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Katie Couric: Out President Bill Clinton, since leaving office five years ago, he has spent a prodigious amount of time on the road for his foundation, promoting AIDS awareness and prevention. Earlier this week, I spoke with him from Johannesburg, South Africa, part of his six-nation tour of Africa. I began by asking him why Africa has been more affected by AIDS than any other place in the world.
Bill Clinton(Former US President): I think that'd got out of control partly because there were not systems in place both to prevent people (from) contracting it and spreading it. And I think we are beginning to make some headway not only in Africa, but in another places in the world where it's a problem and it is spreading worldwide, growing even faster now in terms of the rate of increase in the former Soviet Union and the Caribbean, India, China. We're working on it in all these places doing our best and the Africans are very brave and very resourceful and I think we're finally beginning to see some changes here.
Katie Couric: I know your AIDS foundation, Mr. President, is making a great deal of progress in terms of making treatment and healthcare centers more accessible to the poor as well as to children. And not only in Africa but in another countries. As you mentioned, I know in China and India, you've done a lot of work as well. Is it reasonable to expect that this can be brought under control or is the rate of the epidemic growing at such a fast pace that it is almost impossible to keep up with it?
Bill Clinton: Well, let me say, yes, it's reasonable to expect it can be brought under control but you have to attack education and prevention and care and treatment at the same time, and the two things speed up each other. When you get bigger infection rates, you've got to treat people, you've got to overcome any kind of cultural aversion, talking about it and get young people to behave responsibly and you've got to do whatever you can to get as many people tested as quickly as possible but keep in mind, this is a disease that's one hundred percent preventable, there is medicine that stops mother-to-child transmission, there is other medicine that gives most young adults who take it a normal life span and there was pediatric medicine that gives little kids that get the HIV positive a good chance to grow up and live normal lives.
Katie Couric: President Clinton, you're talking about education and prevention, but it seems to me in some of these areas, you're dealing with cultural practices and attitudes that have been in place for centuries. How difficult are those to combat?
Bill Clinton: Well, it's different in different places but I think when people realize the staggering magnitude of the threat, and parents worry about whether their children are going to grow up and live normal lives. And when all around them, there are grandparents who're raising their grand children alone because both parents have died of AIDS. That helps you overcome your inebriations. Within two to three years, we can actually have turned this epidemic around if we all work at it and do what makes sense.
Katie Couric: President Clinton, as you well know, President Bush has been under fire recently because Karl Rove allegedly released the identity of a CIA agent to reporters. President Bush has said it's fireable offence now if a crime was committed. But in your view, is the ethical violation enough to warrant dismissal?
Bill Clinton: Well, of course, that's a decision the President has to make about the people who work for him. But, I, let me say, I've been through some of these things. My view is we should wait until all the facts are in. And the prosecutor makes whatever report he's gonna make in , all the people who are involved make available whatever information will be made available. I know that Valerie's husband, Joseph Wilson, is a good man, a career diplomat who voted for my opponent in 1992. He voted for former President Bush. But I think what happened to her and what's happened to him were terrible.
Katie Couric: What do you make of for Republicans who claimed Democrats would like nothing better than to see Karl Rove out of the picture because he is such a brilliant political strategist.
Bill Clinton: Oh, there are something to that. He is a brilliant political strategist and he's proved a brilliantly effective at destroying democrats personally. I mean that God know I was murdered and he is really good at it. He is good at playing psychological head games that damage our side. But, you know, we're supposed to be good enough to be there. I don't think we should wish anybody ill personally. But this matter should be handled on the merits. Whatever the facts are, it was wrong to reveal a patriotic CIA agent's identity to punish her husband, a patriotic career diplomat, for telling the truth instead of telling a lie. No, that was not right. But before we all say what should be done and to whom it should be done, we need to have all the facts.
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