[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 1 (Monday, January 10, 2000)]
[Pages 20-22]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Exchange With Reporters in Chappaqua, New York

January 6, 2000

Moving In

    The First Lady. Good morning!
    The President. Good morning, everybody.
    Q. So are you now officially New Yorkers?
    The President. We're here. Let me say to start that we're delighted 
to be here. We like this house very much, and we, at least, have put up 
all the boxes we brought up here so far. This is the first home we have 
had since January of 1983, 17 years ago, when we moved back into the 
Governor's Mansion in Little Rock. So it's exciting. We're seeing some 
things we haven't seen since we moved to the White House and some things 
we haven't seen in 17 years.
    We've got a table in there that we bought shortly after we got 
married, in 1975, that we haven't used in a long time. So we've had a 
lot of fun, and I've enjoyed it very much.
    The First Lady. We're glad to have you here this morning because 
this is a lot of excitement and hard work for us, but we're so pleased 
that we are finally here and moved in and looking forward to many, many 
happy days here in the days and months ahead.
    The President. We also want to thank our neighbors who have been 
long-suffering with all the attention----
    The First Lady. Right.
    The President.----that the house has received.
    The First Lady. And all of the officials here in Chappaqua and New 
Castle and Westchester County, who have been so helpful and cooperative 
with the Secret Service and the other people who are a part of the 
President's official duties.

President's Voter's Registration

    Q. Mr. President, will you be shifting your voter registration to 
New York, so you can vote for a certain Senate candidate?
    The President. Yes, I've got a particular interest in the election 
up here next year, so I want to make sure my vote counts. I expect to 
vote in the election in New York.

[[Page 21]]

Dinner

    Q. What did you do last night? What did you do for dinner? Did you 
have friends in?
    The First Lady. We had friends--we've had a lot of friends helping 
us, and one of my good friends here who lives nearby came over with her 
son and brought dinner for us, and then her son helped Bill move some 
things that needed to be moved. And we had other friends come over who 
have been helping us. But mostly what we did was unpack boxes, put 
things up, try to make decisions about where to hang paintings or move 
furniture, and make a long list of all the things we have to do that 
aren't done yet that are going to have to be tended to.
    Q. Are you going back to Washington today to do that?
    The First Lady. Yes, we're going back today, and we'll be packing up 
more things and moving more things in the next couple of weeks. So it 
will be a process. We're not going to be totally moved in and everything 
in place for a while. But it's a lot of fun for us to be able to do this 
again, for the first time in such a long time, because we, of course, 
worked very hard in the White House and spent an enormous amount of time 
and effort trying to keep the White House in good shape and do some 
additional work that needed to be done there, but it's different when 
you're doing it in your own home.
    Q. Have you thought any more about a schedule for how often you will 
both be here?
    Q. Mrs. Clinton and also Mr. President, the mayor, as you may have 
heard a couple of days ago, said that both of you, the Clintons, he 
said, have been egregious violators of soft money, both in how it's 
collected and how it's distributed. Your reaction, both of you?
    The First Lady. We're going to talk about our house this morning, 
which we are very happy about being in and being New Yorkers. And we'll 
leave that to another time.

President's Plans

    Q. Mr. President, are you going to--we haven't heard from you. 
[Laughter]
    The President. No. [Laughter] No, I keep reading all these things. 
I've not given very much thought to this. I'm going to work very hard on 
finishing my library and center. And I'm going to devote all my 
attention to being President. I've got a big agenda this year. We're 
going back now, and I have to go back to Shepherdstown this afternoon. 
But I've had no discussions with anybody about that kind of move. And I 
was amazed to see that in the paper. No one's even suggested that.

Gays in the Military

    Q. Mr. President, last night the Vice President in the debates said 
that he'll ask military commanders about their feelings on gays serving 
in the military before appointing people to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 
Is this litmus test the way it should work?
    The President. Well, I think the real problem is--let me go back to 
what happened, because, as you know, my view was--and I will restate my 
view. The Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibits homosexual 
contacts. So my view was, if someone was willing to take the pledge to 
observe the Uniform Code of Military Justice, they shouldn't have to lie 
about being gay and being in the military. Then, let me remind you what 
happened. The Congress voted, by a veto-proof majority, against that 
position. So that's how we got to ``don't ask, don't tell.''
    My focus has been on trying to make the policy work the way the 
military commanders said it would work back in 1993, which it has not 
been doing. No one disputes that. To Secretary Cohen's credit, back in 
August we announced some new guidelines, which have now been 
implemented, for training and for implementation, which I think will 
significantly improve the present situation over the next few months.
    Now the Vice President and Senator Bradley say they want to go back 
to the position that I advocated in '92 and '93. In order to do that, 
the Congress will have to change the law, I believe. I don't think that 
the military and the President have the authority to do it. Now you 
could go back and look at the constitutional arguments and do some 
research, but I think a lot of this debate--I think a lot of people have 
actually forgotten that Congress put into the law the present policy.
    And so what I'm going to do is spend the next year trying to make 
sure that we do what

[[Page 22]]

was intended and what I announced would be done, after extensive 
consultation with our commanders back in 1993. I believe that the next 
President, if he wants to change the policy, will have to get the 
Congress to change the law.
    Q. A quick followup on that. Wouldn't litmus tests like that have 
disqualified somebody like Colin Powell from serving as Joint Chiefs?
    The President. I think that I'm going to leave the appointment 
process to the next President. I'm not going to get involved in this 
election right now. I think that there have been, we know, going back 
all the way to the First World War, we have clear evidence that there 
have been gays in the military who have served with great distinction. I 
think it's quite interesting that most of the Vietnam veterans, combat 
veterans in the United States Congress, including Senators Robb and 
Senator Kerry, just to mention two, have felt that--both Senator Kerry 
and Kerrey and Senator Robb--have felt that the policy ought to be 
changed and supported my original position.
    So I would like to find some way for people to be honest, to obey 
the law, and to serve with distinction in the military. So I think that 
is where our focus ought to be, and the next President will have to 
figure out how to do that. But I think there will have to be a change in 
the law.
    Q. Mr. President, the polls show that your wife is trailing right 
now. Do you have any advice for her?
    The First Lady. Thank you so much.

Moving In

    Q. What was the first night like?
    The President. We had a wonderful time. We don't have a television 
yet. [Laughter]
    Q. So how did you watch the debate?
    The President. We didn't. They have a tape for me. I'm going to 
watch it tonight when I get home. So I had a tape. So we brought up our 
CD player, and I gave Hillary one of those South African radios that you 
crank--have you seen them?
    The First Lady. Solar-powered radios.
    The President. We bought them--and I got it in Washington at the 
Discovery store. You crank it up, and it's run either by solar power or 
by hand crank, but you never need a plug or anything. So we listened to 
the radio last night. It was quite wonderful.
    Q. [Inaudible]--what it was like being in the house for the first 
time in 17 years, your own house?
    The First Lady. We loved it. Well, it was a little overwhelming 
because there is so much to be done, and we stayed up very late, working 
on getting things organized and put away. And then we're going to be 
back together next week, and we'll keep the process going until we 
finally get things moved in.
    But it was wonderful having a chance to be here. My mother is with 
us. We just had a great time.
    Q. How late were you up?
    The First Lady. Oh, gosh.
    The President. Past 1 a.m.

Note: The exchange began at 11:28 a.m. outside the Chappaqua residence. 
In this exchange, a reporter referred to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of 
New York City. A tape was not available for verification of the content 
of this exchange.