clinton am press briefing by dee dee myers the white house office of the press secretary for immediate release april press briefing by dee dee myers the briefing room a m edt ms myers okay today s schedule as you know the president jogged this morning with senator wofford at p m he will have a photo opportunity in the rose garden to present the teacher of the year award at p m he will meet with his principal advisors on bosnia and at p m he ll meet with president vaclav havel there will be a photo op at the top of that meeting no formal press conference afterwards any questions q is he moving towards some major decision this week on bosnia ms myers as we ve said he s continuing to discuss his options he s been talking extensively with his foreign policy advisors his bosnia advisors as well as with other world leaders he ll try to contact president mitterrand again today and he ll continue to discuss it we don t have any specific timetable but obviously the situation there is very serious q has he called janet reno today or yesterday ms myers i don t believe he s spoken to her today q why does he have nothing to say about this publicly except on the piece of paper that was put out last night at p m ms myers he did he answered a question about it yesterday q before anything had happened ms myers before anything happened he put out q since something has happened he s had nothing to say ms myers he s put out a statement on it last night and we ll have more to say about it later today q in what forum is that going to be ms myers it will be at the photo in the rose garden q he will talk about waco at that ms myers yes he ll have something to say q is that something we can take live ms myers i think it will be brief we can talk a little later about the exact structure as we work it out but i don t know if it s something you d want to take live q will he take questions on waco at that time as well ms myers he ll probably take a few q is there any reason why he hasn t talked to the attorney general ms myers i ll have to double check i don t know that he hasn t talked to her this morning q and she didn t come here this morning to see him or anyone else ms myers no q and he didn t talk yesterday q what s the reaction to her resignation statement that she made last night ms myers she was asked a question about it and she answered the question the president has absolutely no intention of asking for the attorney general s resignation he stands behind her percent as you know he was informed about the decision he takes full responsibility for that and stands percent behind attorney general reno q the question now arises yesterday we were told that he was briefed on this but we never got a firm idea of how much he knew of what the plan was and the justification for the plan and the justification of the timing was he fully informed on all of that all of this about the increasing levels of violence inside the compound that made them want to go now the feeling that nothing else was going to succeed et cetera ms myers he talked with the attorney general about the decision about she talked to him about the factors that led to her decision he raised no objections he supports her decision to go forward with it he was fully briefed q of course hindsight is but looking back now does the president does the white house feel that the decision he signed off on proved to be the right way to go when you look at what actually happened ms myers i think everybody feels bad when life is lost but i don t think that that is reason to second guess the decision he stands behind the decision that was made he was informed about it he was fully briefed about it and he stands percent behind the attorney general the justice department and the fbi it s a difficult operation and there s it had already gone on for more than seven weeks four federal agents had lost their lives in the line of duty let s not forget that this was a very difficult situation and all the decisions involved were very difficult but all the agents on the ground the fbi the justice department all recommended moving forward with this they thought given the circumstances it was the best possible course of action there s just no point in second guessing those decisions now i think that there s a reason q why not they have to ms myers no not to second guess the decisions i think it s important to take a look at it to have an investigation i think the president will talk some about that later today but at this from this vantage point to second guess those decisions it s not useful q you sound like he s going to order an investigation of what happened and whether ms myers i think he ll have more to say about that later yes q he will order an investigation ms myers he ll have more yes he ll have more to say about an investigation q what kind of investigation ms myers he ll have more to say about it later q but in the monday morning quarterbacking surely there is some soul searching now as to whether it was the right decision you can t say that we did the best we could when it turned out to be a rather a debacle ms myers i think we ll obviously we ll review the situation and all the factors that lead to a very tragic outcome i don t think anybody disputes that the outcome was tragic but again the president stands behind the decisions that were made and we ll take a look at the factors that contributed to that q what was the fbi director s role in this ms myers well he was obviously involved in setting up the operation he signed off on it as did the agents that were on the ground that were working with him i don t believe he spoke to the president but i ll double check that q but he was very closely involved in every aspect of planning and so forth ms myers i would refer you to the fbi on exactly what aspects he was involved with q will janet reno be coming over to the white house today ms myers there s no planned meeting i don t believe that she ll be here q she won t be at this event at p m ms myers no no plans to be q do you think that there s going to be a jumping on on the part of political opposition to make something out of this in terms of to the president s detriment politically ms myers well i would certainly hope that people wouldn t try to use this tragedy for political reasons obviously i think again that it s useful to look at the facts to reevaluate the facts and i think the president will move forward with that but i think people understand that this was a difficult series of decisions that it was a very difficult situation that it was caused by a man who was a cult leader who was involved in the death of four federal agents and i think it s most tragic that a lot of innocent children lost their lives in this i don t think anybody disputes the tragedy of the outcome q dee dee what was the white house role in handling the i guess public relations aspect in the aftermath who was talking who here at the white house was talking with people at justice to set up reno s news conference to do all that sort of thing ms myers i think the attorney general handled her end of the situation herself and made the decision to go ahead with the news conference once there was a point at which there was enough information i think to talk with some accuracy about what had transpired during the day obviously people here at a number of levels were keeping in touch with people at the justice department and at the fbi to try to keep informed about what was happening there q but reno said that she didn t talk to the president and there seemed to be an indication she hadn t talked to anybody at the white house so who ms myers there were people talking on a staff to staff level q i understand but who at the justice department was handling that for reno who was talking to the white house ms myers there were a number of people as you know webb hubbell is the liaison to the white house and i know he talked to a number of people here there were a number of people at a number of different levels involved i don t want to get into exactly who had what conversations with whom but there were a number of conversations obviously the justice department was working to keep the white house informed the press informed to the best of its ability as events unfolded throughout the day q did webb hubbell talk to the president ms myers i don t believe so i don t know if he talked he may have at one point q and was the white house role just to seek information about what happened or was it to direct the public information campaign that followed ms myers it was both to keep abreast of the situation so the president could be on top of it but i think the justice department managed its press relations on it we were obviously very interested in what was happening there throughout the day and the president was following it very closely throughout the day q dee dee on that though if the president was following it so closely and he had talked the night before with janet reno why wouldn t he talk to her at all since then ms myers again i don t know if he s talked to her this morning again he s kept fully aware of what has been going on throughout the day he stands percent behind her decisions he s been fully supportive of her as he said yesterday morning before events transpired and yesterday afternoon in a written statement q but wouldn t he want to convey those thoughts to her personally yesterday ms myers one more time i don t know if they ve spoken this morning q no yesterday q clearly there s a perception that she was left hung out to dry all day yesterday ms myers that s just not true i think we said throughout the day that the president takes full responsibility that he stands i don t know how much clearer we can be the president stands foursquare behind the attorney general on this he accepts full responsibility for the events that transpired he believes that janet reno the justice department and the fbi acted as best they could given the circumstances and the facts that were evident at the time i don t know what else he can say to show that he supports her percent q one of the best indications of that is to pick up the phone and tell her ms myers again i don t know whether they ve spoken this morning q why can t we find out ms myers well we can i can t do it standing here right now q you ve got six people here all they ve got to do is pick up the phone ms myers helen we ll get back to you q dee dee when the president spoke with the attorney general on sunday is it safe to assume that either she volunteered or he inquired about whether there was a possible downside to increasing pressure on the davidians ms myers i think that they discussed the situation again i m not going to get into the specific details of what exactly she told him but i think that he was aware of the risks involved q dee dee the president yesterday morning said it was entirely her decision she then said that she told him what was happening and he said okay does the president regard it that he gave the go ahead or that she gave the go ahead ms myers i think what they both said yesterday was that she made a decision based on all the available facts she informed him about that and he raised no objections again i don t know how much clearer we can be about that q and he said okay the issue is over the responsibility ms myers he said okay q does okay mean ms myers the president accepts ultimate responsibility q dee dee the president s investigation that he s going to announce would that be conducted by someone outside the administration ms myers no q it would be internal is it meant to preclude any congressional investigation ms myers no it s meant simply to follow up on the incidents that occurred yesterday q and you would i assume therefore cooperate fully with any congressional hearings that would be held ms myers to the best of our ability q dee dee there are two reports out this morning one that the justice department or fbi or whomever apparently had a bug planted inside the complex and the other is that the children may have been injected with some kind of poison that may have either left them unconscious or maybe even killed them before the fire what do you know about those two ms myers nothing more than i ve seen in news accounts this morning we may get more on it later but at this point i know i m not sure anybody knows any more than what was reported by people who came out of the compound q has the president received any report today in terms of fatalities and actually what was going on what they ve been able to find out on in the compound now ms myers he s been briefed i don t think that they ve gotten into the compound yet they were still waiting for it to cool off i don t think there s much beyond what s been reported in the news accounts but he has been kept up to date on it q dee dee the president stands behind attorney general reno but does he feel that she perhaps got bad advice from the so called experts ms myers he believes that she made he stands behind the decision that she made it was the unanimous decision of her advisors of the fbi of the agents on the ground and he supports that q what about the validity of the decisions made on the ground does he back those ms myers he s not going to second guess decisions made q dee dee you just said he stands behind the decision which she made normally in a situation like this the president says i made the decision but you re saying she made the decision ms myers i m saying that the president was briefed about the decision he okayed it and he accepts full responsibility for it q but then why do you keep using the terminology the decision that she made rather than the decision that he made ms myers because as he said yesterday she evaluated the facts based on evidence presented to her by justice department and fbi which is part of the justice department and made a decision and then briefed the president on that decision that is how the chain of command works she briefed him he signed off on it the operation went forward and the president accepts full responsibility q in that chain of command analogy there i want to go back to sessions a moment do you know if this was a plan that came through him to reno or was it presented to her around him or with his involvement what was his involvement ms myers again you d have to go to the justice department for the specific interaction between the attorney general and the director q does the president stand behind director sessions ms myers he supports again i don t know how many different ways i can say this he supports the decisions made by the justice department and the fbi he fully supports the attorney general in this i m not stepping away from the director of the fbi i want to but janet reno is the one who briefed him the one who made the decisions as the head of the justice department as you know the director of the fbi reports to the attorney general the attorney general made the decision she informed the president about those decisions he okayed it he didn t raise any objections to it and he accepts full responsibility q do you have based on what you know here at the white house any concerns about william sessions performance during this ms myers nothing to suggest that no q along those same lines just in your initial review of the situation how much do you think the problems might have come from not having a justice department that s fully staffed and having an fbi director who is still quite uncertain about his status ms myers i just don t think that had anything to do with it i think the agents on the ground the operation went forward i m not going to speculate on that q did the white house express any alarm that janet reno chose to speak to the live network media before she chose to speak to clinton ms myers no she was carrying forward her responsibility to inform the public about the events of yesterday i think she did a very admirable job the president agrees with that q before sunday how often was the president briefed on the situation in waco ms myers he was kept updated on a regular basis on a daily basis q who briefed the president ms myers well i m not going to get into exactly who what conversations he had with whom but he was kept up to date on the events in waco he has daily briefings on a number of issues q no no was this a regular briefing conducted by a white house staff person or was it by a justice department person ms myers he s briefed regularly by a white house staff on a number of issues again i m not going to get into exactly who briefs him on what subjects q another subject q on another subject q now we re going to do gays in the military laughter ms myers i welcome it q how close are you to signing the biodiversity treaty ms myers as you know the president s giving a speech on earth day tomorrow we ll have more to say about it then q any details on where or when that speech is yet ms myers it s at a m and i don t know where yet q dee dee is this a major policy address how would you characterize the speech tomorrow ms myers i would characterize it as a earth day speech i wouldn t look for any major departures from his past positions on these things but again i don t want to get too much into what he s going to talk about tomorrow q on or off campus q is this at a location outside the white house ms myers it will be somewhere in washington we don t know exactly where yet q dee dee what foreign leaders has the president talked to since friday on the situation in bosnia ms myers only prime minister major and again he ll try to reach president mitterrand again this morning q david owen said yesterday and joe biden said today both of them agree that the peace process is not going to work that the serbs are not going to sign on does the administration still believe that it can work and that they will sign on ms myers obviously the ultimate goal is some sort of peaceful resolution to the conflict in bosnia as you know the administration is considering a wide variety of options at this point the situation there in and around srebrenica and the rest of eastern bosnia is quite serious and the president will meet with his bosnian advisors today and continue to press forward on this q is that a question they re going to try to be deciding whether or not the peace plan remains viable ms myers again they ll be reviewing a number of options including the peace plan q does the group that he s meeting with today include reg bartholomew ms myers i don t believe he s here but it will be among the usual secretary christopher secretary aspin general powell q dee dee do you have anything on the apparent encounter by u s f s over bosnia today some aircraft violating the no fly zone ms myers no i don t i ll get back to you on that q will the president be meeting with every one of the leaders coming to town for the holocaust museum ms myers he will he ll be meeting as you know with vaclav havel today and with lech walesa tomorrow and then with the rest of the group tomorrow afternoon q as a group or one by one ms myers i believe it s as a group now havel and walesa asked for meetings early and these have been on the agenda for quite some time but he will meet with all of the foreign heads of state that are here q dee dee has the president decided whether he supports the gay and lesbian civil rights act and has anything been worked out for him to address the march on sunday ms myers i think he ll probably have a letter or some kind of a statement to the march we haven t worked out the exact details of that q not a live phone hook up ms myers probably not given the logistics of getting to boston the speech as you know is at p m the answer to the other part of your question is no he hasn t taken a position on it q you said that speech in boston was at p m ms myers i believe so yes q do you know what it s on ms myers we ll still working out q general vessey s coming back tonight from vietnam when will he be meeting with the president ms myers no specific meeting is scheduled we ll talk to him at some point and see we look forward to his report but exactly how he ll make that report is unclear q so he s not going to come immediately to the white house ms myers no q the aids czar how close are you ms myers still working on it q drug czar q do you expect it before the march ms myers i don t have a time line on it q did the president ask senator mitchell to try the lloyd cutler ploy to break the filibuster ms myers i don t believe so q why not ms myers he s just not going to q are senate democrats here at this hour ms myers no that s tomorrow tomorrow at a m q update on the stimulus possible scaling down ms myers as you know the senate will vote on amendments today we ll continue to talk the president is committed to some kind of a jobs package we d like to see it passed and we ll continue in conversations throughout the day and see where we end up q when this briefing is over can you give us word through the speaker or whatever whether the president s talked to janet reno ms myers we ll be happy to q it s become a pressing question for the last several hours ms myers no just this minute that i ve been here and i haven t had a chance to follow up on it helen q does he have an opinion on hatfield ms myers i mean obviously he prefers he offered a compromise package of billion he believes that that s the best alternative believes that he s obviously willing to take a second look at the package and i think the senate will vote on that today and we re hopeful that the president s bill which will be the mitchell amendment will be the one that will be approved q dee dee is there any white house official that will be at the march on sunday ms myers somebody will be there representing the president i don t know who yet q well has it been decided how he s going to address is it going to be a videotape or a phone call ms myers i think it will probably be a letter but there hasn t been a final decision on that yet q the official will read the letter is that what it sounds like ms myers correct q lloyd bentsen came in here this morning do you know what was that about was that about this waco thing ms myers no actually it wasn t it may have come up but it was about economic issues q on health care is the th of may still the target ms myers that s still the target q and there s talk about a joint session of congress speech at the end of may ms myers we haven t resolved exactly how the president will present the health care plan to the people i wouldn t rule that out as an option but no decisions have been made end a m edt
