Clinton remarks on the Oklahoma City bombing investigation, April 1995: transcript

Key points

• Clinton thanked the Justice Department, the FBI, the ATF and state and local officers, including the Oklahoma lawman whose vigilance led to the first arrest.
• He said the killers would be found and convicted and that the government would seek the death penalty.
• He told reporters that no one had said the attack was a foreign threat, and urged people not to assume anything beyond what is known.
• He listed counterterrorism steps: bigger FBI and CIA budgets, arrests of plotters in New York, a drill of federal agencies, an executive order on funding and legislation sent to Congress.
• He said he had no evidence that the bombing could have been prevented.
• He declined to link the bombing to anti-government rhetoric or to any climate in the country, saying the crime must be solved first.

Chapters

1. 0:14Thanks to law enforcement and rescue teams
2. 1:46Questions on a foreign threat, motive and hate groups
3. 3:31Counterterrorism efforts before the bombing
4. 6:04Prevention and public security questions
5. 7:14Declining to speculate on climate and motives

Full transcript

0:14Good afternoon. First, let me say how very proud I am of the Swiss and decisive and determined work of law enforcement officials on this case throughout the country. I know every American is proud of them too. Their continued vigilance makes me sure that we will solve this crime in its entirety and that justice will prevail. Today, I want to say a special word of thanks to the Justice Department under the able leadership of the Attorney General, to Director Free and all the hundreds of people in the FBI who have worked on this case, to the men and women of the Bureau of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, to all the federal authorities and to all the state and local law enforcement officials, especially those in Oklahoma who have been working on this case.

1:08And of course, I'd like to say a personal thanks, as I know all Americans would, to the Oklahoma lawman whose vigilance led to the initial arrest of the suspect as I said on Wednesday Justice for these killers will be certain, swift, and severe. We will find them, we will convict them, and we will seek the death penalty for them. Finally, I know I speak for all Americans when, once again, I extend our deepest thanks to the brave men and women who are still involved in the rescue teams.

1:46Let us not forget them. There is a lot of work for them still to do. It is difficult and it is often heartbreaking now. Our thoughts and prayers that continue to be with the people in Oklahoma City, and let me say again, you will overcome this moment of grief and horror. You will rebuild, and we will be there to work with you until the work is done. President, there is sense now, sir, that this was not a foreign threat, that this was something from within our own borders.

2:19Let me say that I have never, and the Justice Department has never said that it was a foreign threat, but the most important thing that you understand is that even though this is a positive development, this investigation has a lot of work still to be done in it, and therefore it would be wrong to draw any conclusions. There have been lots of twists and turns in this investigation, but I would say to the American people, we should not assume.

2:50As I said yesterday, that we should not assume that any people from beyond our borders are involved in it. We should not assume anything except what we know. Any idea about motive, Mr. President, anything in terms of the one suspect who's been arrested? Anything about where he was or who he was or what he was up to? I would defer with the same comment that the Attorney General and Director Free had on that. We simply must not speculate on that at this time. Will this prompt the United States or the government to take a new and a tougher look at the white supremacist groups, the hate groups, the militias, is this going to trigger any kind of crackdown?

3:31Let me say that we need to finish this investigation now. We need to focus on this investigation. We need to finish this investigation. We need to finish the rescue. We then need to obviously examine anew, as we will over the next few days, the sufficiency of our efforts in the whole area of terrorism. Maybe it would be helpful, let me just take a few moments to talk about what we have been doing for the last couple of years before the Oklahoma City incident.

4:05Because I think it is apparent to any observant person that all civilized societies have to be on their guard against terrorism. We have increased the counterterrorism budgets and resources of the FBI and the CIA. We arrested a major terrorist ring in New York before they could consummate their plans to blow up the UN and tunnels in New York City. We retrieved terrorists who fled abroad, as I said on yesterday, from Pakistan, the Philippines, from Egypt, and elsewhere.

4:42We broke up a major terrorist ring before they could consummate their plans to blow up airplanes flying over the Pacific. We brought together all the various agencies of the federal government that would be involved in rescue and in response to a terrorist action and did a comprehensive practice earlier. And some of that work, I think, was seen in the very efficient way that they carried out their work at Oklahoma City. Finally, let me say there's been a lot of activity that the public does not see, most of which I should not comment on, but let me give you one example.

5:18There was one recent incident with which I was intimately familiar, which involved a quick and secret deployment of a major United States This is an effort of FBI and FEMA and public health service and army personnel because we had a tip of a possible terrorist incident, which thank goodness did not materialize. But we we went to the place and we were ready. We were ready to try to prevent it. And if it occurred, we were ready to respond. So we have been on top of this from the beginning. And finally, let me say I issued the executive order, which gives us the ability to try to control funding more strictly. And I have sent counterterrorism legislation to the Hill, which I hope will be acted upon quickly when they retire.

6:04Mr. President, is the way this is coming down give Americans any reason to feel a little bit more secure that this particular group is not going to carry out something else? I think Americans can be secure that our country has able law enforcement officials, that we work together well, that we have prevented terrorist activities from occurring that obviously every civilized society is at risk of this sort of thing I cannot I must not constant comment On any of the specific people involved in this investigation at this time.

6:44Mr. President, is there anything that has come across your desk so far to suggest that this bombing in Oklahoma City could have been prevented as other terrorist incidents that you're referring to were prevented? Was there a failure somewhere down the chain of command, someplace that a tip, a clue, a source could have provided information leading to this explosion? I have no evidence to that effect at this time. Mr. President, there's been a loud, constant drumbeat in this country in recent years.

7:14The government is the enemy, the government is bad. Given the way this case seems to be pointed, do you think that in any way contributes to what happened in Oklahoma City? I think it's important that we not speculate about the motives of the atmosphere or anything else until this investigation is complete. It could only, anything I say, could only undermine the successful conclusion of this. Mr. President, you've been cautious about warning us and all Americans not to draw any conclusions over the past several days. Can you rule out a foreign tie to a domestic group, and can you in any way blame this incident on any kind of climate presently in this country?

7:51I cannot rule in or rule out anything. It would have been inappropriate. The investigation has not been completed. And, again, that's a variation of the question that was just asked. I cannot and I should not characterize this in terms of the climate or anything else at this time. Let us do this investigation. Let the people get the work done. Let us follow every lead, pursue every alley. Let's wrap this up so we can see it whole, and then there'll be time for this kind of analysis.

8:21I understand why you want to do it. It's perfectly understandable and appropriate, but it's not ripe yet. We have to solve the heinous crime first. Thank you. Mr. President, how about the copycat?

Source and licence

Recording: File:Pres. Clinton re- OKC Bombing (1995).webm by clintonlibrary42 (Taken on 21 April 1995), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.