Bill Clinton: “I disagree with that. First of all, I also made it clear to the people of south Florida that we had a base closing…”

“I disagree with that. First of all, I also made it clear to the people of south Florida that we had a base closing commission process and a United States Congress that had roles in this, and there is no prospect whatever that the Congress would have appropriated any money to fully rebuild that base with it on the base closing list until the commission ruled on it, one way or the other. I mean, that is just not an option. There wasn't a 10 percent, a 5 percent chance that that would be done, with the Air Force saying we don't need the base and it being submitted under law to the base closing commission. I would remind you that the Congress appropriated $76 million to rebuild, to do rebuilding work at the base that the previous administration did not release. I support releasing the money. I'm going to aggressively work to rebuild the airstrips and to rebuild the control tower and to use the rest of that money to maximize the potential of both military and civilian uses of that airstrip. And I would say again to you, it is an enormous potential resource to south Dade County. If we handle this right, we can generate more jobs out of that facility over a period of a few years even than were presented by the Air Force.”