Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/wh930604.zip/06-04E.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1993-06-04 | 10KB

From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:[e-mail]  Fri Jun  4 07:26:12 1993
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1993 01:06-0400
From: The White House <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: President's Remarks on Withdrawal of Nomination  6.3.93



                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary

______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                               June 3, 1993


                       REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
             ON WITHDRAWAL OF NOMINATION OF LANI GUINIER

                          The Briefing Room

9:05 P.M. EDT

         THE PRESIDENT:  Good evening.  It is with deep regret
that I am announcing tonight the withdrawal of the nomination of Lani
Guinier to be Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

         Earlier this evening I met with Ms. Guinier to talk
through the issues that prompted my decision.  I told her that had I
known all along the intense controversy this nomination would inspire
I would not have asked her to undergo the ordeal and I am sorry that
she has suffered as much as she has.

         At the time of the nomination I had not read her
writings.  In retrospect, I wish I had.  Today, as a matter of
fairness to her, I read some of them again in good detail.  They
clearly lend themselves to interpretations that do not represent the
views that I expressed on civil rights during my campaign and views
that I hold very dearly, even though there is much in them with which
I agree.  I have to tell you that had I read them before I nominated
her I would not have done so.

         Now, I want to make it clear that that is not to say
that I agree with all the attacks on her.  She has been subject to a
vicious series of willful distortions on many issues, including the
quota issue.  And that has made this decision all the more difficult.

         The Lani Guinier I know is a person of high integrity,
great intellect, strong character and a superb civil rights record.
That's why I nominated her.  I agree with civil rights leaders and
members of the Congressional Black Caucus that she is a wonderful
lawyer.  And I want all of you to know that if this nomination could
be fought out on her character or her record as a civil right lawyer,
I would stay with it to the end if we didn't get but one or two votes
in the Senate.

         It is not the fear of defeat that has prompted this
decision.  It is the certainty that the battle would be carried on a
ground that I could not defend.  The dilemma with which I have
struggled basically comes down to this:  Should we have proceeded
with a confirmation battle that would give her more ample opportunity
to clarify her views but would guarantee a bloody and divisive
conflict over civil rights based on ideas that I, as President, could
not defend.

         Because the controversy over her academic writings
includes mischaracterizations, this battle, unfortunately, has
already polarized our country.  My campaign for the presidency was
based on trying to unite Americans on the basis of race, opportunity
and responsibility; the idea that we could all work together to reach
common solutions.  And I regret very much the bitterness and the
divisiveness which has occurred already.


         I am well aware that this withdrawal will upset many
people in this country who believe in Lani and had hoped that she
might be confirmed.  I can only pledge to them that I will continue
to work, as I have for nearly 20 years, for the cause of civil rights
and that I want an administration second to none in its dedication to
civil rights.

         I will be consulting promptly with the Attorney General
and with other members of the Senate and House committees, and with
civil rights leaders about a replacement for Lani.  I hope to have an
announcement in the next few days.  In the meantime, I want to again
say I take full responsibility for what has happened here.  I want to
express my sorrow about what has happened to Lani Guinier and to say
again I think that she is one of the ablest civil rights lawyers I
have ever known and I wish this battle could be fought over that,
rather than ideas that I, myself, cannot embrace.

         Q      Mr. President, Attorney General Reno has been a
starch defender of Ms. Guinier.  Did she urge you to keep her on, or
is she fully on board with your decision to abandon this nomination?

         THE PRESIDENT:  I believe she is.  I would urge you to
talk to her about that.

         Q      Mr. President, could you just give us an idea of
what part of her writings you really had trouble with?

         THE PRESIDENT:  Yes, I can give you an idea.  There was
-- in the Michigan Law Review there was an article, Lani analyzed the
weaknesses of the present remedies available under the Voting Rights
Act -- and many of her analyses I agree with -- but seemed to be
arguing for principles of proportional representation in minority
veto as general remedies that I think are inappropriate as general
remedies and antidemocratic -- very difficult to defend.

         Now the Supreme Court has obviously changed the law on
that, but the whole thrust of that kind of argument, it seems to me,
is inconsistent with the arguments that I tried to make to members of
all races all during my campaign.

         Q      Mr. President, what part did your friendship, yours
and Mrs. Clinton's, with Guinier play in your decision to nominate
her and perhaps in your decision -- or your neglect of her record at
the time that you did nominate her?

         THE PRESIDENT:  Well, Hillary played no role in this
nomination or this decision and so deserves no blame or credit for
it.  But the fact that I have known her since law school and had
actually seen her in action as a civil rights practitioner played a
very large role in my desire to nominate her.  That is I thought it
would be not only interesting, but positive to have, for the first
time, someone who had been a career civil rights lawyer head that
division.

         And, frankly, I think the fact that I had known her and
cared about her and admired her probably contributed to the way this
thing has been handled in a kind of a drawn-out fashion.  And it may
be the adequacy or inadequacy of the briefings I received about this
issue is partly based on the assumption that I must have known
everything she'd written about since I knew her as a lawyer.  I think
that's probably true.

         Q      Mr. President, there's a perception among some of
your critics among the Black Caucus that your move to the center and
your desire to have conservative Democratic votes in the Senate for
your economic plan and your health plan to come played a large role
in this.  And they are saying -- Craig Washington said, for instance,
today, that he was with you in the House vote on the economic plan,

but won't be with you because of your decision to, in his view, cut
and run on Lani Guinier.  Can you -- what do you say to those people
and how --

         THE PRESIDENT:  I would say two things.  Number one,
this is about my center, not about the political center.  I will say
again, I would gladly fight this nomination to the last moment if
nobody wanted to vote her -- nobody -- if it were on the grounds that
I could defend.  If somebody said, you know, she sued the state of
Arkansas and she sued all these other people, and she came out for
remedies in her law practice that weren't right, and she ran over
this group and that group, I would say, fine, let's fight this thing
out.  I know that, I have personal knowledge of that.  You are wrong.
And if everybody in the Senate disagreed with me, I would stay with
it to the bitter end.

         The problem is that this battle will be waged based on
her academic writings.  And I cannot fight a battle that I know is
divisive, that is an uphill battle, that is distracting to the
country if I do not believe in the ground of the battle.  That is the
only problem.  This has nothing to do with a political center, this
has to do with my center.

         Now, let me say about Craig Washington.  Whatever he
does for the rest of his life, I'll be grateful to him for what he
did and what he said in fighting that economic problem through.  I
know how strongly he feels about it.  I can tell you, I received --
if any -- there's pressure over the issue, I got more pressure to
stay with this than to drop it.  But in the end, I had to do what I
thought was right.  Whether I am right or wrong, I tell you tonight,
I have done what I think is right.

         Q      Mr. President, did she agree with you?

         Q      Did she agree with you?

         Q      Has she withdrawn or are you withdrawing her?

         THE PRESIDENT:  I am -- I think you'd better ask her
what she said.

         Q      Well, if she comes -- have you withdrawn her name?

         THE PRESIDENT:  Well, she's in town and we've -- I think
she'll probably have a statement later tonight.  I have no idea what
she will say.

         Q      Did she ask you not to withdraw her name, sir?

         THE PRESIDENT:  Well, you know what she wanted.  She
wanted her hearing.  But she was surprised that I felt the way I did.
You know, this is the first long, detailed conversation we've had
about it.  It was a very painful thing between two people who have
liked and admired each other a long time.  This was a very -- this
was one of the most difficult meetings I've ever had in my life.  But
I did what I thought was right.

         Q      Mr. President, you have people who are supposed to
advise you about this.

                                 END9:15 P.M. EDT