CNN Speical Interview with Hillary Rodham Clinton

Interviewer: Judy Woodruff

Monday, August 26, 1996

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN: You are back in Chicago, your hometown. Just briefly, what are your thoughts on this convention in 1996 versus the last Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968, and your reaction then?

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: I had an unusual experience in 1968 because I was an intern -- a college intern -- for the Republicans on the Hill in Congress. And so, I actually went to the Miami convention that nominated Richard Nixon.

And then I came home and saw what was going on in Chicago. And so, for me, '68 was a very turbulent year all over the world. You had the Czech uprising in Czechoslovakia against the communists. You had all kinds of protests and demonstrations in Europe and elsewhere.

And I never really thought it was Chicago's fault, actually. I thought that there were lots of forces converging on Chicago that could have converged anywhere.

I'm just so pleased that we're here -- back in a city that I love and I think is one of the most beautiful in the whole world so that the entire world can see that.

WOODRUFF: The San Diego convention...

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH DOLE: I'm going to be speaking about the man I love, and it's just a lot more comfortable for me to do that down here with you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: How would you rate Mrs. Dole's speech?

CLINTON: I didn't see it. You know, we were on vacation, and we didn't watch any of the convention at all and actually enjoyed our vacation a lot.

WOODRUFF: Since then, have you seen any of the news clips...

CLINTON: No, I haven't seen it.

WOODRUFF: ... or video clips of it?

CLINTON: I heard she did very well, as people have told me.

WOODRUFF: The critics gave her pretty high ratings. Does that increase the pressure or raise expectations for you here in Chicago?

CLINTON: Not in my mind. I'm sure it has in perhaps other people's minds. But that's not how I see myself. I'm just thrilled when women do well and perform well and have accomplishments behind their name, and the more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned.

WOODRUFF: How different will Hillary Rodham Clinton's speech be?

CLINTON: It's still a work in progress, I have to tell you. It's -- I'll probably know when I stand up there and start delivering it on Tuesday night.

WOODRUFF: Do you have a sense right now of what you're going to try to emphasize?

CLINTON: I do, but I'm not ready to talk about it because I still really am working on it.

WOODRUFF: We were just reminded in that moving film that we saw here of your lifelong work as an advocate for children's causes, and yet late last week, your husband signed a welfare reform bill that, as you know, Senator Patrick Moynihan and other welfare experts are saying is going to throw a million children into poverty.

Does that legislation threaten to undo so much of what you've worked for over the years?

CLINTON: I don't think so, and I hope not. But much of my thinking about what happens with welfare reform rests on my belief that my husband will do as he said he will do, which is to fix those parts of the bill that are unfair, that the Republicans put in, and to monitor carefully the implementation of welfare reforms.

I really believe that there is every chance that we can end welfare as we know it and make a new opportunity for women and men and their children. But I will, like every other person who cares about children, be watching that carefully.

And I have confidence that my husband will take care of what needs to be fixed.

WOODRUFF: Your close friend Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund said the president's signing and this a quote, "makes a mockery of his pledge not to hurt children." She said, "it will leave a moral blot on his presidency and the country, that will never be forgotten."

CLINTON: Well, I understand exactly her deep feelings and her passion about the issues that she and I have worked on over many years. But I just have to disagree with that assessment, because first of all, the bill is not even going to be implemented until next year. And I don't think that the problems that the people see with the bill will be allowed to harm children and I will be among those speaking out to try to make sure that not only legislatively is the bill corrected, but also in the implementation at the state level.

WOODRUFF: But if the bill was so flawed, why sign it? Why not work to fix it and sign it later?

CLINTON: But I don't think it was that flawed. I think if you look at the two previous bills that the president vetoed, they were unacceptable completely. This bill does a lot of good things that need to be done. I'll just name one -- increasing child support collection -- which has been an issue for me for many years. And I think any time you are faced with a Congress of the different party, you're trying to work with them to realize the best possible outcome. The president was in a position of saying to himself there's a lot that I approve of in this bill and there are aspects of it that I don't.

Signing the bill enables him to move forward on his belief that welfare needs to be reformed and he will, starting next week, begin working to fix those parts of it that were not acceptable.

WOODRUFF: Now, what are the, say two or three, parts of it that you believe it is most important to correct?

CLINTON: Well, there a number but two of them are the restrictions on legal immigrants' benefits. If someone is here in the United States legally, the president believes and I agree, that they should not be discriminated against.

And also the restrictions on food stamps. That would be very onerous on working families who were to lose their jobs and become unemployed. Those are just two of the features of the bill that need to be attended to and the president has already said that he will.

WOODRUFF: Eleanor Roosevelt, whom you admire, you mentioned her again just now, said that much of the time she kept her disagreements with the president to herself in private.

WOODRUFF: But there were times when she felt it was important to disagree publicly. Does there every come a time with you, if not welfare reform, then what?

CLINTON: Well, there may well be a time but there hasn't yet. I can give you one example. One of the issues that, for me, was extremely important in welfare reform is that Medicaid continue to be a guarantee for children. And I spoke out about the publicly, internally, externally, in the last minutes before the bill was sent to the president and actually passed out of Congress.

There were efforts to undermine the Medicaid eligibility. Now I know my husband would never have signed that bill. But I also know that if there had been chance that that bill had come to him with Medicaid involved in it in any way, I and many others would have spoken out. But that was fixed. And part of what my bottom line feeling about this is is that we have preserved the Medicaid guarantee which is very important.

We have begun a process that has already resulted, in many states, in moving people off of welfare. The economy is producing jobs. The problems that are left in making sure welfare reform is done right at the states are one of accountability and monitoring and I think that can be done.

WOODRUFF: I'm going to take you back to San Diego.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DOLE: We are told that it takes the village that is collective is and thus the state to raise a child. With all due respect, I am here to tell you it does not take a village to raise a child. It takes a family to raise a child.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Is this something that's going to become a major issue in this fall campaign?

CLINTON: Well everyone knows it takes a family to raise a child. I wrote in my book that the family has the primary responsibility for children. But I pointed out that every child, mine included, is influenced by people and forces outside the family.

And if we as a nation are going to do more than just pay lip service to family values, we have to understand how important it is that all of us take responsibility for our children. And so I don't see any contradiction there at all.

WOODRUFF: Should it be an issue in this campaign?

CLINTON: That's for somebody else to decide. Not for me.

WOODRUFF: Also in San Diego, former President George Bush told the delegates...

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: You know as president I worked hard to uphold the dignity and the honor of the presidency. And I tried as did my superb staff...

(APPLAUSE)

... to treat both the White House and the presidency itself with respect. It breaks my heart when the White House is demeaned. The presidency itself diminished.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Does that hurt coming from your immediate predecessor?

CLINTON: Well, I don't think that has happened and it would break my heart if it has. But it hasn't.

WOODRUFF: He then went on to say, Mrs. Clinton, to make a point of saying that his wife, Mrs. Bush, "unquestionably upheld the honor of the White House." Is that an insult to you?

CLINTON: I don't take it as such, I take it as a compliment to Mrs. Bush.

WOODRUFF: But he was clearly drawing a contrast there.

CLINTON: I didn't hear it or see it, and so I'm not going to comment on that.

WOODRUFF: You're not hurt?

CLINTON: I'm not hurt by anything Republicans say about me. I don't think there's anything left that Republicans could say about me that hasn't been said. Although I'll probably find out there is.

WOODRUFF: Your husband said in 1992 that the country would get two for the price of one if he were elected. Would that, will that be equally true if there's a second Clinton term?

CLINTON: Well I will continue to work hard on the issues that I've worked on for more than 25 years. And I will work on anything the president asks me to work on. So I expect to stay as involved as I can to help him and to make a contribution.

WOODRUFF: And last question. Two accomplished wives of the presidential nominees, it's been suggested that there be a debate between you and Elizabeth Dole.

WOODRUFF: Have you even talked about it?

CLINTON: Not...

WOODRUFF: Have you even considered it?

CLINTON: Not a bit. I don't think that would be appropriate at all.

WOODRUFF: Why not?

CLINTON: Because the president is the one who's running for reelection, and he has a challenger. Those are the men that people will have to choose between, they're going to be making decisions, and that's what I think the voters want to know about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Hillary Clinton talking to us earlier today. And Bernie, as you heard, she didn't want to give us a clue about what she's going to say tomorrow night, but I'm told that she's going to address exactly what Bob Dole went after in San Diego, and that is the ideas in her book "It Takes a Village," this notion that a community has a role in raising children.

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