The President's news conference - President Bill Clinton - Interview

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents,  June 21, 1993  

Tags: FINANCE, job, president, senator, Somalia

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I will say again, I think Steven Breyer is superbly qualified to be on the Supreme Court. I think both of them would have been confirmed by very large margins. I have no doubt in my mind of that. I really believe that she was the best candidate at this time. I was immensely impressed with the kind of inner strength and character that she demonstrated out there in the Rose Garden yesterday, and that's why I picked her. But do I regret the fact that there were leaks and that that may have exposed them more than they would otherwise have been? I certainly do. And I'd be happy to--you know, we ought to do better with that. And if somebody's got any suggestions about how I can, I'd like to have them.

Major General Harold N. Campbell

Q. Sir, we have not had the opportunity to ask you your reaction to the derogatory remarks about you that were reportedly made by the Air Force general in Europe. How did you feel when you heard about that? And why have you tolerated it the way you have?

The President. First of all, I have not tolerated it. I have simply permitted the Air Force to handle this in the ordinary course of business, as I thought was appropriate. The Air Force is dealing with this issue. I have been fully briefed on it. I had two feelings about it, frankly. For me personally, I didn't care. People say whatever they want to say about me personally. It had no impact on me. And I thought, well, here's a guy who's served this country, and you know, so what if he doesn't like me, and he doesn't know me from Adam's off ox. So you know, he's just repeating something he's heard.

But for a general officer to say that about the Commander in Chief is a--if that happened--is a very bad thing. And so we are--the Air Force is investigating it. They're going to make a report once they have all the facts, and then there will be some action taken. But I don't think that I should personally intervene as long as the Air Force is doing what is appropriate.

Q. You say you've been briefed on the situation, and we've been told by your folks that this would be resolved by the middle of June. We're at that point now. What have they told you so far?

The President. Just what I told you, that the Air Force felt very strongly that someone should go to Europe, find out exactly what happened, get all the facts, and take appropriate action.

Q. Have they confirmed, though, to you that he said it?

The President. I don't know if the factfinder has come back from Europe. And I have not gotten the final report yet. All I've gotten so far is secondhand stuff.

Q. Mr. President, on Bosnia, could we take your earlier remarks here today to mean that you are now revisiting a tougher policy on Bosnia and that you might go back to the Europeans to sell them--try to sell them once again on bombing the Serbs?

The President. I wouldn't characterize it quite that way, but let me restate what I said before. I just want to make it clear that I don't think an unwillingness to move alone in Bosnia on arms embargo issues--and we supported bombing to support, if you will, if you remember--the position we had was that we would support the use of air power to back up a freeze of heavy artillery in place while the arms embargo was equalizing the opportunity that the sides had to work out their business. We thought that would lead, frankly, to a cease-fire and ultimately to a peace agreement.