President Clinton on Wednesday denied that as governor of Arkansas he improperly used members of his security detail in connection with his personal life. "We did nothing wrong," Clinton declared in an interview.
To The Associated Press, Clinton shrugged off allegations by two state troopers who claimed they helped arrange alleged extramarital affairs for him.But he declined to discuss the allegations in any greater detail. "I just have nothing else to say about this," he said.
Clinton also said that he had finished work on his budget for the coming fiscal year - nearly a month ahead of schedule - and that it would reduce the deficit to below $200 billion by 1995.
And he said that he had talked earlier in the day with Russian President Boris Yeltsin about next month's summit in Moscow. Clinton said he has no intention of meeting with Yeltsin rival Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
Clinton refused to respond in any detail to the allegations that have swirled around Washington in recent days, since two state troopers charged that Clinton had asked them to facilitate extramarital liaisons in Arkansas.
"I think we have cleared it up," he said, referring to a statement issued Monday night by a senior aide, Bruce Lindsey, calling the allegations "ridiculous."
Wednesday's interview was the first time Clinton has been asked directly about the allegations.
"I just think it is not appropriate in a situation like this for me to do more than I'm doing," Clinton said. "We did not do anything wrong."
Asked whether he was willing at this time to flatly comment on the allegations of womanizing, Clinton said: "I think we have cleared it up. I just think the statement speaks for itself. I just think it is not appropriate in a situation like this for me to do more than I'm doing."
As to the media reports on the allegations, Clinton said, "Obviously it hasn't been a pleasant thing" for his family to deal with.
In Arkansas, the two state troopers say they were pressured not to speak out sooner. Other troopers were intimidated too, they say.
One of the troopers, Larry Patterson, said the intimidation began during Clinton's presidential campaign. "We were told that if we talked to anyone with the media, that we were in trouble," he said Tuesday.
"I've been transferred already, transferred from one assignment to another, a lateral transfer within the department, and threatened by influential men across the state, one in particular," the other trooper, Roger Perry, said. "I think they feel some intimidation," he said of his colleagues.
Neither Patterson nor Perry was more specific about the source of the alleged threats.
They have said in television and magazine interviews that they stood watch as Clinton had sex in cars on the grounds of the governor's mansion and elsewhere.
One of the troopers' attorneys, Lynn Davis, said his clients have little more than their word to prove their allegations.
First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton said she "absolutely" stands behind her husband.
"Every time he is on the verge of fulfilling his commitment to the American people and they are responding . . . out comes yet a new round of these outrageous, terrible stories that people plant for political and financial reasons," Hillary Clinton said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.
Clinton said Wednesday that for the most part, "I'm very pleased with the year we had."
He ticked off a list of high points: the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, passage of his budget package, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Middle East peace accord.
"The low for me as president obviously was when the young men lost their lives in Somalia," he said, referring to the 18 Americans killed in a firefight in Mogadishu in October.
Clinton also said he has not been asked by federal investigators to turn over records of his business dealings, removed from the office of former White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster after his suicide. "Of course, we'll do what we can to cooperate," the president said.
Clinton was mostly upbeat in the 45-minute interview. He said that, while he regretted the publication of the allegations of sexual misconduct during Christmas week, "I think what I need to do is just keep working at my job."
On other subjects, Clinton said:
- He will have an announcement soon on whether he will pardon convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. He refused to say what he will do.
- Said that he didn't approve of the fact that his new nominee to be defense secretary, retired Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, failed to pay Social Security taxes for his household help until he was contacted about the job. Still, Clinton said, he didn't believe the omission was "disqualifying."