George H.W. Bush: “To the best of my knowledge, I can. I know of nothing, direct or indirect, that would suggest this. And I can…”

“To the best of my knowledge, I can. I know of nothing, direct or indirect, that would suggest this. And I can categorically deny that I wasn't in Paris when these rumors and these allegations put me there. How do you clear your name? Maybe the investigation is it, but it has to be based on fact. It can't just go out there and have a billion- dollar witch-hunt. So, I'd love to get it cleared, and I've done it as emphatically as possible. Because this gets to the heart of character. This gets to your soul. This gets to what's decent and right in the world. And to suggest that a sitting President or a then Vice President would in any way, direct, indirect, know of and condone this, it touches me much more than some that--like disagreeing on abortion or disagreeing on closing bases. This one gets to the soul. And I'm glad you gave me a chance to wax emotional about it because it really turns me off, these little clever suggestions that I might have been involved. And all I can do is deny any knowledge of it, direct, indirect, for me or anyone else. That's all I can do. And I have a feeling that the American people are fair and they'll understand this. This is the most emotional I've been about it, but you touched a real nerve, and so did Kennedy. That's why I wrote him the letter I did, which categorically denied it, direct or indirect. George Deukmejian”