Summary

B-ROLL OF PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH REMARKS TO THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEWSPAPER EDITORS.

Source CONUS Archive
Record ID 295367
Story Slug PRESIDENT BUSH REMARKS TO NEWSPAPER EDITORS PT. 2 (1989)
Location WASHINGTON, DC
Format B-ROLL
Date 4-12-1989
Archive Time 13:47:23
TRT 20:00
Video Description WIDE SHOT OF GEORGE BUSH AT PODIUM WITH AUDIENCE SITTING AT BANQUET TABLES, CU OF BUSH ANSWERING QUESTIONS AT PODIUM, PRESS SHOTS, BUSH SHAKES HANDS AND LEAVES
Description B-ROLL OF PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH REMARKS TO THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEWSPAPER EDITORS.
Script TRANSCRIPT: Minorities in the Presidency Q. Mr. President, my daughter thanks you for the autograph you gave us last week, and I'm asking this question on her behalf. She is a 12-year-old 6th grader -- and I'm a little nervous here -- 12-year-old 6th grader at Shepherd Elementary School. And she asked me after I left the White House, ``Daddy, will I ever be President? Will I have a chance to be President like Mr. Bush?'' She's black and also female. Do you envision, sir, a time when this country might be prepared to elect a black and/or female as President? The President. Yes, I do. I'd say to her: If I can make it, she can make it. But nevertheless -- [laughter] -- no, but seriously, Ben [Benjamin Johnson, Jr., managing editor of the Columbia-Missourian], of course we're in changing times here; and the great thing is that she might, by her question, aspire to be President. And I hope that I can keep alive, for at least the time I'm in the White House, the concept -- the honor of public service, the obligation to put something back into the system, and also the fact that if you get into the arena you get a very different perspective than when you're sitting outside. I'll always love what Sam Rayburn said. And this is a little off your question for your daughter. But as he was listening to some debate with a bunch of staffers, I think it was, up on the Hill, he said, ``Well, the problem is they never ran for sheriff.'' And it makes a difference. So, I hope that the question means she is interested, and I hope that the progress this country has made and will make in the future will guarantee that a black teenager today, female, might well be President of the United States. Secretary of Defense-Designate Tower Q. How do you square that excellent program you've just outlined to us, sir, with the Tower nomination and your support right to the end? The President. I see no contradiction whatsoever. As you know, I don't want to relive the Tower question, but I believe that judgments should be made on reality, not on perception. I didn't like what happened, and I don't think that it is any conflict at all with any of the four points I made here today. So, I'd simply -- and nothing convinced me from the hearings of that, because I don't think that there was anything that was pointed out to definitively -- that conflicts with what we've talked about here. So, I just would respectfully disagree with the conclusion that the United States Senate reached. And I'm going to work with them. We're going forward now. And they promptly confirmed Dick Cheney. But I just don't see any there at all. Fairness Doctrine Q. Mr. President, this week the House committee reported out a bill which most of the people in this room think would severely limit and hamper the first amendment. It would pass into law the so-called fairness doctrine. The head-counters say that it will probably go through both chambers quite comfortably. Will you stand with your predecessor in vetoing that bill should it come to you? The President. Well, I don't want to indicate a veto would be necessary, but I will stand with the previous position that I was a part of in the last administration. Press Coverage of Presidency Q. Mr. President, since you've taken office, you've greatly increased the access to the Presidency on the part of the press, and you've taken such initiatives as hosting small dinners in your private residence with reporters and editors. This has sparked some debate, and if I can frame it, if you'll permit me to frame it in the spirit of our morning session with Morton Downey and Geraldo Rivera [television talk-show hosts] and others: Is he trying to woo us, and may he succeed in seducing us? Mr. President, if you would explain your philosophy to press coverage of the Presidency and the relationship with your administration? I realize that some of the debate is probably our ability to complain, no matter what kind of access we get. But I'd like to hear your views of your relationship to the media. The President. Well, in the first place, when Barbara and I invite a reporter and her spouse or a reporter and his spouse to the White House for an upstairs dinner, we're doing that not to seduce the press -- [laughter] -- treating them as human beings. And one of the reasons -- you've asked my press policy -- one of the reasons I don't take questions over the sound of the helicopter blades out there is: I want to treat the press with the dignity to which it is entitled. And if you have to get your question answered by screaming at me when I don't want to answer it, you don't look very good. And I don't think it's very good for the White House. And so, what I've tried to do is have enough availability. In fact, I'm going to cross this one up as a press conference for the record. One more notch so I can go to those doubters -- [laughter] -- and say, look, we want to be accessible. But I would separate out -- you know, I don't know what we'll do at Christmas. So, what Barbara and I try to do at our house is say, hey, you and Joan and Gene, or whoever it is, come on to the Christmas party -- and not have to have it all categorized and so afraid that somebody thinks I'm trying to seduce some reporter that you have to be treated as something so different than anybody else. And so, availability -- don't get mad when they ask stuff you don't like, and treat people as you would whatever walk of life or whatever occupation they come from. And if it's misinterpreted, fine. You don't have to come. And so, I understand. I remember back a few years ago when one of the great news organizations said, ``Okay, we're no longer going to be used. We're not going to any backgrounders or off the record.'' It lasted about 30 seconds, and those reporters came trooping back in. [Laughter] But I respected that if they want to do it; but please believe me that when we do it this way, it's what we feel is appropriate. And if it's not, I'll sure -- I think we'll take a hit, but I'm unpersuaded by the gentle logic of Morton Downey -- [laughter] -- and whoever that other guy was that was here. Speaker of the House Wright Q. Mr. President, since you've announced this ethics program for the executive branch, I'd like to ask your comments about another situation involving ethics. The President. Oops. Nice try, Jack [Jackson B. Tinsley, editor and vice president of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram]. [Laughter] Go ahead. Q. That is the long running Ethics Committee investigation of House Speaker Jim Wright. The Washington Times reported this morning that the findings of this committee would be turned over to the Justice Department for investigation of possible Federal law violations. And also, there is a belief by some in Texas that since the rejection of John Tower as your first nominee for Secretary of Defense, that there might be an attempt by the Republican Party to retaliate against Speaker Wright. Would you comment on that, please? The President. Well, let me comment on the last part first, and I know of no such retaliatory action. I think it would be impossible to do anyway. And it would be wrong, and certainly I would condemn anyone in our administration that had any hand in anything of that nature. Secondly, there is nothing in this ethics package -- when I call for an even playing field -- Congress, executive branch, and judicial branch do have the same standards that should in any way, directly or indirectly, be interpreted as intervening in the matter now before the House Ethics Committee. And surely, Jack -- and I know there's this interest, particularly in your area and in my State. And I think it's wider than that now in the matters that are going forward there. But the last thing I want to do is involve myself in any way. And please believe me, there is no -- on my view, I answered the first question as frankly as I could about the John Tower matter. But in terms of getting even or something of that nature by unfairly intervening into a process that is now being handled by the Ethics Committee in the House, I simply wouldn't condone that at all, and I would condemn it. So, I want to separate out what's happening there from this package, and certainly, in response to your question, from any politics of retaliation because of my view that the Tower matter was not handled the way I would like to have seen it handled. Oliver North Q. At this point in time, would you call Ollie North a real American hero? The President. Anybody that gets a Purple Heart and sheds his blood fighting for his country deserves to be called an American hero. And it was in that context that I made those claims, and in that context that I will repeat them. And the last thing I want to do is intervene in that matter that is now before the courts. But that's how I feel about those who risk their lives to save this country. Texas Q. In view of the fact that there's a program on the table to put a space establishment in Houston and the supercollider is going to be built in Jack's backyard, or has been selected to be built in Jack's backyard, and two or three of the top administrative officials are from Texas, is there a real backlash developing because of that? We saw the Georgia Mafia. We saw the California Mafia talked about by the press. Is this going to happen? And is it going to hurt your program? The President. No. [Laughter] No, we've made appointments that are excellent in my view, men and women of standing. And the fact that some of them come from my home State -- hey, what's wrong with that? And the supercollider decision was made by President Reagan. It's a good decision. I want to support it. The space center was made by -- I guess when President Johnson was in office, or maybe under President Kennedy -- I'm not sure. And it should have strong support. But I don't see any risk of backlash at all, provided you get people that measure up. And that's what I'm trying to do. Q. Mr. President, I apologize. I've neglected the far left, which some would say is out of character for me. [Laughter] The President. Note that he said that, not I. [Laughter] Go ahead. Alaskan Oil Spill Q. Mr. President, I live and work in a State with a 2,500-mile coastline, a coastline that includes an oil terminal as well as the village of Kennebunkport. I'm wondering why it took so long for the Government to move on the Alaskan oil spill. Why didn't the Government -- the Federal Government -- move more boldly, more quickly to clean up the spill? The President. I think the Federal Government moved much more quickly and more boldly than it gets credit for. I consider the United States Coast Guard a part of the United States Government. And the Coast Guard moved very rapidly. What we did not want to do -- and I'm convinced now, even in retrospect, that this decision is correct -- was to relieve the Exxon Corporation of its liability by federalizing. And when I promptly sent our able EPA Administrator [William K. Reilly] and our head of the Coast Guard, Admiral Yost, and Sam Skinner, the Secretary of Transportation, up there, they came back with the unanimous recommendation that federalizing wasn't appropriate. The Federal assets -- we have moved forward now on the cleanup. The first was containment, and now it's mainly in the cleanup phase, although there still are some containment problems. Subsequently -- and maybe I should accept some criticism on whether I should have done this a week before we did, or something of that nature; I'm giving you the reasons -- but I think that the Federal Government is properly involved, but we should not have done what some are urging upon us: federalize that whole cleanup. And you know, it's a tough one. I do know the corner of the Maine coast you're talking about and something about the pristine nature of Prince William Sound. And I do have a great concern about the environment. I want to do better. I want to do better and set higher standards in the environment. But I also happen to believe that the national security needs of this country are served by having a production offshore and by producing oil from the North Slope. And it is awful hard to guarantee against a contingency in a 10-mile-wide channel after thousands and thousands and thousands are -- put it millions of barrels have gone through there safely, and now, apparently, what human error seems to have caused this aberration. It's hard to have a contingency plan against that. And the other day, they asked me about that and said -- well, you know, because there were some saying, ``Well, you ought to shut down the oil coming out of Prince William Sound, coming out of the Port of Valdez.'' And I said, ``Well, to guarantee against what happened, should shut down all the production off of Louisiana and Texas.'' I'm not sure I understand the difference. And I think we have got to do everything we can to learn from this. We've got to do everything we can to have a plan that is based not on a third of this bill but on the totality of this bill in terms of recovery. But I simply do not want this disaster to -- this isn't all your question, but projecting a little -- to weaken the national security interest by making us further and further dependent on foreign oil. We're about up to 50 percent now, and that is not a good enough standard. So, let's learn from this; let's do better in protecting the environment. If there's a lesson here that one agency or another might have moved faster, I will be the first to learn from that. But we've got to keep a certain perspective. And I am very pleased that the Federal Government is as involved as it should be now. I also would like to see more volunteers involved. And therein, I would make a pitch for strong support for revision of our liability laws. Some, I am told, in volunteer groups, are kept from helping out -- maybe not on this one but in many other areas -- because of the fear -- outrageous liability claims. So, this is a good -- we can maybe learn that much from this disaster up there. But I think maybe we should take some blame. But I think we've had prudent action, and I hope it's been timely. Iran Arms and Contra Aid Controversy Q. Mr. President, when the North trial is over, will you tell the American people if you were the so-called discreet emissary sent to Honduras during the Iran-contra affair and, if you were, give a full accounting of what you did there? The President. I think I've given a full accounting. I would refer you, sir, to what -- incidentally, in today's paper -- to what was said by Ambassador Negroponte [U.S. Ambassador to Mexico] and also Tony Motley [former Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs], who sat in on that meeting. And having said that, every attorney that advises the President has advised me not to do something that inadvertently would cause a mistrial or would disturb the process that is underway. And so, I don't like reading charges that I happen to feel are untrue, but I have to stand on that. And that just goes with the territory. And I am confident that the process that has gone on, and the process that undoubtedly will go on after this trial is over, will say that anything I have heretofore said is correct. But I do not want to be pushed into doing something for self-aggrandizement that would be ruled by some judge to have aborted a trial that is underway. Well, thank you all very much.
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