Bill Clinton: “I certainly hope not. For one thing, Mr. Bliley is a conservative Republican from Virginia, a tobacco-growing State. Mr.…”

“I certainly hope not. For one thing, Mr. Bliley is a conservative Republican from Virginia, a tobacco-growing State. Mr. Waxman is a liberal Democrat who's got a great reputation for protecting the public health. The fact that they reached an agreement should have been some basis of going forward. And all I can tell you is I'm heartened by what's happening in the Senate, where we got an almost unanimous vote--just missed it by one vote--out of the committee in the Senate for the bill sponsored by Senator McCain and others. And we are going to work ahead. I just don't think we can afford to let politics get in the way of this. I mean, the news report was that some people who were going to go along with this don't think they have to now because they think they found some political way to avoid it. I think that's a terrible way to look at this. The only thing that matters is 3,000 kids a day start smoking, even though it's illegal to sell cigarettes to kids; 1,000 of them a day will die sooner because of it. That is the only thing that matters. And we know that there are strategies which will save their lives. I do not want this to be an issue in the November election. Let me say this again: I do not want this to be an issue in the November election. If it is an issue in the November election, it will only be because those people who have a political or a financial interest in seeing that this matter is not resolved between now and November prevent it from being resolved. The worst thing in the world would be to play politics with our children's health. I'm not going to do it, and I hope no one else will. Peter [Peter Maer, NBC Mutual Radio]. President's Response to Questions of Character”