THE WHITE HOUSE
Office the Press Secretary
For
Immediate Release September 11, 2000
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT RECEPTION IN HONOR OF
CONGRESSMAN ANTHONY WEINER
Private Residence
New York, New York
6:10 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. First, I want to thank Richard
and Maureen for their warm welcome here -- (laughter) -- for opening their
home, this is a beautiful place and a beautiful gathering. And the reason
we're all so warm is that you came out here to support Anthony in record
numbers, and I'm grateful to you. (Laughter.) So you should enjoy the
temperature, you generated it by your commitment and your support.
I want to thank you for reminding me that you were in Little Rock on
election night in '92. Hard to believe it was almost eight years ago.
It's been a good eight years, and I thank you for being there. I have a
particular interest in this Congressional district, because in 1992 I came
to Chuck Schumer's home in Brooklyn, and I drove around this Congressional
district with him. I mean, I know we're not in it now, but I drove around
the Congressional district.
I drove to the synagogue where a swastika had been painted on the
wall. And we began to see the evidence of the kind of intolerance and
bigotry that we still see manifested from time to time in these terrible
hate crimes around our country. And I thought then that, you know, we
could turn the country around if we had the right ideas. If we literally
changed the economic policy, the education policy, the health care policy,
the crime policy, the environmental policy and the foreign policy of
America. And I believe that the results have been pretty good.
Now, what I want to say today is, I'm here because, number one, I'm
very grateful for the support that Anthony has given me over the last two
years, and I appreciate it very much. (Applause.) Secondly, and far more
important, I think he has enormous capacity to serve this district well,
and to continue to grow in stature and leadership and impact for the people
of this district, this city and this state, in the United States Congress.
And that's very important. You know, I've reached a point now where I
was looking at him and thinking how young he was, and trying not to resent
it. (Laughter). I realize, you know, I spent most of my life as the
youngest person who ever did anything, and now I'm the second youngest
person ever to leave the office of the President, the youngest ever to
leave after two full terms. Theodore Roosevelt was a couple of years
younger than me, also of New York, so I decided I'd come to New York to see
if it was in the water and catch it. (Laughter).
But my concern now -- this is the first time since 1974 I haven't been
on the ballot -- and most days I'm okay about it. (Laughter.) My party
has a new leader, whom I admire and support strongly, and his Vice
Presidential candidate has been a friend of mine for 30 years. I was
thrilled about Senator Lieberman's pick. And my family has a new
candidate. So I have become the Cheerleader-in-Chief of America, and I'm
very happy to do that. (Applause.)
I want to say one thing very, very seriously. A great people are more
vulnerable to making a mistake when times are good, than when they're
difficult. The American people and the people of New York took a chance on
me and Al Gore in 1992, but it wasn't much of a chance, because the country
was in the ditch. We were in trouble.
We had a bad economy, worsening social problems, an increasingly
divisive political climate. Now, we have a good economy, all the social
indicators are going in the right direction. We are without severe
internal crisis or external threat. And there is a new sense of harmony in
the country, at least among the strong majority of American people, as
evidenced by the different rhetoric that they have adopted in running this
campaign -- except in their mass mails. (Laughter.)
That's the good news. The bad news is it may be harder for people to
tell the difference this year. I think it's quite important, just to make
it clear -- Anthony mentioned a few things. This is what you can do with
what we have done in the last eight years; and how these elections, whether
he is successful, whether Hillary wins, whether Al and Joe win, depend in
large measure on what the American people and the people of New York
believe this election is about. And I think you should believe it is about
making the most of a truly magic moment in the history of America.
We can get this country out of debt for the first time since 1835. We
can take Social Security and Medicare out beyond the life of the baby boom
generation, so that when those of us in the baby boom generation retire,
and there are only two people working for every one person eligible for
Social Security, we won't bankrupt our children and their ability to raise
our grandchildren.
We can get rid of child poverty in this country. We can now afford to
give working people a subsidy to buy health insurance, and get rid of most
of the uninsured people in America who are working for a living, and their
little kids. We can grow the economy and improve the environment. We can
continue to see improvements in our education system, and there have been
some substantial turnarounds in the last four years, nationwide.
We can open the doors of four years of college to all Americans by
adopting the bill that Senator Schumer and Hillary have so strongly
endorsed to let people deduct up to $10,000 a year in their college
tuition. We can do big, great things. Yes -- the college students clap.
(Applause.)
We can pass hate crimes legislation and continue to grow together at
home, and we can continue to be a force for peace and reconciliation around
the world. But it won't happen by accident. As Anthony said, I get
tickled -- you know, when the other crowd were in, they took credit when
the sun rose in the morning. (Laughter.) And everything bad that happened
was someone else's fault. Now they say it's just all an accident, we just
stumbled through the last eight years. I only stumbled when I was tired.
(Laughter.)
So I want you to think about this. I'm glad you came here, I'm glad
you gave him your money. I appreciate that. But it's not enough. Almost
all of you have more friends who are less interested in politics than you
are, than you have friends who are as interested or more interested than
you are.
Almost all of you have a lot of friends who would never come to an
event like this, or who at least have never been. And I just want to urge
you, in the next 60 days, to try to take a little time everyday for
citizenship. Tell people, we may never get another chance like this, when
there's so much progress at home, and the absence of so many threats to us
abroad, and so much opportunity to do good for our children and our
grandchildren, to build the future of our dreams for them. And tell them
we can't blow it.
Tell them there are real and significant differences between the two
parties, and the candidates in every race. In the U.S. Senate race in New
York and the House race here, and certainly in the race for President and
Vice President.
And there is evidence here. We've tried it their way, we've tried it
our way -- you have a track record here. And I think it's really worth
some of your time and effort, if you went to the trouble to come here and
stand in this hot room because you believe you ought to be here and you
believe you ought to support this fine young Congressman, then it is worth
some time in the next 60 days to talk to your friends and neighbors who
don't come to things like this, who don't normally take the same position
you do or activity you do in politics, and try to convince them that you
came here for a reason, and they ought to vote with you in November.
I'm telling you, if people believe this election is about building the
future of our dreams for our children, he will win, Hillary will win, Al
Gore and Joe Lieberman will win, and we will have a great celebration on
election night.
Thank you. (Applause.)
END 6:20 P.M. EDT
President and First Lady | Vice President and Mrs. Gore
Record of Progress | The Briefing Room
Gateway to Government | Contacting the White House | White House for Kids
White House History | White House Tours | Help
Privacy Statement