[08 Nov 2000.]
1.
Goodman: Mr. President, are you there?
2.
Clinton: I am. Can you hear me?
3.
Goodman: Yes, we can.
4.
Aburto: Yeah.
5.
Goodman: You’re calling radio stations to tell
people to get out and vote. What do you say to people who feel that the two
parties are bought by corporations and that they are — at this point feel that
their vote doesn’t make a difference?
6.
Clinton: There’s not a shred of evidence to
support that. That’s what I would say. It’s true that both parties have wealthy
supporters. But let me offer you — let me just give you the differences. Let’s
look at economic policy. First of all, if you look at
the last eight years, look where America was eight years ago, and look where it is
today. We have the strongest economy in history.
And for the first time in 30 years, the incomes of average people and
lower-income working people have gone up 15 percent after inflation. The lowest
minority unemployment ever recorded, the highest minority home ownership, the
highest minority business ownership in history — that’s our record. If you look
at our proposals, what do we propose to do? We propose a tax cut that helps
average people, for child care, for long-term care, for paying for college
tuition, for retirement savings. We propose to invest large amounts of money in
education, healthcare, the environment, in our future. And we propose to keep
paying down the debt, because that keeps interest rates lower. What do
the Republicans propose? A tax cut that’s three times as big. Most of it goes
to very wealthy people. The top one percent of the people get as much money as
they would spend on healthcare, education and the environment combined. They
propose to privatize Social Security. And if you add the two things together,
we’ll be back in deficits, which means the economy will go downhill and
interest rates will be higher for ordinary people.
7.
Goodman: President Clinton —
8.
Clinton: So, look, that’s just one example. You
asked the question. There’s not —
9.
Goodman: Right.
10.
Clinton: Look at
campaign finance reform. The Democrats are for it; the Republican leadership
kills it.
11.
Goodman: Well, let me just —
12.
Clinton: Look at the environment. The Dem — we’ve got the cleanest environment in history, the best
environmental record in history. The Republicans want to reverse our
environmental record. So, give me — you can’t give one example of where both
parties are dominated by large corporations and therefore there’s no
difference. The American people’s lives are a lot better than they were
eight years ago. The truth is there’s an ideological struggle between those who
believe that the best way to grow the economy is to give more money to the
wealthy, and the Democrats, who believe that the wealthy will make more money
if average people do better.
13.
Goodman: President Clinton, since it’s rare to
get you on the phone, let me ask you another question. And that is, what is
your position on granting Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist,
executive clemency?
14.
Clinton: Well, I don’t — I don’t have a position
I can announce yet. I think if — I believe there is a new application for him
in there. And when I have time, after the election is
over, I’m going to review all the remaining executive clemency applications
and, you know, see what the merits dictate. I will try to do what I think the
right thing to do is based on the evidence. And I’ve never had the time
actually to sit down myself and review that case. I know it’s very important to
a lot of people, maybe on both sides of the issue. And I think I owe it to them
to give it an honest look-see. So, part of my responsibilities in the last 10
weeks of office after the election will be to review the requests for pardons
and executive clemencies and give them a fair hearing. And I pledge to do that.
15.
Goodman: And you will give an answer in his
case?
16.
Clinton: Oh, yeah, I’ll decide one way or the
other.
17.
Goodman: And finally, do you support a
moratorium on the death penalty, given the studies that show how racist it has
been — how it has been applied in a racist manner?
18.
Clinton: Well, I think in the case of — I
certainly support what the Governor of Illinois did, because there was clear
evidence in Illinois that a lot of mistakes had been made. In the case of the
federal government, I have asked the Attorney General to conduct a
comprehensive review and to let me — and to report back to us on the racial
disparities and on any question of guilt, on adequate assistance of counsel, on
all those things, to determine whether there should be a moratorium. And I
haven’t gotten her findings yet. Now, so far, the only two cases which have
come up have been deferred, while we do this study. And so, when that comes in
and if it comes in while I’m still in office, then I’ll make a judgment. And if
it doesn’t, I think that the next president, I would hope, would make the same
decision, based on the merits, based on what the evidence shows. The disturbing
thing to me is that there’s not only an apparent racial disparity on death row,
but also — in the federal government, but also way over half the cases come
from a relatively small number of the U.S. attorneys’ offices, which is — you
know, it’s disturbing. But again, let me just say this. If you’re concerned about that, that’s a good reason to vote for Al
Gore and Joe Lieberman, and Hillary for the Senate, and for the people in New
Jersey who can hear you, for Jon Corzine, because we know the Democrats care
about these issues, and we know they’re not very important to the Republicans.
19.
Goodman: Vice President Gore —
20.
Clinton: And so, that’s another example of
another reason you ought to vote for the Democrats.
21.
Goodman: Gore supports the death penalty.
22.
Clinton: He does, but —
23.
Goodman: And Lieberman.
24.
Clinton: Yes, they do. But there’s a
difference in supporting it and thinking that you would carry it out even if
you thought the system was fundamentally unfair. His opponent —
25.
Goodman: But the studies show that it is.
26.
Clinton: But the studies are not complete,
because the studies have to — what the Attorney General is doing is not just
looking at everybody that’s been convicted, but everybody that could have been
charged that wasn’t. There’s a lot more stuff that needs to be done. And it may
confirm the initial view of who’s on the death row. But I think what — you
ought to look at that as compared with Texas, for example, where there was
evidence that — lawyers falling asleep in their trials were not enough to deter
Texas from continuing to carry out the death penalty, which I thought was
unacceptable. And so, I think that if you’re interested in having somebody that
at least has the capacity to look at the fairness of this, you only have one
choice.
27.
Goodman: Well, I guess many people were quite
disturbed that when you first ran for president, you went back in the midst of
your campaign to Arkansas and presided over the execution of a mentally
impaired man.
28.
Clinton: Yeah, but let me — let’s go back to the
facts here. He was not mentally impaired when he
committed the crime. He became mentally impaired because he was wounded after
he murdered somebody. And the law says that it’s your mental state at the time
you committed the crime. That’s something no one else ever — no one ever
says that when they talk about it. Had he been mentally impaired when he
committed the crime, I would never have carried out the death penalty, because
he was not in a position to know what he was doing. That is not what the facts
were.
29.
Aburto: President —
30.
Clinton: Secondly, if I had not gone home, I
would have been accused of putting a tough decision off on somebody else.
31.
Aburto: President Clinton, my name is Gonzalo Aburto. I’m a
Latino living here in New York. I’m the host of La Nueva Alternativa here at BAI. I want to
ask you why Latinas and Latinos in the United States should vote for Gore and
Lieberman.
32.
Clinton: I think they
should vote for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman for several reasons. First of all, we
are committed to fairness for legal immigrants, and we’re trying to pass a law
right now to guarantee that. And our opponents in the Republican Party are
opposed to that, and that’s — and the congressional leaders are opposed to it,
which is another reason to vote for Al Gore, Joe Lieberman and for Hillary, for
Jon Corzine in New Jersey. The Latinos should know that the Democrats favor
fairness for immigrants. Secondly, we favor affirmative action. Thirdly, we
favor hate crimes legislation and employment non-discrimination legislation and
the appointments of judges to the Supreme Court that will protect civil rights
and human rights. And fourthly, let me say again, we have had an economic policy that
has dramatically improved the lives of Latinos. When I became president, the
Latino unemployment rate was 11.8 percent. Today it is five percent, the lowest
in the history of the country. So, if you’re looking for somebody that wants to make sure
everybody is part of America’s present and future, Al Gore is your man. He also
proposes to put more money into the schools in the poorest parts of our country
to modernize the schools, to hire more teachers, to connect all the classrooms
to the internet. He proposes healthcare reforms that would provide medicine for
seniors on Medicare and more health insurance for children and for the — for
the working parents of low-income people. The Latino working families have the
highest level of uninsured people of any population group in the country. So,
for all those reasons, Latinos should vote for Gore and Lieberman and Hillary.
33.
Goodman: Yet, despite massive protests in Puerto
Rico, the U.S. Navy continues to bomb, and you’ve — the island of Vieques. And you have
authorized this. Why?
34.
Clinton: Well, now, wait a minute. Wait, wait,
just a minute now. The United States Navy has an agreement with the government of
Puerto Rico, the representative of all the
people of Puerto Rico, to turn back — if — to turn back the western half of
Vieques to Puerto Rico, to not have any live fire bombing — there’s no live
fire bombing going on there — and to terminate all the training within a couple
of years, during which time they have to find a new place to train. So
this — this training that’s going on now is subsequent to an agreement. Now, the Republicans in Congress broke the agreement and,
instead of giving the western part of the island to Puerto Rico, gave it to the
Interior Department to manage. If I can’t find a way to give that
island, the western part of the island, back to the people of Puerto Rico and
to honor the agreement that the government of Puerto Rico itself made, with the
support of the local leaders, including the mayor of Vieques, then the people
of Puerto Rico, I think, have the right to say the federal government broke its
word and the training has to stop right now. But I think the training should stop,
because the people don’t want it there. But we need a place to train, and we’re
in the process of finding another place. And we made an agreement
with the Governor and the people of Puerto Rico, [the elected representatives,
to turn over the western part of the island, to invest a lot of money in
helping to build up the tourism capacity and protect the environmental
structure of the Vieques, and to otherwise compensate the people of] Puerto
Rico and the island of Vieques for the training in the past. So, I think it was
a good agreement, and I think the agreement ought to be honored. And I was disappointed
that the Congress didn’t fully honor it. But I think I can find a way to keep
the commitment of the federal government anyway. And that’s what I’m trying to
do.
35.
Aburto: Mr. President, what do you think about a
possible amnesty for undocumented — trabajadores indocumentados?
36.
Clinton: Well, I think that — that’s what I
meant earlier. I’ve got a bill before Congress now,
that would treat legal immigrants from Honduras, from — from Guatemala, from
Haiti, from Salvador, in the same way that the Congress has already voted to
treat immigrants from Cuba and Nicaragua. I think that it’s not right
the way we have treated a lot of these immigrant populations differently. I
know there aren’t many Liberians probably among your listeners. Most of them
live up in the Rhode Island, Massachusetts area. But they also are being
treated unfairly, and I’m trying to get them included in immigrant fairness. And
again, I’m having a big fight with the leadership of the Republican Party in
Congress. So the Democrats are for that, and the — and the Republicans aren’t.
So, that’s another reason, if you care about that,
that we need to have someone to — to stand up to them. And that means that we
need Al Gore. And if — I think the Democrats have a good chance to win
the House and maybe the Senate. But if we don’t win, it’s very important that
Gore be the president, because somebody’s got to be there to stop the extremist
Republicans in Congress. And therefore, we need every Democratic senator we can
get. We need Corzine in New Jersey. We need Hillary
in New York. And we need — most important, we’ve got to have Gore and Lieberman
in the White House.
37.
Goodman: President Clinton, U.N. figures show
that up to 5,000 children a month die in Iraq because of the sanctions against
Iraq.
38.
Clinton: That’s not true. That’s not true. And that’s not what they show. Let me just tell you
something. Before the sanctions, the year before the Gulf War — you said this —
how much money did Iraq earn from oil? Answer: $16 billion. How much money did
Iraq earn last year from oil? How much money did they get, cash on the barrel
head, to Saddam Hussein? Answer: $19 billion, that he can use exclusively for
food, for medicine, to develop his country. He’s got more money now, $3 billion
a year more, than he had nine years ago. If any child
is without food or medicine or a roof over his or her head in Iraq, it’s
because he is claiming the sanctions are doing it and sticking it to his own
children. We have worked like crazy
to make sure that the embargo only applies to his ability to reconstitute his
weapons system and his military state. This is a guy who butchered the
children of his own country, who were Kurds, who were Shiites. He used chemical
weapons on his own people, and he is now lying to the world and claiming the
mean old United States is killing his children. He has
more money today than he did before the embargo. And if they’re hungry or
they’re not getting medicine, it’s his own fault.
39.
Goodman: The past two U.N. heads of the program
in Iraq have quit, calling the U.S. policy — U.S.-U.N. policy “genocidal.” What
is your response to that?
40.
Clinton: They’re wrong. They think that we
should reward — Saddam Hussein says, “I’m going to
starve my kids unless you let me buy nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and
biological weapons. If you let me do everything I want to do, so I can get in a
position to kill and intimidate people again, then I’ll stop starving my kids.”
And so, we’re supposed to assume responsibility for his misconduct. That’s just
not right. I know that they — you know, the truth is, a lot of these
people want to start doing business with Saddam Hussein again because they want
his money. And, you know, they want his — the money he earns from oil. But the
— it is an absolute fact that he has more money today
than he did before the embargo. So if any child is without food or medicine, it’s
because he has made a deliberate decision to let them die, to try to build up
pressure to lift the embargo, so he can spend that money however he wants.
He doesn’t want to spend that money on his people. He wants to spend that money
to become the military dictator of the Middle East again. Now, if people want
to let him do it, that’s one thing. But, you know, I have consistently
supported changing and relaxing the embargo, since I’ve been president, to make
absolutely sure that he had enough money and enough freedom in the use of the
money to rebuild the country economically and to try to feed those children and
get them medicine. There were a lot of problems with the embargo in the
beginning. There were legitimate criticisms. But he now
has more money, with the absolute freedom to spend it on food and medicine and
development and medical care of all kinds, than he did before the embargo was
put in. That’s a fact; no one can dispute that. So, nobody can figure
out why there are problems among the children, except that he won’t spend the
money on them. He spends the money on his own military, on his own crowd, and
he avoids spending it on a lot of kids who need it, so he can blame us, so he
can actually get total control over his money, so he can rebuild his apparatus.
41.
Aburto: Mr. President —
42.
Clinton: And I think — you know, remember, this
is the only guy, the only world leader today, who has used chemical weapons on
his own citizens. And the American people, in my judgment, should give him all
the money he needs to take care of his kids, but should do everything we can,
and even if we’re alone, to try to stop him from being in a position of
murdering his kids again and murdering other children in the Middle East.
That’s what I believe.
43.
Goodman: President Clinton on Election Day
2000. We’ll continue with the interview, which got rather heated, in a moment.
44.
[break]
45.
Goodman: We continue with our half-hour
interview with President Clinton on Election Day 2000, this segment begun with
a question from WBAI producer Gonzalo Aburto.
46.
Aburto: Mr. President, are we going to see a
substantial change in the policy through Cuba, regarding Cuba?
47.
Clinton: Well, let me say, we were on the way to
that change. Back in 1996, we had a lot of changes in my first term in our
policy toward Cuba, and we were working our way toward a reconciliation. And
the Cubans were working their way toward more openness, more freedom for their
farmers and their people. We were really making headway. And then they illegally shot down those two planes, and four people died
on the planes. And the Congress passed the Cuba — the Helms-Burton bill,
so-called. And I don’t have much flexibility to do much more. What I have done
with Cuba is to use the maximum extent of my legal powers to promote
people-to-people contacts with Cuba and the Cuban people. I do believe there
that the Cuban people have suffered because of the embargo, and we should do
more in the area of food, in the area of medicine, in the area of
people-to-people contacts. And, you know, I believe
that it’s just a question of time ’til the United States and Cuba are
reconciled. And I think that the situation is tragic.
48.
Goodman: How do you just —
49.
Clinton: But it wouldn’t have happened if Castro
hadn’t shot those planes down out of the air, in blatant violation of
international law. It was just murder. There’s no other — there’s no way
to put a fine point on it. I mean, and we were — sometimes I think he doesn’t
want the embargo lifted, because it’s an excuse for the problems that he has
with his own administration, because he knew where we were going, he knew we
were moving to reconcile, and he knew good and well that it was a total violation of international
law to murder people who were in unarmed airplanes.
50.
Goodman: How do you justify imposing the embargo
against Cuba and lifting it against China, normalizing relations with China?
51.
Clinton: Well, first of all, China hasn’t killed
any of our pilots lately. They haven’t murdered any Americans. As a matter of
fact, the United States accidentally and tragically killed some Chinese
citizens during our military campaign in Kosovo. And we have
differences with China that we think can best be resolved. China is a nuclear
power; we think they have missile capacity. We’ve worked very hard with them to
reduce the threats of sales of missiles to renegade states, to make the world a
safer place. And they’ve worked with us on peace on the Korean Peninsula, to
help the North Korean situation. And we would — as I said, I believe if Castro
hadn’t shot those planes down and the Congress hadn’t passed a law which
prohibits me from doing anything with the embargo, that we might have made some
real progress there. But it — sooner or later, this is going to happen, and the
sooner, the better. The sooner we can be reconciled with the people of Cuba,
the better. But Mr. Castro is going to have to make some changes, and, you
know, you
can’t keep just throwing people in jail for human rights violations and expect
the United States to do nothing, with this huge Cuban population here. I hope
that we can make some more progress. And believe me, it would have happened if
he hadn’t shot those planes down. And sometimes I wonder if he shot them down
just to make sure the embargo couldn’t be lifted, because as long as he can
blame the United States, then he doesn’t have to answer to his own people for
the failures of his economic policy. I wish it were different, and maybe it
will be under the next administration.
52.
Goodman: Amnesty International has described
what the Israeli forces are now doing in the Occupied Territories as —
53.
Clinton: Listen, I can’t do a whole press conference
here. It’s Election Day, and I’ve got a lot of people and places to call.
54.
Goodman: Well, I guess these are the questions
that are very important to our listeners, and these are the questions that —
55.
Clinton: Well, I’ve answered them all.
56.
Goodman: Right, and we appreciate that. And —
57.
Clinton: I have answered them all. Now, let me
just tell you, on the Israeli-Palestinian thing, the
Secretary-General of the United Nations and I were together in Egypt. [Shit.]
We agreed on a three-pronged strategy to end the violence and restore the peace
talks. And with regard to the Amnesty International findings, what we agreed to
do was to set up a fact-finding commission to look into what happened, how the
recent violence started, and what can be done to avoid it recurring. And the
agreement was that that would happen as soon as the violence was stopped. And
we’ve had some progress in the last two or three days. Everybody is working
hard. And I think the less I say right now, the better, publicly, because I
don’t want to complicate things. I’m working my heart
out to stop the violence, get the commission appointed, and get the peace
process started. In the Middle East, which is something I know more than a
little bit about, the only answer to this, over the long run, is an agreement
that covers all the issues that the Palestinians feel aggrieved by, guarantees
the Israelis security and acceptance within the region, and is a just and
lasting peace. That’s the only answer to this in the long run. And we’ve
just got to work through it. I have some hope that in the next few days we’ll
be able to do it. Mr. Arafat is coming to see me on Thursday. Mr. Barak is
coming to see me on Sunday. And we’ll try to get it resolved. That’s all I can
tell you now. And I think —
58.
Goodman: Why doesn’t —
59.
Clinton: I think the United Nations will support
— well, I know they will — the implementation of the agreement we made at Sharm
el-Sheikh –
60.
Goodman: Why not —
61.
Clinton: — which would –
62.
Goodman: Why not support a U.N. force in the
Middle East for the illegal occupation of the territories? And at this point I
think we’re around 150 people being killed in the Occupied Territories,
overwhelmingly Palestinian.
63.
Clinton: You can
support it if you want to, but the Israelis won’t support it. And there was a war in which that
happened. And if you want to make peace, then you have to do things that both
sides can agree with. That’s what a peace agreement is. And I do not
believe that, just as I don’t think Israel can forever impose their situation
in the Middle East, and they don’t either, which is why we started the Oslo
peace process seven years ago; neither do I think that, you know, everybody
else saying the U.N. is going to impose their will on Israel on its own
territory will work out either. We’ve got to have a
peace agreement here. That’s the only way this is ever going to be resolved. And
I don’t think that we should do anything or say anything right now, except
something that will stop people from getting killed, and get the peace process
started again.
64.
Goodman: Many people say that Ralph Nader is at
the high percentage point he is in the polls because you’ve been responsible
for taking the Democratic Party to the right. What do you say to listeners who
are listening around the area right now —
65.
Clinton: Well, I’m
glad you ask that.
66.
Goodman: — to allay their concerns?
67.
Clinton: I’m glad you ask that. That’s the last
question I’ve got time for. I’ll be happy to answer that. What is the measure of taking the Democratic Party to the
right? That we cut the welfare rolls in half? That poverty is at a 20-year low?
That child poverty has been cut by a third in our administration? That the
incomes of average Americans have gone up 15 percent after inflation? That
poverty among seniors has gone below 10 percent for the first time in American
history? That we have the lowest African American, the lowest Latino
unemployment rate in the history of the country? That we have a 500 percent
increase in the number of minority kids taking advanced placement tests? That
the schools in this country, that the test scores among — since we’ve required
all the schools to have basic standards, test scores among African Americans and
other minorities have gone up steadily? Now, what –
68.
Goodman: Can I say what some people —
69.
Clinton: Let me just finish.
70.
Goodman: Let me just say —
71.
Clinton: Let me — now, wait a minute. You
started this, and every question you’ve asked has been hostile and combative.
So you listen to my answer, will you do that?
72.
Goodman: They’ve been critical questions.
73.
Clinton: Now, you just listen to me. You ask the
questions, and I’m going to answer. You have asked questions in a hostile,
combative and even disrespectful tone, but I — and you have never been able to
combat the facts I have given you. Now, you listen to this. The other thing Ralph Nader says is that, you know, he’s pure as
Caesar’s wife on the environment. Under this administration, 43 million more Americans are
breathing cleaner air. We have safer drinking water, safer food, cleaner water.
We have more land set aside than any administration in history since Theodore
Roosevelt. We have cleaned up three times as many toxic waste sites as the
previous administrations did in 12 years. And we passed a chemical
right-to-know law that’s a very tough law. It’s the best environmental record
in history. Al Gore’s opponent — and one of
the two of them are going to be president — Al Gore’s opponent has promised to
weaken the clean air standards and repeal a lot of the land protections.
Now, those are the facts. People can say whatever they want to. Those are the
facts.
74.
Goodman: What people say
is that you pushed through NAFTA, that we have the highest population of prisoners
in the industrialized world, at over two million, that more people are on death
row in this country than anywhere else, and that people —
75.
Clinton: Well, alright. Now, OK —
76.
Goodman: — have the
death penalty imposed on them —
77.
Clinton: That’s fine. But two-thirds of the American
people support that. I think there are too many people in prison, too. I
have called for a total evaluation of the people in the federal prison system,
a review of the federal sentencing guidelines. I did my best to persuade Congress to get
rid of the discrepancy between crack — crack and powdered cocaine in the
sentencing guidelines. I agree with that. Nobody ever said America
was perfect. I disagree, I think NAFTA has been good for America. I think it’s
been good. It has helped to reduce illegal immigration. It’s helped to provide
a decent standard of life in Mexico. I think it has been good. I think the
agreement we made to open our markets to Africa and the poor countries in the
Caribbean were good for America. People complain about our trade
agreements. Trade is at — accounting for 30 percent of our economic growth, and
we have the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years. How can anybody make a
serious case that trade’s been bad for America? We have
a 15 percent increase in average income of ordinary Americans, the lowest
unemployment rate in 30 years, and the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded
among African Americans and Hispanics. Now, I don’t think you can make a
sane case that if we closed up our markets, that either Africa or Latin America
or America would be better off.
78.
Goodman: What about —
79.
Clinton: The real problem you’ve got are the
results. This country is in good shape. Now, I’ve talked to you a long time.
It’s Election Day. There are a lot of other people —
80.
Goodman: We appreciate it.
81.
Clinton: — in America, and I’ve got to go.
82.
Goodman: One last question, what about granting
an executive order ending racial profiling in this country?
83.
Clinton: I expect that we will end racial
profiling. Here’s the deal. The Attorney General is supposed to give me a
report on that. I’m opposed to it. Al Gore is opposed
to it. Here’s the deal. Look, I had some–I have two people who work for
me in the White House, who were wrongly stopped, handcuffed and hassled the
other day. [This supposed to mean something?] I have spoken out against racial
profiling, and Hillary has made it a big issue in New York. And so, here’s the
issue, and here’s what we’re working on. We’re trying to find a way to issue
orders and rules and regulations that end racial profiling, that clearly do not
prevent law enforcement officials from investigating particular crimes. And
there is a way to do it, and we’re working on it, and the Attorney General is
working on it. But, you know, Janet Reno was a
prosecutor in Miami, in Dade County, for 12 years. She dealt with a large
African American population, a large Haitian population, a large Latino
population. She had a great reputation with all of them. And she’s
trying to fashion a resolution of this that ends racial profiling, that clearly
allows law enforcement to continue. And that’s where this is now. This is going
to be done. And we have to do it.
84.
Goodman: Thank you for spending the time,
President Clinton.
85.
Clinton: Thank you.
Goodman: President Clinton on Election Day 2000. I
interviewed him with WBAI producer Gonzalo Aburto. Well, a day after that program, I got a call
from the White House press office. A staffer let me know how furious they were
with me for breaking the ground rules for the interview. “Ground rules?” I
asked. “What ground rules? He called up to be interviewed. I interviewed him.” “He
called to discuss getting out the vote,” they said, “and you strayed from the
topic. You also kept him on much longer than the two to three minutes that we
had agreed to,” she said. “President Clinton is the most powerful person in the
world,” I said. “He can hang up if he wants to.”
Well, the Clinton administration threatened to ban me from the White House and
suggested to a Newsday reporter that they might punish me for my attitude by
denying me access — not that I had any to lose. The White House spokesperson
said, “Any
good reporter understands if you violate the ground rules in an interview, that
it’s going to be taken into account the next time you are seeking an interview.”
Well, first of all, we hadn’t agreed to any ground rules. Clinton called us. Second, we wouldn’t have agreed to any. The only ground rule for good
reporting I know is that you don’t trade your principles for access. We call it
the “access of evil.” Oh, and this update: Leonard
Peltier remains in jail. President Clinton didn’t pardon him. Instead, Clinton
granted a pardon to fugitive billionaire Marc Rich,
who had been living in Switzerland since a 1983 indictment on charges of wire
fraud, racketeering, tax evasion and trading with Iran in violation of a U.S.
embargo. Rich’s ex-wife, Denise Rich, was a major donor to the campaigns of
both the president and his wife, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Peltier said in response, quote, “We can see who is granted clemency and why.
The big donors to the president’s campaign were able to buy justice, something
we just couldn’t afford. Meanwhile, many political prisoners continue to
languish unjustly, proof that this nation’s talk about reconciliation is
nothing but empty rhetoric,” Peltier said. He remains in prison at Leavenworth.
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