[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[July 23, 1994]
[Pages 1304-1305]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1304]]


Exchange With Reporters in Hot Springs, Arkansas
July 23, 1994

High School Vietnam Memorial

    Q. [Inaudible]
    The President. Yes, very proud. And I'm grateful to all the people 
who worked on it and made it possible. I'm glad some of my closest 
friends could be here on the day it was unveiled and dedicated. I'm 
grateful to them, all the people who did all this work. You know it 
really means a lot to me because I haven't been able to be here or be a 
part of it. So I'm really happy about it.

The Presidency

    Q. Do you wish you could just be here for a long period of time?
    The President. Absolutely. I get very homesick, homesick for my 
friends and for the place and also for the ability to communicate 
directly with people. You know, it's very frustrating. It's hard to 
avoid being isolated, and it's hard to avoid just kind of a distance and 
almost a miscommunication from the nature of the Presidency, where so 
many things are happening at once and so many things are cascading in on 
people and so much information is flying back and forth and occasionally 
misinformation. I miss the whole lifestyle that Hillary and Chelsea and 
I had down here.
    But we're doing fine, and I feel good about what's happening to the 
country. We got the economy going back in order; we're facing a lot of 
our serious problems. I think the crime bill will pass soon. It'll be 
the most important crime bill in history. We're taking up health care--
for the first time in the history of the country we've ever even 
considered providing health care to all Americans--on the floor of both 
Houses of the Congress. So I'm very happy about what's going on.
    And things are going pretty well in the world. We've got our 
problems, to be sure, but we're working, trying to work to avoid a 
crisis in North Korea. We've got peace in the Middle East developing. 
The trip to Europe went very well. So I feel good about where we are in 
the world as we move toward the 21st century. And I feel very good about 
the fact that we're being able to change some things here at home and 
are being able to face some of our problems. So I feel good about it.

Whitewater Hearings

    Q. One of the editors of your home State paper, the Arkansas 
Gazette, has said that the upcoming Whitewater hearings could, in his 
view, undermine your Presidency. Would you give us a reading of those 
hearings that are to start next week----
    The President. Well, first of all, if my home State paper were the 
Arkansas Gazette, I don't believe that opinion would be in there. 
[Laughter]
    The hearings, I think, will go about the way the Special Counsel's 
inquiry did. After all, we've got a lifelong Republican that is the 
Special Counsel. And he concluded that there was no legal violation in 
any way, shape, or form in all these contacts. He concluded that Vince 
Foster's death was a suicide and that all these hysterical, politically 
motivated efforts to twist it into something else were wrong. And the 
ethics counsels of various departments, many of them are lifetime 
Republicans, too. I feel quite comfortable that the hearings will be 
seen as just a rehash of what's already been looked into in detail.
    Q. Are you--[inaudible]--campaign getting in full swing for the 
fall? Is that bad timing for Whitewater hearings?
    The President. No, the question--I think the American people are 
going to wonder why the Congress is spending so much time and money on 
something that has already been looked into in great detail, 
excruciating detail, at great cost to the taxpayers by the Special 
Counsel. But if they want to do it, that's fine. We'll cooperate just as 
we have with the Special Counsel.
    I think the most important thing is that the Congress be seen as 
dealing with the problems of the country and that this not be seen as 
distracting from their obligations to deal with crime and health care, 
expanding trade, and the other important things that will affect the 
lives of the American people. All of us need to turn our attention every 
day as much as we can away from politics and toward the interests of the 
ordinary American citizen. And I think if we do that, I think we'll be 
all right.

[[Page 1305]]

Rwanda

    Q. [Inaudible]--help Rwanda?
    The President. Well, I think--yesterday I think we answered that. 
The United States has provided 40 percent of the total aid to Rwanda to 
date. And we have been working on this for 2 months, and we are doing 
the best we can. But we're going to do more.
    I think if you look at the record, I think it's very difficult to 
point the finger at anyone. It's a very tragic thing which has happened 
there. The previous government slaughtered large numbers of people, and 
so those who survived fled. And now the war is over in Rwanda, and the 
present winners of that conflict are trying to persuade the Rwandans to 
return. That is the ultimate answer.
    But this is a horrible humanitarian tragedy of massive proportions. 
And I think now is the time, again, to concentrate on those people there 
and what we as Americans and as citizens of the world can do to keep as 
many of them alive as possible and to get them to come home under safe 
conditions.
    And when that is over, when the crisis has passed, there will be 
plenty of time for the critics to point the finger and time for rational 
assessment if something more could have been done at some different 
date. But I'm confident. We've been working since May, and I have done 
all I knew to do. When the crisis has passed and somebody thinks there 
is something else I should have done, there will be time then to assess 
that.

Arkansas Gubernatorial Race

    Q. Any words for Governor Tucker against your old nemesis, Sheffield 
Nelson, in the Governor's race this year?
    The President. Well, I think he's done a very good job as Governor. 
And I think the people of Arkansas know that. And they don't need my 
help to figure out what to do. You know, I vote here in this State, and 
I'm a citizen of this State, and I certainly intend to vote for him. But 
I think--I don't need to get involved in that. He knows what to do. He's 
done a good job as Governor, he's doing a good job as a candidate, and I 
think he'll do just fine.

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton

    Q. How's Chelsea doing?
    The President. She's doing very well, thank you. She's had a good 
year in school; she had a wonderful summer with us. She went to Europe 
with us on this last trip, and it was quite wonderful for her. And so 
I'm really happy.
    Like me, she misses her friends here. She just got home last night. 
She and her grandmother went to Europe together, and they're coming home 
to Arkansas next week. So Chelsea is going to have a chance to spend 
some time here, too, and she's real happy about that.
    Q. What about Hillary? Is she with you this weekend?
    The President. No, because she's out pushing health care. And 
Chelsea's been gone for a couple of weeks, so we try never to be gone at 
the same time, you know, so one of us is always there with her. So I 
stayed last night to see Chelsea come home from Europe, and we stayed up 
real late last night talking about her trip. And then Hillary's coming 
home today so she can be with Chelsea this weekend while I'm here, and 
Chelsea will be here next week.

Note: The exchange began at 11:15 a.m. at Memorial Field. A tape was not 
available for verification of the content of this exchange.