THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release November 6, 2000
PRESS BRIEFING
BY
JAKE SIEWERT
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
10:45 A.M. EST
Q Are you glad you signed the - vetoed the official secrets.
(Laughter.)
MR. SIEWERT: Thank you. All of your views were well represented
to the President, and --
Q Are you taking credit for that veto, Jake? (Laughter.)
MR. SIEWERT: No, no. But I did pass on what I heard from members
of the press.
Q Seriously, Jake, what did he say about that, why he was doing
it? Did you --
Q Just to clarify that point, you're not denying it are you?
MR. SIEWERT: Excuse me?
Q Just to clarify his question, you're not saying --
MR. SIEWERT: I'm not commenting on it, deliberately.
Q How about the position, the U.S. position on an international
force? Has that changed?
MR. SIEWERT: I'm not going to discuss those sorts of negotiating
issues that - negotiating stances here at this podium.
Q Jake, did you talk to the President at all about why he
decided to veto that intelligence authorization bill?
MR. SIEWERT: Yes.
Q Wasn't it out of great affection for the press corps and its
role? (Laughter.)
MR. SIEWERT: I don't think affection or lack of affection had
anything to do with it. The President thought that the bill, while
other wise well-intentioned, had a provision in there that simply was
not worth the risk it might have. It might well have chilled the work
that you do, the work that people in government do, important work, and
he didn't think that it was worth the risk that this bill would be used
by those who might have an interest in not seeing information that
should be in the public realm brought to light. He just did not think
that this was worth the risks that were associated with that particular
provision.
END 11:07 A.M. EST
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