THE PRESS CONFERENCE

February 19, 1999
		At a joint news conference with President Jacques Chirac of France, President Clinton faced the press for the first time since his impeachment trial. Following these excerpts, syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot discuss the event.

Full coverage of the impeachment trial: analysis and trial documents. Feb. 18, 1999: What effect has the Clinton-Lewinksy matter and the subsequent impeachment trial had on the language and culture of America? Feb. 17, 1999: The judge in the Paula Jones lawsuit is considering issuing a contempt citation against President Clinton for his misleading testimony about Monica Lewinsky in that case. Feb. 15, 1999: A group of Denver voters discuss the final votes in the impeachment trial of the president. Feb. 12, 1999: Shields and Gigot offer an end-of-trial analysis on today’s vote. Feb. 11, 1999: A report on the latest developments in the Senate impeachment trial. Feb. 10, 1999: Analysis of the pending investigations against Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and his office. Feb. 9, 1999: Behind closed doors and out of public view, the Senate began deliberating the political fate of President Clinton. Feb. 9, 1999: Kwame Holman reports on the latest developments in the Senate impeachment trial. Feb. 8, 1999: Tom Oliphant and David Brooks discuss the closing arguments of the impeachment trial. Feb. 8, 1999: Excerpts and a report on today’s events in the impeachment trial. Feb. 5, 1999: Our pundits discuss the Senate impeachment trial and the beginning of the "end game." Feb. 4, 1999: Tom Oliphant and David Frum discuss the Senate's decision to use videotaped depositions in the impeachment trial. Feb. 4, 1999: Excerpts and a report on today’s events in the impeachment trial from Kwame Holman. Feb. 3, 1999: Sidney Blumenthal gave a deposition as the third and last witness to testify for the Senate impeachment trial. Feb. 2, 1999: Tom Oliphant and Bill Kristol discuss the developments in the impeachment trial and issues surrounding it. Feb. 1, 1999: Can Kenneth Starr indict President Clinton while he's in office? Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the White House, Political Wrap and Conversations on Clinton.   White House Jurist Guide to Impeachment U.S. Senate U.S. House of Representatives

MARGARET WARNER: President Clinton and French President Jacques Chirac met reporters in the White House East Room this afternoon. They began with statements on Kosovo. Here are extended excerpts. PRESIDENT CLINTON: We now call on both sides to make the tough decisions that are necessary to stop the conflict immediately before more people are killed and the war spreads. The talks going on outside Paris are set to end on Saturday. The Kosovo Albanians have shown courage in moving forward the peace accord that we, our NATO allies, and Russia have proposed. Serbia's leaders now have a choice to make: They can join in an agreement that meets their legitimate concerns and gives them a chance to show that an autonomous Kosovo can thrive as a part of their country, or they can stonewall. But if they do that, they will be held accountable. If there is an effective peace agreement, NATO stands ready to help implement it. We also stand united in our determination to use force if Serbia fails to meet its previous commitment to withdraw forces from Kosovo, and if it fails to accept the peace agreement. I have ordered our aircraft to be ready to act as part of a NATO operation, and I will continue to consult very closely with congress in the days ahead. PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC: (speaking through interpreter) Our agreement on the present problems in Kosovo is an unqualified agreement. It's a complete agreement. We are almost at the end of the time allotted for trying to work things out at Rambouillet, and for President Clinton. I would like to say to the two parties, and particularly to President Milosevic, who holds, in fact, more or less the key to the resolution, that the time has come to shoulder all his responsibilities and to choose the path of wisdom and not the path of war. REPORTER: Now, President Clinton, President Milosevic refused today meet with the U.S. Envoy today, Ambassador Hill, and said that he would not give up Kosovo even at the price of bombing. Is there any possibility that NATO would extend the Saturday noon deadline for reaching an agreement? PRESIDENT CLINTON: First let me say I think it would be a mistake to extend the deadline, but I would like to go back to the -- just very briefly to the merits of the argument that Mr. Milosevic made. He says that if he accepts this multinational peacekeeping force, it's like giving up Kosovo. I personally believe it's the only way he can preserve Kosovo as a part of Serbia. Under their laws, Kosovo is supposed to be autonomous but a part of Serbia. Its autonomy was effectively stripped from it years ago. We are now trying to find some way to untangle the injuries and the harms and the arguments that have come from both sides, and permit a period of three years to develop within which the Serbian security forces can withdraw, the police force, civil institutions can be developed. We can give them a chance to prove that they can function together. I don't think, unless we do this, there is any way for the integrity of Serbia ultimately to be preserved because of the incredible hostility and the losses and the anger that are already there. REPORTER: (speaking through interpreter) If the failure is -- if everything fails tomorrow, what could then prevent a military strike on the part of NATO? PRESIDENT CLINTON: I don't think there is an option because keep in mind part of what we have asked is that President Milosevic do things that he has already agreed to do as I said in my opening statement. CHRISTIAN MOLARD, France 3: (speaking through interpreter) Mr. President, if it appears that the Serbs, they have to be sanctioned because they refuse the presence of NATO troops in Kosovo, have you the assurance that the Kosovo Liberation Army will renounce its demands on independence? PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC: (speaking through interpreter) Well, as I said before, the pressure that we are exerting legitimately, especially exercising on both parties, on both sides -- and we replied to the question on Serbia because the question was on Serbia-- but let's be perfectly clear: A lot will be on the personal position adopted by Mr. Milosevic. But it goes without saying that if the failure, the breakdown was caused by the Kosovars, they have a responsibility. Sanctions of a different kind, probably, but very firm sanctions would be applied against them. We haven't. There is no choice. We don't have to choose. We want peace. That's all. MARGARET WARNER: American reporters then asked President Clinton about the impeachment process. HELEN THOMAS, United Press International: What lessons have you learned from your 13-month ordeal? Do you think the office of the presidency has been harmed? And what advice would you give to future presidents? PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, of course I have learned a lot of personal lessons, most of which I have already discussed. And presidents are people, too. I have learned, again, an enormous amount of respect for our Constitution, our Framers, and for the American people, and my advice to future presidents would be to decide what you believe you ought to do for the country and focus on it and work hard; that the American people hire you to do that and will respond if you work at it, and if they sense that you are doing this for them. The Constitution has been, in effect, re-ratified, and I hope the presidency has not been harmed. I don't believe it has been. I can't say that I think this has been good for the country, but we will see. I expect to have two good years here. I think the American people expect the congress and me to get back to work, expect us to either not have any destructive feelings, or, if we do, not to let them get in the way of our doing their business. These are jobs. These are positions of public responsibility. These are -- and the United States has great responsibilities to its own people and to the rest of the world, and I don't believe that any of us can afford to let what has happened get in the way of doing our best for our own people and for the future, and I am going to do my very best to do that, and I think that we should all discipline ourselves with that in mind. MARGARET WARNER: The president was asked about speculation that his wife Hillary might run for the senate seat in New York. PRESIDENT CLINTON: I think it's important that you all understand-- I think that you know this-- that this is nothing that ever crossed her mind until other people began to mention it to her. To me, the most important thing is that she decides to do what she wants to do, and I will be strongly supportive of whatever decision she makes, and will do all I can to help, on this and any other decision from now on, just as she's helped me for the last 20-plus years. If she decided to do it and she were elected, I think she would do a fabulous job, but I think it's important to remember this is an election which it occurs in November of 2000, and she has just been through a very exhausting year, and there are circumstances which have to be considered, and I think some time needs to be taken here. I also think that even in a presidential race it's hard to keep a kettle of water boiling for almost two years, and so I just -- from my point of view, this thing is, it's a little premature, and I would like to see her take -- and my advice has been to "take some time, get some rest, listen to people on both sides of the argument, and decide exactly what you think is right to do," and then whatever she decides, I'll be for her.