
health care to all Americans or how we're going to deal with the other 
problems, crime in the streets, that they see it for what it is.
    I think that abroad, frankly, our administration and me, that I 
personally, that we're able to do what we need to do for the United 
States. I was very gratified at the reception that I received in Europe 
and in Russia and throughout our travels. It does take time and 
attention and distraction when you're dealing with all that stuff, but 
as I said to Larry earlier, I can deal with it. The only thing that 
really steams me is what it does to my wife and my daughter, to my 
family. As a person, that bothers me. But it is not undermining our 
ability to go forward. Does it take time and attention, is it 
distracting, is it costly in that sense? You bet it is. It apparently is 
a part of the price of being in public life in the late 20th century in 
the United States. So we deal with it. But I just want you to know that 
having you call just redoubles my determination. And I thank you for 
that.
    Mr. King. Fort Worth, Texas. Hello.

Bosnia

    Q. Mr. President, I was wondering what the progress on our situation 
with Bosnia-Herzegovina was? And what has happened to the sense of 
urgency we once had with that problem?
    The President. Well, the United States had a position, as you know. 
When I took office I offered the Europeans my position, what I thought 
we ought to do, how I thought we ought to do it to get a quicker peace 
and, if not get peace, at least to give the government of that country a 
chance to defend itself. The Europeans disagreed and stoutly resisted. I 
did not believe that we could unilaterally or should unilaterally send 
ground troops there. I still think that was the right decision.
    So let me tell you where it is now. First of all, don't forget what 
we have done. We have

[[Page 116]]

led the longest airlift in history, now longer than the Berlin airlift, 
to give food and medicine to the people there. Secondly, we have 
enforced a ferocious embargo which has cost the Serbs, in particular, 
dearly. It has virtually wrecked the Serbian economy. They continue to 
fight, but they have paid a terrible price for it economically. And 
thirdly, we have tried to work with our allies at NATO to say that we 
would use air power if Sarajevo were subject to shelling and 
strangulation again. And finally, we're supporting the peace process. I 
hope the parties will agree. You see, the Serbs and the Croats have 
agreed now. The government had been losing on the ground. They'd been 
making some gains so they've not agreed to any peace--or they're going 
to have to give, I think, to Moslems, some access to the water in order 
to get a peace agreement. They're a little closer than I think it looks, 
but eventually they're going to have to agree to that or the fighting 
will go on.
    Mr. King. Are you optimistic?
    The President. Oh, I've learned not to be optimistic there. I was 
optimistic a time or two and had my hopes dashed.
    Mr. King. ----got to take a break.
    The President. But the people are still killing each other because 
they're fighting over land. They're going to have to reach a territorial 
accommodation so that all three of those ethnic groups can live with a 
reasonable breathing room there.
    Mr. King. We'll be back with our remaining moments with President 
Clinton right after this.

[The network took a commercial break.]

The Presidency

    Mr. King. We're running out of time. Biggest hope as we enter the 
second year of the Presidency?
    The President. That we can get health care for all Americans.
    Mr. King. Biggest fear?
    The President. That democracy will face reversal somewhere in the 
world and dash my hopes of having a more peaceful world that has more 
trade opportunities and less military dangers for the United States.
    Mr. King. Are you happy?
    The President. Oh, yes, and grateful for the chance to serve and 
grateful that we're making progress. I know a lot of Americans are still 
in trouble, and their lives haven't been affected yet, but at least 
we're facing these tough issues that have been ignored for too long. And 
everybody here gets up and goes to work every day and works like crazy 
and I think in a spirit of genuine hopefulness.
    Mr. King. Some said that you even like the bad days. I mean, you 
like this job, right?
    The President. I like the job. I'm grateful for the opportunity to 
serve. The bad days are part of it. I didn't run to have a pleasant 
time. I ran to have a chance to change the country. And if the bad days 
come with it, that's part of life. And it's humbling and educational. It 
keeps you in your place.
    Mr. King. Thank you, Mr. President.
    The President. Thank you.

Note: The interview began at 9 p.m. in the Library at the White House. A 
tape was not available for verification of the content of this 
interview.