THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release October 29, 1996
PRESS BRIEFING BY
MIKE MCCURRY
Filing Center
Hill House
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
3:35 P.M. EST
MR. MCCURRY: Good afternoon. I'm just checking in before we take off here. Anything going on? Yes.
Q Any more on when the President might talk on campaign finance?
MR. MCCURRY: The President does want to talk about campaign finance reform. We're looking for some venue in which it would fit into his remarks -- probably out West, probably Thursday or Friday.
Q Is he going to propose something new or is he going to deal with controversy --
MR. MCCURRY: I think he just wants to raise the issue, talk about it in the context of things that we should do, and put a priority on it in 1997.
Q Will there be any mea culpa in those remarks?
MR. MCCURRY: I'm not going to characterize his remarks. Why don't we wait until he gives them.
Q Did the President ever meet with this fellow, Liu Tai Ying (phonetic) of Taiwan?
MR. MCCURRY: The President doesn't have any specific memory of that, and I'm checking right now to see if anyone else can shed light on it.
Q At any time?
MR. MCCURRY: We're checking to see if -- he doesn't have any specific memory of it. We're checking.
Q John Huang's lawyer quotes John Huang today as saying that he's been in touch the last few days with officials of the White House as well as with people at the DNC while he was in seclusion someplace in Maryland. Who at the White House was he in touch with?
MR. MCCURRY: I'm not -- don't have any knowledge that he was in touch with anyone at the White House. DNC attorneys have suggested they've been in contact with his attorneys. I'll have to check further on who, if anyone, he's had contact with. I had not heard that he had had contact with anyone.
Q That's what his lawyer says, he was in touch --
MR. MCCURRY: I have not heard from anyone at the White House that he's had contact with anyone at the White House. I'd have to go ask a lot of different people.
Q Would there be anything wrong with that if he had been in touch with officials at the White House?
MR. MCCURRY: Not that I know of.
Q Might the Counsel's Office have had discussions with him?
MR. MCCURRY: I'm not going to speculate until I know facts. I don't have any facts here.
Q Mike, one of the campaign finance experts say that because of the court rulings, one of the best ways to go might be toward greater disclosure requirements. Does the President have a view on that?
MR. MCCURRY: Well, the President is a strong advocate of disclosure requirements. Does the President have a view on that?
MR. MCCURRY: Well, the President's a strong advocate of disclosure. He supported the voluntary steps for disclosure that have been made by the national party. Obviously the national party is making a voluntary disclosure today that is consistent with the President's view that sunshine is the best policy. But there are ways that you can codify in law new requirements, and the President, as he suggested on previous occasions, believes we should pursue campaign finance reform.
A model for campaign finance reform that seems useful is McCain-Feingold because it's moved farthest along in consideration during the last Congress. But the President, as I say, will probably have more to say about this later in the week.
Q Michael, what are you doing tomorrow at the White House? Are you going to the White House to gaggle?
MR. MCCURRY: I'm going to -- we'll probably do something in the morning prior to departure just to gaggle or something like that, but he doesn't have any schedule tomorrow that I'm aware of before departure.
Q You will gaggle, though?
MR. MCCURRY: I'll do something late morning around 11:00 a.m. -- not before 11:00 a.m. Now, some of you -- that doesn't help anyone who has to travel tomorrow, but for those of you who will be in town, I'll do a little Q&A before we leave.
Q Mike, the President was sort of on a roll this morning with those hecklers and at one point seemed to suggest that one alternative for Dole was to go find a rock to hide behind. Is he getting overly confident?
MR. MCCURRY: No, he was suggesting that those who like to scream and abuse others' First Amendment privileges should think about the rock. I don't think he directed that to Senator Dole.
Okay, we'll see you all tomorrow.
Oh, yes, I've got one announcement. The campaign is now confirming that -- this is interesting -- that the very last night of the campaign, that would be Sunday night, the President will stay at the Sheraton Wayfarer Hotel in Manchester, New Hampshire -- a nice little twist -- where many campaigns begin.
Q Sunday.
MR. MCCURRY: Sunday night. Sunday night at the Sheraton Wayfarer. We probably won't get there much before last call, but we'll try. That's a nice poetic end to the campaign.
Q He's leaving L.A. on the --
MR. MCCURRY: The campaign has put out the schedule. Can we get copies of the schedule up here? They're going to be, I think -- do you know all of the stops? It's Tampa --
MR. TOIV: Tampa, another one in Florida, New Jersey --
MR. MCCURRY: They're faxing us right now this full schedule.
Q Where in Jersey, for people who might like to catch up?
MR. MCCURRY: He'll be in Tampa, Florida Sunday; same day he'll travel to West Palm Beach, Florida; Union Township, New Jersey; Springfield, New Jersey; Springfield, Massachusetts; and then on to Manchester and the overnight is at the Sheraton Wayfarer.
Q Mike, do you have the time in Springfield?
MR. MCCURRY: Don't have the times yet on these.
Q Do you have any fond memories of the Wayfarer?
MR. MCCURRY: I have many fine memories dating back to 1984 of the Sheraton Wayfarer, as does any Democrat. I've been there in so many losing circumstances I won't quite know the thrill of victory, or possible victory.
Q Can you relate some of those?
MR. MCCURRY: Yes, we'll do that in the appropriate occasion Sunday night.
Okay, anything else? Thank you. Good-bye.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
END 3:45 P.M. EST