Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/wh930420.zip/4-20E.TXT

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From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:[e-mail] Wed Apr 21 04:58:47 1993
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1993 21:46-0400
From: The White House <[e-mail]>
Subject: Press Briefing by George Stephanopoulos  4.20.93
To: [e-mail]
Status: OR



                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary
_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                  April 20, 1993

                            PRESS BRIEFING
                       BY GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS


                          The Briefing Room

12:36 P.M. EDT

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  As you know, the President is going
to come out at 1:15 p.m.  With your indulgence, I think what we'd
like to do is have the President award the National Teacher's Award
first and then have the teacher leave, or whatever, and then he'll
make a statement on Waco and take a couple questions.  So if we can
just hold off going live and all that until that's done, it probably
will work out a lot better.

         Q      If you'll give us the time.  That's the problem.

         Q      We've got a two-minute warning problem.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Yes, it is a problem.  It's about
1:15 p.m.

         Q      The teacher would walk off and then --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think that's -- I'm just trying
to work this out here.  I think that's the best way to handle it.

         Q      Can I ask you a series of questions about the way
the President handled the notifications yesterday?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Sure.

         Q      Did you, for instance, talk to the Justice
Department about who would come out and discuss what had happened in
Waco and whether it should be the Attorney General or the President?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Why don't we just take a step even
farther back from that and look at the whole sequence of events on
the contact between the Justice Department and the White House.  As
you know and as we've said, the President spoke with the Attorney
General on Sunday, Sunday afternoon.  They had a good discussion,
about 15 minutes.  The Attorney General informed the President of
what she wanted to do.  He raised no objections.  Obviously, she had
the implicit authority from the President to go forward.  He raised
no objections.  She went forward.  They had a discussion of a general
nature about the incident.

         Again, yesterday morning around 11:00 a.m., the
President spoke with the Attorney General again.  They had a brief
discussion over what was happening in Waco.  As you know, this was
before the fire broke out at the compound.  And I think that was why
there was some -- just some confusion.  I think that she was
confusing in her minds before and after the fire, not the actual day
when they spoke.

         Then there was a number of contacts at a number of
different levels in the White House yesterday afternoon between the
Justice Department and the White House.  They were informing us of

their decisions, what they would like to do.  There was an FBI
briefing in Waco.  The Attorney General had her press conference.
The President then issued a statement after that.

         Frankly, yesterday afternoon, you know, there was a fair
amount of confusion over exactly what was happening on the ground in
Waco, and I think that we wanted to be very careful not to have the
President say anything until we had a much better sense of what was
actually happening on the ground.  Once we were fairly clear on what
was happening on the ground in Waco, the President issued a
statement.  He spoke with the Attorney General again yesterday
evening.

         Q      At what hour was that?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  It was quite late.  I believe it
was after he returned from the Holocaust Museum.  He took a tour of
the Holocaust Museum last night.

         Q      And he went out to dinner.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I believe briefly.  Yes, he went to
dinner and then he spoke with the Attorney General last night.  I
don't know the exact time; I think it was relatively late.  And he
just said, I think as Dee Dee has reported, that he just wanted to
tell her that he thought she handled a difficult situation very well,
that she did a good job in a tough situation, and that she should try
and get some sleep.  He then, again, spoke with her this morning
about the follow-up in Waco, and about what they're going to do this
afternoon.  As you know, the President will have an announcement to
make at 1:15.

         Q      Did he ever talk with Webb Hubbell yesterday, last
night, or this morning?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Not to my knowledge, no.

         Q      Was Webb Hubbell the point man for the White House?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Webb Hubbell is the general White
House Liaison and several people talked to Webb.  The Attorney
General was running the operation.

         Q      Did he tell her that she should sleep well, that
she had done a good job?  Or he just tell her that she should get
some sleep?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think sleep well -- done a good
job -- I don't know the exact words.  I think that sounds right.

         Q      I mean, sleep well has implications as to
conscience and whether she should feel badly about it or not.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Well, I mean, I think everybody
feels badly when you have a situation when --

         Q      I understand that, but whether the issue of blame
is brought up in that phraseology.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think that's the spirit -- no, it
has nothing to do with that.  The spirit with which it was offered
was that the entire administration and certainly the Attorney General
had to face a very difficult decision, a very difficult situation
yesterday.  And that he thought that she had handled it well, as best
as she could and --

         Q      Well, does he think it was mishandled?


         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  -- it was just speaking of warm
words to a friend.

         Q      Does he think the situation was mishandled?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  The President --

         Q      In retrospect?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  The President stands  by the
decisions of the law enforcement agencies, the decisions of the
Attorney General.  He accepts full responsibility.  At the same time,
I think that we all want to look to the future and figure out what
exactly happened, do a full review, and make sure we do what we can
to make sure this doesn't happen -- this kind of thing doesn't happen
again, or at least we know how to handle it.

         Q      How much did he know about what she was going to go
ahead with?  I know that she made the case to him -- explained --
outlined the case for action.  Did she say to him on Sunday precisely
what action?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I don't think it was specific
operational detail as to what was going to happen.  I think that they
had a general discussion about the action, about the advisability of
action.  I think, as she noted, he asked a few general questions just
trying to get a sense of how things were considered.  But it wasn't
minute-by-minute detail of how the operation --

         Q      Well, was it, "we are going in."  Is it, "we're
going to use tear gas"?  I mean, what?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I believe it was that we want to go
in and take some action that would increase the pressure on those in
the compound, and hopefully spur them towards some sort of movement
out.

         Q      George, was there ever a conscious political
decision made, or even a discussion about distancing the President
from --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Not at all.  I mean, we were in
close contact with the Justice Department.  The President accepts
responsibility for this.  At the same time -- I mean, we just wanted
to be very, very clear about how this happened and be as factual as
we could be on how the decisions were made.  It is the responsibility
of those on the ground to make recommendations.  The Attorney General
has operational control over this.  The President obviously accepts
responsibility for all of this, and he stands by the Attorney
General.

         Q      George, there was a report on the television today
-- and I don't know more than that -- one of the members of the cult
had said going into a courthouse that the FBI had started the fire
and not themselves.  There was also a picture yesterday on the TV of
a smashing into the building  where the fire broke out.  And my
question is, is the White House absolutely certain that this fire was
--

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  All the evidence we have is that
this fire was started by David Koresh and those inside the compound
-- every bit of evidence we have.

         Q      Did the President ask the Attorney General why do
this now, why this particular date, and did he ask about possible
consequences of either death or injury?


         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I don't know the specific
questions.  He had general questions about how the decision was going
about being made.

         Q      Those are general questions and did he ask
generally, why now?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think he asked, have you
considered all of the consequences; have you considered the
recommendations?  I don't know if he asked the question, "why now?  "
I don't know if he asked that specific question.

         Q      Did she tell him why now in terms of the stuff
that's come out since then about the information provided by the
listening device about Koresh getting increasingly more violent?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Again, I'm not certain how much
specific detail they got into.  I know that she generally said that
this is the recommendation she's prepared to make, I mean, the
decision she's prepared to make.  It's based on the recommendations
she was receiving from the field and after intensive questioning of
those involved.  Again, I do not know how precisely detailed it was
beyond that.

         Q      What is the President's understanding why
yesterday?  One of the people who went into the compound a couple
weeks ago came out over the weekend with some speculation that he may
have told law enforcement people something that precipitated this
action.  Why yesterday?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  This is the first I've heard.  I
think what we can go to is what the FBI and the Attorney General has
said.  There were indications that those inside the compound were at
some danger.  It was clear that the negotiations had broken down and
it was the judgment of the experts involved in the negotiations that
the situation was not going to get any better at all.

         There was also some concern over the vulnerability of
the agents themselves who had been working long beyond the time that
these teams normally have to work.  And as the Attorney General has
said, there was some concern over the fact that they did not have
replacements in place who could stand in for them, and there was a
concern over the safety.

         All of these factors came into play.  They also
considered the advice of a number of psychologists and other experts
on David Koresh and those in the compound.  I would just go back to
what the Attorney General has said.  You have to make the best
judgment you can, given the information you have at the time.  They
did.  Obviously, we all regret the loss of life.  It's a terribly
unfortunate situation.  We all wish it could have turned out
differently, but that doesn't take away from the judgments that were
made at the time.

         Q      George, when did the President know that they were
going to use tear gas?  Was it before the assault on the compound?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I just don't know.  I don't believe
he was given a lot of detail on exactly how the operation would go.
I just don't know.

         Q      Along that point, George, can you say whether the
plan was presented to the President by the Attorney General as a way
to end the standoff one way or the other yesterday?


         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think it was presented as a way
to increase the pressure on those in the compound and, we all hoped,
as a way to move some of those out and bring it in -- it wasn't
presented as tomorrow is D-Day, this is it.

         Q      Is the President satisfied that, A, he had all this
relevant information necessary to make a decision, and B, that Janet
Reno had all the relevant information necessary to make a decision?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Oh, I think he's satisfied that
they were acting on the best advice and the best information they
had, and he's not second-guessing it in any way whatsoever.

         Q      George, was there a 12-hour gap between
conversations between the President and the Attorney General?  In
other words, they spoke at 11:00 a.m. and they didn't speak again
until Clinton got back from dinner at --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think that's likely, yes.

         Q      Did he call her?  What time did she call?  Was
there a gap between when she called him?  I mean, was he at dinner
when she called and --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  No, no, no.  I think he called her
last night.  I couldn't swear to it, but I believe he called her last
night.  He just wanted to talk to her.

         Q         what was going on?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Not that I know of, no.

         Q      What do you know about the situation now?  Everyone
has perished who -- except eight or nine?  And do you know any of the
other details?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I don't know any more details than
the FBI reported in Waco.

         Q         watching CNN or how was he keeping track of what
is going on?  If he wasn't talking to his Attorney General, how was
he keeping track of what was going on here?  I mean, with all due
respect to CNN, is that how he was doing it?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  No.  There was also -- as I said,
several people in the White House were in constant contact with their
counterparts at Justice to have the full and complete information.

         Q      Who were those contacts?  I mean, was it Mack
McLarty, Webb Hubbell?  How was the President being kept informed?
That's not a --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I believe Mack was in contact with
Webb.  I spoke with several people at the Justice Department.  I
believe Bruce Lindsey spoke with people at the Justice Department.
Either Bernie or Vince was also in contact at different times during
the day with people at the Justice Department.  We were fully briefed
and fully informed.

         Q      We were told this morning that the President may
have spoken -- a chance that he may have spoken with Webb.  Do you
know if that's true or not?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think there's a chance he may
have.  I don't believe he did, but I think there's certainly a chance
that he may have at some point.  I don't believe he did.  I think
that the last contact he had during the day yesterday directly with

the Justice Department was the 11:00 a.m. phone call with the
Attorney General.  But the White House was fully informed on a
minute-to-minute basis of what was happening in Waco and what was
happening at the Justice Department.

         Q      George, who decided that the briefing would be done
by the Attorney General?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  The Attorney General.

         Q      Did you or did the White House communications staff
-- were you ever involved with that decision?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  No.  We were told about it.

         Q      Did you ask her to go on Nightline and MacNeil-
Lehrer and all that stuff?  Was that part of --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  No.

         Q         there was no advice from the White House at all
about her -- she was on all night, all day.  (Laughter.)

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Yes, and she did a very good job.

         Q      Why did you decide to have the President's reaction
to the situation be only a written statement, which is traditionally
the White House's way of distancing the President from the issue, not
having him appear as personally saying anything?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Well, that wasn't the intent at
all.  As I said, we had to -- we wanted to wait until we had all of
the information at hand.  The President is also making a statement
today.  The President made a statement yesterday morning.  The
President has been fully involved --

         Q      After this turned into less than a successful
operation, the only statement from the President was what was on
paper after the Attorney General had already given what amounted to
the major facts in this.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Well, it was the first statement
from the President, not the only statement from the President, number
one.

         Q      After the --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Number two -- well, the first.
Number two, the Attorney General --

         Q      He gave a statement early in the morning when the
thing was starting to move --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Right.  And he gave one yesterday
and he's giving one today.  Now, the second point --

         Q      It just happens this was a written statement with
no sort of communications policy or thought process involved?  It was
the President wants to put out a written statement?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Knowing what we knew at the time,
we thought it was appropriate for the President and he thought it was
appropriate to put out a written statement expressing his regret and
expressing his support for the Attorney General's --

         Q      Why was it not appropriate for him to personally do
something?


         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Well, he did personally do so.
That is his statement.  It's a statement under his name.

         Q      George, yesterday during the briefing you didn't
say the President took full responsibility for what happened --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I certainly did.

         Q      No, what you said was --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  That's just not right, Susan.

         Q      Well, I think you can go back to the transcript, I
mean, unless I miss something --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I'd love to.

         Q         Janet Reno said that she took full
responsibility and you said that she made the decision, that the FBI
--

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  And the President takes
responsibility.  Absolutely.

         Q      Took responsibility -- all right.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Check the transcript.

         Q      Considering how little was known about what was
going on inside the compound and, even now, how little is known, why
is Washington calling this a mass suicide?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Well, I think that knowing what we
know now and given all of the actions of David Koresh before and
during, it is painfully clear that those there were under his
control.

         Q      It's stretching it a little bit where the kids are
concerned, though, isn't it, George?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think that that is an entirely
different matter.  I mean, I think that David Koresh must bear
responsibility for the deaths of those children, absolutely.  But he
clearly was intent on creating some kind of an apocalyptic incident,
and that's what he did.

         Q      You're still operating completely on assumption,
right?  I mean, you have no evidence, or you know of no evidence that
this was mass suicide.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  We have evidence that those inside
the compound set fire to the compound, which led to the deaths of
those inside.

         Q      I didn't quite hear it.  This might be Ann's
question, I didn't quite hear it.  But at what time did Clinton
himself put out a statement on this?  I know Dee Dee said some stuff
on this at 6:00 p.m., but the President put out --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  At 6:35 p.m., 6:40 p.m.

         Q      Right after the evening news went on the air?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  No, right when we had all the
information.  We were working on it.


         Q       Dee Dee confirmed this morning that the
investigation the President is going to announce is going to be an
administration-run investigation.  Why not have someone from the
outside to make sure that it's not colored by those who would have a
political stake, particularly those at the ATF whose actions have
already been --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think that clearly the ATF and
the Justice Department will bear responsibility for the
investigation.  That's not to rule out, as is often in investigations
like this, having some sort of independent involvement as well.  But
it will be run by the Treasury and Justice.

         Q      Are you confident that you will not have any
problem getting --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Absolutely.

         Q      George, did the President reach out to anybody else
to get advice after the meeting with Janet Reno?  And who else in the
White House sat in on that meeting?  Anyone else from Justice?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I don't believe anybody else was
there at the time.  It was a phone call on Monday, it wasn't a
meeting.

         Q      Sunday.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Sunday.  It was a phone call, it
wasn't a meeting.  I believe he might have been there with Bruce, but
beyond that, I think he just talked to the Attorney General.

         Q      George, you said that in that phone call, she said
that we want to go in and take action, as you said, that will force
him out.  What did he think she was talking about?  If he didn't know
about tear gas, what exactly was his idea of what he was approving?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think he was approving an action
to increase the pressure on --

         qQ       It didn't matter how she did that?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  No, no.  I mean --

         Q      What information did he have in terms of how this
would proceed?  Presumably he would have wanted to know, not minute-
by-minute, but in a general sense --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think he knew that this was the
recommendation of those on the ground and the recommendation of the
law enforcement agencies.  I just don't know --

         Q      What is "this" -- when you say that "this" was the
recommendation --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  The action to increase pressure.  I
don't know exactly what he was told -- whether he was going to be
told that the tank was going to go up to the left wall and punch a
hole in the window, or whether he was just told generally that they
were moving forward in a way that would increase the pressure.  I
just don't know.

         Q      It's hard to imagine him not asking, though.

         Q         that Janet Reno presented him with as her best
advice about what they should go forward with, he would have agreed?


         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  He was -- he did ask some general
questions about the advice and recommendation he gave.  At the same
time -- and I would repeat -- that this was based on the unanimous
recommendation of the law enforcement agencies involved.

         Q      George, it would seem that this question about just
exactly in what detail the President was informed about the nature of
the operation is going to come up again here and elsewhere.  Can you
take that question and --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Absolutely.  Yes.

         Q         get the answer and come back to us with all of
it?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Yes.

         Q      Can you tell us that there was never a meeting -- a
strategy session -- where you and others decided, we will put out a
written statement from the President and we will have Janet Reno be
on all of these television broadcasts?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Never.  Never.

         Q      And you never called the Justice Department and
said to anyone or Janet Reno, "you're the one who needs to be out
front explaining this"?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Not once.

         Q      It just happened that way that she was the
spokesman, that no one ever saw Bill Sessions until --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  She made a decision as Attorney
General that it was important for her as the operational officer in
charge, as the person who made the decision, to go out and take the
questions on this tragic incident.

         Q      She had no guidance from the White House at all?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  We certainly didn't object.

         Q      But did you -- (laughter) -- no, I'm sure you
didn't object, but did you suggest it?  Was this a plan --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  No. Absolutely not.

         Q         a strategy?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  No.

         Q      Did she clear it?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  No.

         Q      Did she notify you?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  We certainly knew about it.

         Q      What happened to this great detailed process you
have for clearing and talking to every public information officer and
every -- under every rock and every place in government that
something as major as this could have occurred without a discussion
between you and the public information people at least at the Justice
Department?


         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  The Attorney General made the
decision and the Attorney General wanted to go forward.  It seemed
like a good decision.  It was a good decision.  She did a good job.

         Q      Let me ask it this way, George, if in hindsight how
you would handle it?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think it was handled very well.

         Q      You wouldn't change a thing if --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Change what?

         Q      The way the White House handled any part of it --
from start to finish.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Well, I think that's an awful broad
question and we're certainly going to have a review.  One of the
reasons for the investigation is to look for ways in the future that
something like this -- see what we can learn from an incident like
this and see what we can learn about how to handle them.  If you're
talking specifically about the issue of the press conferences, no,
there -- wouldn't make any change at all.

         Q      Two questions:  First of all, on her going on TV,
no White House people or outside media consultants came up with this
idea?  It's just very reminiscent of what you guys did during the
campaign.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  How so?

         Q      I'm thinking of like watching Clinton on Nightline
after the draft story; watching Clinton on --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  There's absolutely no comparison.
Yesterday there was a law enforcement incident.  The incident ended
in tragic deaths of many, many people.  The Attorney General was
involved in that decision.  The Attorney General made the decision to
do that.  She felt it was her responsibility in the interest of
public information to go out and take the questions of the press in
order to make sure that all of the questions were answered, and she
did a fantastic job.

         Q      The second question is, did -- as someone who knows
Clinton as well as you do, can you understand why it's sort of hard
to believe that he might not have asked some detailed questions about
what she intended to do?  In other words, she came and she said, I'm
going to put pressure on them.  It's hard not to see Clinton, who's
fairly intelligent and inquisitive, asking how.

         Q      What kind?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Both the Attorney General said that
he did ask questions, he did ask general questions.  I don't have a
minute-by-minute account of the conversation.

         Q      How long a conversation?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think it was about 15 minutes.

         Q      Telephone conversation?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Yes.

         Q      George, was the federal cost of this standoff ever
a consideration in terms of stepping up the pressure --


         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I don't believe so, no.

         Q      George, you keep saying that the President takes
full responsibility, but then you refer to it as her decision.  Does
the President not accept the fact that as Commander-In-Chief, it is
ultimately his decision?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I don't know what this has to do
with Commander-In-Chief.  This was a law enforcement action, not a
military action.  And he clearly takes responsibility for the
decisions of the law enforcement agencies involved taken in his
government.  I mean, I think there's just no ambiguity about that.

         Q      But is he accepting it as his decision as well as
hers, or is he saying it's her decision?  There's a difference.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  As a matter of fact, it was her
decision.  He did not object to that decision.  He clearly takes full
responsibility.

         Q      George, this briefing has gone on just a little
over 15 minutes, and as you can see a lot of things can be exchanged.
What exactly did they spend 15 minutes talking about if it was just
very general?  That's a long period of time in a phone conversation.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  It is an awful long phone
conversation.  It was a very important phone conversation.  I think
Brit has asked that we take the question, and I've said that I would.

         Q      One of the things Reno said last night is that the
buck stops here.  I think that was her direct quotation.  Does the
President agree with that in this case?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  The President says he accepts full
responsibility.  I think what the Attorney General was saying is that
she made a decision, that she's going to accept all the
responsibility that comes to her.  And she's not shrinking from that
at all, but neither is the President.

         Q      At any point in the conversation last night between
the President and the Attorney General or this morning, did she ever
offer her a resignation?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Not to my knowledge.

         Q      Even before the fire was out yesterday, there were
some Republicans on Capitol Hill calling for an investigation.  Is
the White House at all concerned about the timing of those requests
trying to make political hay out of this situation?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  No.  And I don't want to cast any
questions about the motives of those who are requesting
investigation.  We want an investigation, and we'll have a full and
complete investigation.

         Q      In what forum will you answer Brit's question?
Will you put out a written statement?  Will you -- the wires?  How
will you answer the question that you've taken?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I'm just not sure.

         Q      George, can you remind us what the President was
doing all yesterday afternoon, where he was, and what meetings he was
involved in?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I'll have to try and remember.  He
had a series of meetings with different members of the staff during

the afternoon.  He was certainly monitoring the situation in Waco and
getting periodic reports on that as well.  He did see some on CNN as
well.  I believe he saw a fair amount of the FBI press briefing as
well.

         Q      And those reports would have come to him from Mack
McLarty, would they -- do you think?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Mack talked to him, Bruce talked to
him, I talked to him.

         Q      George, to follow Helen's question, in their
conversation this morning did they discuss at all her statement last
night in response to the question about whether she would resign?
Did he say, I don't know why you felt the need to say that?  I'm here
to reassure you that you don't have to do this?  Did that come up at
all?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I don't know if it even came up
that specifically.  I know that the bulk of the conversation was
discussing where do we go from here and what form the investigation
--

         Q       The didn't talk at all about her kind of
remarkable comment last night about --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Well, I believe she was asked a
question.

         Q      And her response was, if the President wants me to,
I will.

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Which would be, I think, the
standard response that most Cabinet members would give.  I mean, it's
a conditional statement.

         Q         have a need to talk about whether -- personally
about whether the President wanted her --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I don't know if they talked about
it.  I mean, what I learned about the conversation was that it was
largely about the investigation itself.  And this just didn't come
up.  I did not ask the question if they talked about --

         Q      Will you take that with the Brit package?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Certainly.  (Laughter.)

         Q      George, for the record, does the President want her
to resign?  I know Dee Dee answered this morning --

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Absolutely not.  He supports Janet
Reno.  She's a good Attorney General.  She's done a good job.  She
handled a difficult situation extremely well.

         Q      George, does the President feel that he and Janet
Reno were let down by the unanimous professional advice from the law
enforcement experts on the ground?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  No.  And the President is not
second-guessing that decision and those recommendations in any way.
That is not to say that he doesn't regret the loss of life.
Everybody regrets the loss of life in this situation.  But the best
judgments were made in a difficult situation based on the best
information we had.


         Q      George, the 15-minute conversation was the one on
Sunday, is that correct?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Yes.

         Q      How long was the one at 11:00 a.m. yesterday
morning?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I don't know.  I'll take that
question, too.

         Q      Were these outside experts that they were
consulting with, or experts within the ATF and the FBI?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  You'd have to ask them.  I'm just
not sure.  I know that there were several experts.

         Q      And also, why weren't there replacements for these
people?  Is the unit that small?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Again, I think it is a very small
highly-specialized unit.  But I think it's one of the kinds of things
that the investigation will examine.

         Q      George, isn't there a factor here involving the FBI
Director?  Normally, a president, when he wants to get information,
doesn't only asks the Attorney General.  I know the chain of command.
But presidents talk to their FBI directors.  In this case, throughout
this entire siege, he has not felt that he could pick up the phone
and talk to Bill Sessions, who is from Waco, and get expertise from
him on what to do and what not to do?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  I think he talked to the FBI
Director well in the beginning of the situation when it first broke
out in Waco.  At the same time, the Attorney General bears the
ultimate responsibility and he was getting fully briefed from the
Attorney General.

         Q      Don't you think the ambiguous situation that
Director Sessions is in has some impact on the way the President is
briefed and on the way that all of this evolved?

         MR. STEPHANOPOULOS:  Not at all.  I mean, it's perfectly
appropriate that he be briefed by the Attorney General and that the
Attorney General has supervisory authority over the FBI Director, and
that's following the chain of command.

         THE PRESS:  Thank you .

                                 END                    1:03 P.M. EDT

#60-04/20