Dole and Clinton on Scholarship Fund

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2001 -- -- Former President Bill Clinton and former Sen. Bob Dole have come together in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept.11.

This unlikely partnership came together to form a new scholarship fund, the Families of Freedom Foundation. The fund, which has raised $25 million in the last few weeks, is dedicated to pay for college educations for the children and spouses of every victim of the terrorist attacks.

ABCNEWS' Claire Shipman spoke at length with Dole and Clinton Thursday at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. They talked about their new foundation and their feelings since the attacks.

The entire transcript of the interview, some of which aired on Good Morning America today, is posted below.

ABCNEWS' CLAIRE SHIPMAN: Why don't we first start on a lighter note, which is the last time I checked, you guys were political enemies in 1996. What happened?

SENATOR BOB DOLE: Well, we were opponents. I don't think we were enemies. But, you know

SHIPMAN: A fine distinction in a campaign!

DOLE: Right.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Actually, we work together pretty well, and I like Senator Dole very much, but we got together here because we wanted to do something of long-term benefit for the families of the victims, and he and I both were approached about supporting this Families Of Freedom Scholarship Fund, to give college tuition grants to the spouses and children of all the victims of this tragedy, and it seemed like a good thing to do to us. It did seem like a positive thing.

DOLE: No, it wasn't part of [inaudible] and it's not about Bill Clinton or Bob Dole. It's about these children and the spouses. I've had a few nasty e-mails, he probably has, too — "Why are you doing this with Bob Dole?" This is not about us, and if we can be an instrument to help these families, that's good enough for me.

SHIPMAN: Who called who first?

DOLE: Well, I think we

CLINTON: We, we got called at the same time, I think. They asked us, and, you know

DOLE: And we're volunteers.

CLINTON: Yeah. We jumped at the chance, and, and the people who are administering this for the Families Of Freedom Fund--it's a great, reputable organization, it's been doing it for 40 years, and they're not taking a single penny. They're giving all the, all the money to these people.

DOLE: All the principal. If there's any spent, it comes out of the interest, as I understand it, so

SHIPMAN: Why a scholarship fund? Why did you think that was important?

DOLE: Well, you know, the President knows better than I — well, I think we both know — education is probably the greatest challenge we have in America, and this will give these young people, and the spouses, in some cases, or those that are disabled, an opportunity for a full educational program.

CLINTON: Also, one of the things that appealed to me about it is that it being — I think every American has been overwhelmed by the generosity of feeling that has embraced the victims of this tragedy. People all over the country, all over the world, sending money, often little towns in Appalachia, sending money they could hardly afford. It's been amazing. But three, five, ten years from now, people will be thinking about other things, and yet there'll still be children of those victims who need an education. An amazing number of the widows of young men who died at the World Trade Center, or on the airplane at the Pentagon, were like you — they're pregnant.

DOLE: [inaudible] for example.

CLINTON: Yes.

DOLE: So this is 20, 25 years, we're looking down the road, when all the lights are out, and people have moved on. But I've tried to think--that's why I was particularly interested in it, because there's gonna be, as the President said, a lotta money out there to help people right now. But what about two years, three years, five years, ten years, and this is gonna have a lasting impact.

CLINTON: We felt we could do this now, while people want to do it, and because it'll be well-administered, in ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, when the young people need it, young people that will make a profound, positive impact on our country, they'll be able to get an education.

SHIPMAN: And you just got word of a major donation?

DOLE: Right. I guess we can confirm that [inaudible].

CLINTON: Yeah.

DOLE: 17 million.

SHIPMAN: That's extraordinary!

CLINTON: Sandy Weill, the Citi--Citigroup people, all their people together had--they actually had the idea, too, more or less at the same time, of giving scholarship money. They, they got $17.5 million in commitments, and they decided they wanted to put it in with this, so we would maximize the impact of our gifts, and we're very grateful.

SENATOR DOLE: So that's upwards of about 25 million now. There are a lotta people hanging out there with offers and opportunities and I had a fellow call me from Cleveland. Of course he'd like to have an event, like to have us come out, said I'll, I'll put a million dollars in and we'll make it successful. We'll raise a million dollars. He'll put in 100,000.

SHIPMAN: I can see the two of you will be traveling around the country together-- [Simultaneous conversation.]

PRESIDENT CLINTON: We, we [inaudible] together a road show; you know. And we got--also, we got a 9-year-old girl send us $20 that she made babysitting. We've also received a lot of very moving small contributions.

SHIPMAN: Uh-huh. Terrific.

DOLE: And I think one group which maybe we're gonna have to team up to help, and that's the poor Afghans, too. I mean, you see this, nightly, on TV. I know it's separate from what we're doing now. It's a sad, sad situation.

SHIPMAN: Let me ask you both, you've both held positions of enormous power in our Government. Should we have been more prepared for September 11th? What happened?

DOLE: Well, I think we did the best we could. I mean, you can always second-guess and Monday morning quarterback but--and, again, the President has more information than I have, but we can fault the CIA, we can fault someone. But I don't know how you could--maybe in your imagination, you could see this new weapon, this airplane loaded with innocent Americans going into the twin towers. It had never occurred to me, but the President obviously made the effort, in 1998, to get bin Laden.

CLINTON: I think the--first of all, I think there will come a time when we will want to have an impartial inquiry into that, that whole question. You know, was there an intelligence breakdown? If so, was it on this side of the ocean, or beyond our borders, or what else could we have done? [Simultaneous conversation.]

SHIPMAN: Do you have a "gut feeling" about that?

CLINTON: Well, I think I know quite a bit about it, but I think--what I think is important, now, is that we stay united and focused on where we are. The President I think is conducting this campaign in Afghanistan in a very prudent and intelligent way, and I think we need to support him. I've been there, where everybody second-guessed your every move, including Bob. But not, not when we were doing things like Bosnia or Kosovo.

DOLE: I

CLINTON: He was always there, and this is, this is an attack on us. So who cares if he or I have a slightly different opinion or something? It's irrelevant. We don't get to make these decisions. Right now, we gotta all report for duty and support the President, get through this, this time. Then we've got Governor Ridge, a man I have a very high reward for, who's gonna led--lead the domestic defense effort. There are several specific things that I think we can do to improve there, and there's a serious effort undertaken, now, in the Congress, to deal with this biological terrorism issue, which is difficult to do, but profoundly disturbing. So they're dealing with that, and I think the important thing, right now is, there'll come a time, we can look back and say, "Well, who should have done what when?" and it ought to be done, but now is not the time. Now is the time for us to stay together as a country an! d see this thing through.