Bill Clinton: “Yes, but I'm still for it. As a matter of fact, I feel more strongly today, if possible, that it is the right direction…”

“Yes, but I'm still for it. As a matter of fact, I feel more strongly today, if possible, that it is the right direction for us to take. The trade agreement, I thought, had some weaknesses. It was negotiated with a greater concern for our financial institutions and our intellectual property concerns, that is, patent and copyright concerns, than for new jobs and environmental cleanup, things that I thought were real important. So we're trying to fix that. We're trying to make sure that this trade agreement with Mexico and Canada has very strong provisions to guarantee appropriate investments in environmental cleanups, so we don't have more pollution in America or we don't have people going down to Mexico just so they won't have to have any antipollution expenses, and so we have some labor protections. But I think we're getting there. And I believe that the right kind of trade agreement can create jobs in America. I don't agree that it'll cost jobs. If you look just in the last couple of days, there was a notice from General Motors that they're closing an operation in Mexico, bringing it back to the United States, going to create 1,000 jobs in Michigan and higher labor costs because of the productivity and the nearness to the labor parts market, to the auto parts market. And I think you're going to see a lot of that. If anybody wants to shut a plant down and go to Mexico just because they have cheap wages, they can do that today. Nothing is going to change in the NAFTA agreement. But if you have more growth on both sides, then you'll have less illegal immigration from Mexico, more people will be able to get jobs at home and stay with their families, their incomes will rise, and they'll buy more American products. Last month, Mexico replaced Japan as the second biggest purchaser of American manufacturing products. We have a $6 billion trade surplus with them. That means we create jobs out of our trade with them. So I think it's a good deal for America, and I hope we can pass it. Media Coverage Mr. King. One other quick thing. L.A. Times Mirror poll out today says 51 percent of the public thinks the press has been unfair to you, more unfair to you than your predecessors. Any comment?”