BLITZER: As you think back on that and you think ahead 15 years, could that kind of domestic terror attack occur again?
CLINTON: Well, I think that, in fairness to the public officials that were the main victims here and their families, I think that we have done a much better job over the last 15 years of preparing for it and guarding against it, and trying to be alert to the most extreme members of groups that advocate violence, for example.
But I think the circumstances have a lot of parallels. For example, there's the same kind of economic and social upheaval now than there was then. I say, in 1993, the economy, for most average people who were likely to be drawn into this was not quite as bad as it is today, but the social upheaval was even greater.
There was more crime. There was more gang violence. There was more of a sense of disintegration after the Cold War. So there were big psychological pressures. Then you had the rise of the extremist voices on talk radio. Here, you have got a zillion Internet sites, people, you know, pumping up a lot of these...
BLITZER: So, what you're saying, it potentially could be worse today because of this echo chamber?
CLINTON: Yes. The echo chamber is bigger today. And there are more voices in it.
But I think that the country is not without memories of this, and I think this 15th anniversary will bring them back. And I believe that, not just at the national level, but the state and local people are better at scoping the potential attacks out.
(CROSSTALK) CLINTON: So, could it happen again? Yes. Will it? I hope not, and I think we have learned something about it.
BLITZER: We're talking about domestic terrorism now.
CLINTON: Yes, of course.
BLITZER: The hatred that Timothy McVeigh, that he had, there are others, there are plenty of people right now.
CLINTON: Lots of them.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Do you feel it's more intense today and it's greater today than it was 15 years ago?
CLINTON: I can't say, but I will -- there were -- Oklahoma City was the last of a series of very high-profile violent encounters, at least the last high-profile one. We have had several since.
And now there are all these groups, you know, saying things like the current political debate is just a prelude to civil war and all of that kind of stuff. But, you know, there was a lot of that tough stuff back then that Gordon Liddy was on the radio telling people, if the ATF agents came, to be sure and take a head shot at them because they had vests on.
BLITZER: But he didn't seem to have much support at that time.
CLINTON: No.
BLITZER: Now there seems to be, at least if you go to these Web sites, you listen to some of this...
CLINTON: Well, that's the thing. See, it's still a minority, but they have -- they can communicate with each other must faster and much better than ever before. The main thing that bothered us at the time of Oklahoma City was, already, there was enough use of the Internet that, if you knew how to find the Web sites -- not everybody even had a computer back then, but, if you knew how to find it, you could learn, for example, how to make a bomb.
Now everybody's got a computer. Web sites are easily accessible. And you can be highly selective and spend all your time with people that are, you know, kind of out there with you.
=snip=
I don't want something bad to happen for us to -- to get this thing right again. And as I pointed out today, we -- after Oklahoma City, we kept right on having our political disagreements. You know, the congressman -- the speaker, they closed the government twice in 1995. You remember it very well at the end of the year. We had an election in 1996. Oklahoma was a Republican state. I still didn't carry it. But I love them, because they reoriented me, too, and all of us.
I don't want the country to have to go through that again. I want us to resume this political debate and resume the dialogue and keep it within the limits that the primers intended. Beyond the law, there is no freedom. The reason all these groups have the freedom to advocate whatever they want is because of the rule of law.
So, we can't have violence or the advocacy of violence, and we've got to be careful who we get close to that, particularly if we're in positions of influence.
The full transcipt of his interview with Blitzer is here:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1004/16/sitroom.02.htmlOne of the things he said that isn't in this clip is a very good explanation of why the Teahadists make such easy prey for Faux news and the GOP.
BLITZER: The other difference -- yes, the Internet has exploded over these 15 years. There's a Democratic president now. You were a Democratic president then. But the other big difference is, there's an African-American president.
CLINTON: Yes, and an African-American president whose father was from Kenya, who has been -- whose mother's second husband was a Muslim.
And so he's had all these attacks from the birthers and others. I do think -- and he's had a lot of threats, and also the members of Congress have had a lot of threats against them. We had a lot of threats. I remember when that guy came from Colorado and opened fire on the White House with an assault weapon and sprayed the press room.
Do you remember that? Some of the bullets got in the press room.
BLITZER: Yes, on the North Lawn of the White House.
CLINTON: And he were -- they were so angry at me. And they were madder at me. I was sort of an apostate, and he's an outsider -- that is, the white Southern Protestants, of which I am one, were the heart and soul of the then right-wing movement in America, of the right wing of the conservative property, and also were a lot of the people who were most alienated. So, they figured, you know, what was the matter with me? I was a traitor to my class sort of.
President Obama is different, and symbolizes the increasing diversity of America. And both of them -- and, for him, it's like a symbol of, he symbolizes the loss of control, of predictability, of certainty, of clarity that a lot of people need for their psychic well-being.
And so I worry about it. Look, he's well-protected by the Secret Service. They're terrific.
I'll add the full interview when I can find it...
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