[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 16 (Monday, April 26, 1993)]
[Pages 623-627]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's News Conference

 April 20, 1993

Tragedy in Waco

    The President. On February the 28th, four Federal agents were killed 
in the line of duty trying to enforce the law against the Branch 
Davidian compound, which had illegally stockpiled weaponry and 
ammunition and placed innocent children at risk. Because the BATF 
operation had failed to meet its objective, a 51-day standoff ensued.
    The Federal Bureau of Investigation then made every reasonable 
effort to bring this perilous situation to an end without bloodshed and 
further loss of life. The Bureau's efforts were ultimately unavailing 
because the individual with whom they were dealing, David Koresh, was 
dangerous, irrational, and probably insane. He engaged in numerous 
activities which violated both Federal law and common standards of 
decency. He was, moreover, responsible for the deaths and injuries which 
occurred during the action against the compound in February. Given his 
inclination towards violence and in an effort to protect his young 
hostages, no provocative actions were taken for more than 7 weeks by 
Federal agents against the compound.
    This weekend I was briefed by Attorney General Reno on an operation 
prepared by the FBI, designed to increase pressure on Koresh and 
persuade those in the compound to surrender peacefully. The plan 
included a decision to withhold the use of ammunition, even in the face 
of fire, and instead to use tear gas that would not cause permanent harm 
to health but would, it was hoped, force the people in the compound to 
come outside and to surrender.
    I was informed of the plan to end the siege. I discussed it with 
Attorney General Reno. I asked the questions I thought it was 
appropriate for me to ask. I then told her to do what she thought was 
right, and I take full responsibility for the implementation of the 
decision.
    Yesterday's action ended in a horrible human tragedy. Mr. Koresh's 
response to the demands for his surrender by Federal agents was to 
destroy himself and murder the children who were his captives, as well 
as all the other people who were there who did not survive. He killed 
those he controlled, and he bears ultimate responsibility for the 
carnage that ensued.
    Now we must review the past with an eye toward the future. I have 
directed the United States Departments of Justice and Treasury to 
undertake a vigorous and thorough investigation to uncover what happened 
and why and whether anything could have been done differently. I have 
told the Departments to involve independent professional law enforcement 
officials in the investigation. I expect to receive analysis and answers 
in whatever time is required to complete the review. Finally, I have 
directed the Departments to cooperate fully with all congressional 
inquiries so that we can continue to be fully accountable to the 
American people.
    I want to express my appreciation to the Attorney General, to the 
Justice Department, and to the Federal agents on the frontlines who did 
the best job they could under deeply difficult circumstances.
    Again I want to say, as I did yesterday, I am very sorry for the 
loss of life which occurred at the beginning and at the end of this 
tragedy in Waco. I hope very much that others who will be tempted to 
join cults and to become involved with people like David Koresh will be 
deterred by the horrible scenes they have seen over the last 7 weeks. 
And I hope very much that the difficult situations which Federal agents 
confronted there and which they will be doubtless required to confront 
in other contexts in the future will be somewhat better handled and 
better

[[Page 624]]

understood because of what has been learned now.
    Q. Mr. President, can you, first of all, tell us why after 51 days 
you decided----
    Q. Mr. President, can you describe for us what it is that Janet Reno 
outlined to you in your 15-minute phone conversation with----
    The President. I can't hear you both. If one will go first and then 
the other.
    Q. Sorry. Can you describe what Janet Reno----
    Q. Mr. President----
    The President. I'll answer both your questions, but I can't do it at 
once.

Attorney General's Briefing

    Q. Can you describe what she told you on Sunday about the nature of 
the operation and how much detail you knew about it?
    The President. Yes. I was told by the Attorney General that the FBI 
strongly felt that the time had come to take another step in trying to 
dislodge the people in the compound. And she described generally what 
the operation would be, that they wanted to go in and use tear gas which 
had been tested not to cause permanent damage to adults or to children 
but which would make it very difficult for people to stay inside the 
building. And it was hoped that the tear gas would permit them to come 
outside.
    I was further told that under no circumstances would our people fire 
any shots at them, even if fired upon. They were going to shoot the tear 
gas from armored vehicles which would protect them, and there would be 
no exchange of fire. In fact, as you know, an awful lot of shots were 
fired by the cult members at the Federal officials. There were no shots 
coming back from the Government side.
    I asked a number of questions. The first question I asked is, why 
now? We have waited 7 weeks; why now? The reasons I was given were the 
following:
    Number one, that there was a limit to how long the Federal 
authorities could maintain with their limited resources the quality and 
intensity of coverage by experts there. They might be needed in other 
parts of the country.
    Number two, that the people who had reviewed this had never seen a 
case quite like this one before, and they were convinced that no 
progress had been made recently and no progress was going to be made 
through the normal means of getting Koresh and the other cult members to 
come out.
    Number three, that the danger of their doing something to themselves 
or to others was likely to increase, not decrease, with the passage of 
time.
    And number four, that they had reason to believe that the children 
who were still inside the compound were being abused significantly, as 
well as being forced to live in unsanitary and unsafe conditions.
    So for those reasons, they wanted to move at that time.
    The second question I asked the Attorney General is whether they had 
given consideration to all of the things that could go wrong and 
evaluated them against what might happen that was good. She said that 
the FBI personnel on the scene and those working with them were 
convinced that the chances of bad things happening would only increase 
with the passage of time.
    The third question I asked was, has the military been consulted? As 
soon as the initial tragedy came to light in Waco, that's the first 
thing I asked to be done, because it was obvious that this was not a 
typical law enforcement situation. Military people were then brought in, 
helped to analyze the situation and some of the problems that were 
presented by it. And so I asked if the military had been consulted. The 
Attorney General said that they had and that they were in basic 
agreement, that there was only one minor tactical difference of opinion 
between the FBI and the military, something that both sides thought was 
not of overwhelming significance.
    Having asked those questions and gotten those answers, I said that 
if she thought it was the right thing to do, that she should proceed and 
that I would support it. And I stand by that today.
    Q. Mr. President----
    The President. Wait.
    Go ahead.
    Q. Can you address the widespread perception, reported widely--
television, radio,

[[Page 625]]

and newspapers--that you were trying somehow to distance yourself from 
this disaster?
    The President. No, I'm bewildered by it. The only reason I made no 
public statement yesterday, let me say, the only reason I made no public 
statement yesterday is that I had nothing to add to what was being said, 
and I literally did not know until rather late in the day whether 
anybody was still alive other than those who had been actually seen and 
taken to the hospital or taken into custody. It was purely and simply a 
question of waiting for events to unfold.
    I can't account for why people speculated one way or the other, but 
I talked to the Attorney General on the day before the action took 
place. I talked to her yesterday. I called her again late last night 
after she appeared on the Larry King show, and I talked to her again 
this morning. It is not possible for a President to distance himself 
from things that happen when the Federal Government is in control.
    I will say this, however. I was, frankly, ``surprised'' would be a 
mild word, to say that anyone that would suggest that the Attorney 
General should resign because some religious fanatics murdered 
themselves.
    I regret what happened, but it is not possible in this life to 
control the behavior of others in every circumstance. These people 
killed four Federal officials in the line of duty. They were heavily 
armed. They fired on Federal officials yesterday repeatedly, and they 
were never fired back on. We did everything we could to avoid the loss 
of life. They made the decision to immolate themselves. And I regret it 
terribly, and I feel awful about the children.
    But in the end, the last comment I had from Janet Reno is when--and 
I talked to her on Sunday--I said, ``Now, I want you to tell me once 
more why you believe, not why they believe, why you believe we should 
move now rather than wait some more.'' And she said, ``It's because of 
the children. They have evidence that those children are still being 
abused and that they're in increasingly unsafe conditions, and that they 
don't think it will get any easier with the passage of time. I have to 
take their word for that. So that is where I think things stand.''

Handling of the Standoff

    Q. Can we assume then that you don't think this was mishandled in 
view of the outcome, that you didn't run out of patience? And if you had 
it to do over again, would you really decide that way?
    The President. No--well, I think what you can assume is just exactly 
what I announced today. The FBI has done a lot of things right for this 
country over a long period of time. This is the same FBI that found the 
people that bombed the World Trade Center in lickety-split, record time. 
We want an inquiry to analyze the steps along the way. Is there 
something else we should have known? Is there some other question they 
should have asked? Is there some other question I should have asked? Can 
I say for sure that we could have done nothing else to make the outcome 
different? I don't know that. That's why I want the inquiry and that's 
why I would like to make sure that we have some independent law 
enforcement people, not political people but totally nonpolitical, 
outside experts who can bring to bear the best evidence we have.
    There is, unfortunately, a rise in this sort of fanaticism all 
across the world. And we may have to confront it again. And I want to 
know whether there is anything we can do, particularly when there are 
children involved. But I do think it is important to recognize that the 
wrongdoers in this case were the people who killed others and then 
killed themselves.
    Q. Mr. President, were there any other options presented to you for 
resolving this situation at any point from February 28th until 
yesterday?
    The President. Well, yes, I got regular reports all along the way. 
There were lots of other options pursued. If you go back--you all 
covered it very well. You did a very good job of it. I mean, the FBI and 
the other authorities there pursued any number of other options all 
along the way, and a lot of them early on seemed to be working. Some of 
the children got out. Some of the other people left. At one point, there 
seemed to be some lines of communication opening up between Koresh and 
the authorities. And then he would say things and not do them, and 
things just began to spin downward.

[[Page 626]]

    In terms of what happened yesterday, the conversation I had with the 
Attorney General did not involve other options except whether we should 
take more time with the present strategy we were pursuing because they 
said they wanted to do this, because they thought this was the best way 
to get people out of the compound quickly before they could kill 
themselves. That's what they thought.
    Q. Did the government know that the children did not have gas masks?

Congressional Hearings

    Q. ----congressional hearings once the situation--are you in 
agreement with that?
    The President. That's up to the Congress. They can do whatever they 
want. But I think it's very important that the Treasury and Justice 
Departments launch this investigation and bring in some outside experts. 
And as I said in my statement, if any congressional committees want to 
look into it, we will fully cooperate. There is nothing to hide here. 
This was probably the most well-covered operation of its kind in the 
history of the country.
    Go ahead, Sarah [Sarah McClendon, McClendon News Service].

Use of Tear Gas

    Q. There are two questions I want to ask you. The first is, I think 
that they knew very well that the children did not have gas masks while 
the adults did, so the children had no chance because this gas was 
very--she said it was not lethal, but it was very dangerous to the 
children, and they could not have survived without gas masks. And on 
February 28th--let's go back--didn't those people have a right to 
practice their religion?
    The President. They were not just practicing their religion. The 
Treasury Department believed that they had violated Federal laws, any 
number of them.
    Q. What Federal laws?
    The President. Let me go back and answer that. I can't answer the 
question about the gas masks, except to tell you that the whole purpose 
of using the tear gas was that it had been tested; they were convinced 
that it wouldn't kill either a child or an adult, but it would force 
anybody that breathed it to run outside. And one of the things that I've 
heard--I don't want to get into the details of this because I don't 
know--but one of the things that they were speculating about today was 
that the wind was blowing so fast that the windows might have been 
opened and some of the gas might have escaped, and that may be why it 
didn't have the desired effect.
    They also knew, Sarah, that there was an underground compound, a bus 
buried underground, where the children could be sent. I think they were 
hoping very much that if the children were not released immediately 
outside, that the humane thing would be done and that the children would 
be sent someplace where they could be protected.
    In terms of the gas masks themselves, I learned yesterday--I did not 
ask this fact question before--that the gas was supposed to stay active 
in the compound longer than the gas masks themselves were to work. So 
that it was thought that even if they all had gas masks, that eventually 
the gas would force them out in a nonviolent, nonshooting circumstance.
    Press Secretary Myers. Last question.
    Q. Mr. President, why are you still saying that----

Mass Suicide

    Q. Could you tell us whether or not you ever asked Janet Reno about 
the possibility of a mass suicide? And when you learned about the actual 
fire and explosion what went through your mind during those horrendous 
moments?
    The President. What I asked Janet Reno is if they had considered all 
the worst things that could happen. And of course, the whole issue of 
suicide had been raised in the public--he had--that had been debated 
anyway. And she said that the people who were most knowledgeable about 
these kinds of issues concluded that there was no greater risk of that 
now than there would be tomorrow or the next day or the day after that 
or at anytime in the future. That was the judgment they made. Whether 
they were right or wrong, of course, we will never know.
    What happened when I saw the fire, when I saw the building burning? 
I was sick. I felt terrible. And my immediate concern was whether the 
children had gotten out, and whether they were escaping or whether they

[[Page 627]]

were inside trying to burn themselves up. That's the first thing I 
wanted to know.

    Thank you.

Responsibility for Waco Action

    Q. Mr. President, why are you still saying it was a Janet Reno 
decision? Isn't it, in the end, your decision?

    The President. Well, what I'm saying is that I didn't have a 4- or 
5-hour detailed briefing from the FBI. I didn't go over every strategic 
part of it. It is a decision for which I take responsibility. I'm the 
President of the United States, and I signed off on the general decision 
and giving her the authority to make the last call. When I talked to her 
on Sunday, some time had elapsed. She might have made a decision to 
change her mind. I said, ``If you decide to go forward with this 
tomorrow, I will support you.'' And I do support her.

    She is not ultimately responsible to the American people; I am. But 
I think she has conducted her duties in an appropriate fashion, and she 
has dealt with this situation, I think, as well as she could have.

    Thank you.

Note: The President's 12th news conference began at 1:36 p.m. in the 
Rose Garden at the White House.