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Press Conference of Jacob K. Javits, Vincent Cianci, Ralph Perk, Daniel J. Evans, and Harry Dent
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Press Conference of Jacob K. Javits, Vincent Cianci, Ralph Perk, Daniel J. Evans, and Harry Dent
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Digitized from Box 32 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 11, 1976
PRESS CONFERENCE
OF
JACOB K. JAVITS
SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK
VINCENT CIANCI
MAYOR, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
RALPH PERK
MAYOR, CLEVELAND, OHIO
DANIEL J. EVANS
GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON
AND
HARRY DENT
MEMBER OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE
BRIEFING ROOM
4:07 P.M. EDT
MR. NESSEN: We promised you that we would bring
out some of the members of the Steering Committee to
tell you about the meeting.
Let me make one point before I introduce them.
Some questions we got this morning indicated there was
a feeling that this meeting had been called to discuss
some events of last week, and so forth. Actually, the
meeting was scheduled and arranged about 10 days ago.
Let me introduce you, first, to Senator Javits,
who you know; Mayor Cianci of Providence; Mayor Perk
of Cleveland; Governor Evans of Washington; and
Harry Dent of South Carolina.
I think Senator Javits would like to briefly
summarize, first, what went on at the Steering Committee
meeting, and then all the guests will be available to
answer your questions.
SENATOR JAVITS: This is the third meeting of
the Steering Committee which they have had among them-
selves, and also, which they have had with the President.
It was a very satisfactory meeting with a very intimate
and frank interchange of views between my colleagues --
about 25 of us -- and the President.
MORE
- 2 -
We felt the President had had a splendid four
weeks. His last week was not as good as before, but we
feel that his trips to Oklahoma and Texas have shown
a recovery of his momentum. We are expecting him in
New York tomorrow. I think he is going to have an
excellent reception in New York.
Each of us has a particular point of view
respecting the President's campaign, from now on, in
these last three weeks. I would like to express mine.
I believe that we are now beginning to see the
President's opponent, Governor Carter, in true character,
and the tone of rather reckless charges, notwithstanding
the facts in many cases, I believe is not going to over-
ween the President or overween the American people. But
I do believe the President is now in a position to
take this on in character, and for this reason -- he is
not only a candidate, he is the President of the United
States. Therefore, if he sees, in the position and
character of his opponent, what may be harmful to our
country, if he should be elected President, it is my
judgment that it is his duty to state it to the people of
the United States.
That is for myself -- and, as I say, my colleagues
will speak for themselves -- that I strongly urged upon
the President of the United States -- let me give just
two examples and then I shall be through.
One, a statement that the commitment to the
support of Israel, which took so much of the debate,
is uncertain. I think I know about that for 30 years,
and I see no uncertainty, whatever, about a United States
commitment under this President, which has given unstinting.
support to Israel to the tune of $4 billion in aid in the
last two years, has shown the United States' willingness to
stand alone in the Security Council and veto hostile
resolutions against Israel, and to take the position it
did, even though a minority against the resolution on
Zionism and racism -- that is hardly any uncertainty
as to the policy of the United States.
The second assertion is that the Administration
has frittered away the friendship of the People's Republic
of China. Again, it came, this statement by Governor Carter,
only one day after the Foreign Minister of the People's
Republic of China had castigated in the U.N. the Soviet
Union, had said practically nothing about the U.S., which,
in terms of U.S.-Chinese-USSR relations is praise as
far as the United States is concerned, and so on.
My colleagues will deal with others.
But the important thing is that as we now see
an effort to kind of rush the American people into a
Presidential decision because the Presidential decision is
only three weeks away, I have urged upon the President
his duty, whether he is elected or not, because he is
their President, to tell the American people what he sees
in his opponent and in America's future.
MORE
- 3 -
Q
Senator, Will you take some questions?
SENATOR JAVITS: All right.
Q
Senator, you said that as President, it
would be important for him to show out things that he
might see in the Governor's character that could be harmful
to the United States.
SENATOR JAVITS: That is right.
Q
Could you give us some examples --
SENATOR JAVITS: I have given you two examples.
Q
But those are statements. What about
his character?
SENATOR JAVITS: I think the tone, the rather
derogatory tone, about the President's character without
any proof to support it, in terms even of his personal
honesty is going very far in American public life and
even the folks in the press are beginning to pick that up.
That is what I think the President could see in
America's future in terms of a Carter Presidency and it
is his duty to say so if he feels that way.
Q May I just follow that up? In other words,
you are saying Governor Carter has been dishonest?
SENATOR JAVITS: I said no such thing. I just
said the reckless charges about the President's dis-
honesty without any basic proof demonstrates a kind of
campaigning which I think is out of bounds in American
public life.
Q Are you recommending that the President
discuss those charges, Senator?
SENATOR JAVITS: Without any question, and I
hope he will.
Q
Senator, do you have a timetable as to
when the President will release the list of American
companies which are cooperating with the Arab boycott?
SENATOR JAVITS: I have not.
Q
Some companies have cooperated with the
Arabs.
SENATOR JAVITS: As to the have not, you have got
that story respecting the fact that these filings were
confidential and if we expect any filings, we have to
respect the representations we make and nobody is more
against the Arab boycott than I. But as to the future,
I expect them to be made immediately, that they are
disclosed to the United States.
MORE
- 4 -
Q
Senator Javits, what was the President's
reaction to your suggestion?
SENATOR JAVITS: I am going to have to leave
that to the President. I think that is the convention
of speaking with Presidents.
Q
Are you saying the President should go out
with gloves off now and call them as he sees them or
attack --
SENATOR JAVITS: Call them as he sees them,
attack or not attack.
Q
What you are really saving is he should
toughen up his campaign?
SENATOR JAVITS: He should call them as he
sees them. That is an exact description of what
I have in mind.
Q
Has he been restraining himself?
SENATOR JAVITS: I think the President has
been bearing in mind the fact that he is the President
of the United States and I think it is part of that
Presidential obligation now to say what he really thinks,
as his opponent's position and character have now been
revealed by this new encounter which represented the
second debate.
Q
Do you think it is going to help the campaign?
SENATOR JAVITS: I don't know whether it will
help or hurt, but I know one thing: It is the duty of the
President to tell the American people what he sees. He
is the President, after all, the 37th President of the
United States, and he is also a candidate.
MR. NESSEN: Why don't we let some of the
other spokesmen have a chance before we get all the
questions.
Q
I would like to ask Mayor Perk a
question.
MAYOR PERK: I don't have a statement. Go
right ahead.
Q
Since you come from what we call an ethnic
city -- a lot of Eastern Europeans -- Polish, Bohemian,
Romanian -- would you give us your assessment of the
President's debate statement on the voters in Cleveland
and what you think the President should do to improve that
situation?
MORE
- 5 -
MAYOR PERK: Number one, I believe it was a
very unfortunate choice of words and perhaps that
had something to do with temporarily sidetracking the
momentum of the campaign.
We have now regained that momentum and
primarily because the President's record on self-
determination for the captive nations is outstanding.
No one can dispute it. So, all of us
understand that the President has been working toward self-
determination for not only the Eastern European nations,
but also, for the captive nations of the world.
He has signed the Captive Nations Proclamation
several times. He has issued it in the third week of
July in 1975 and 1976. I think his efforts at the
Helsinki Conference show that the President is not
ever going to allow the Eastern European countries to be
annexed to Russia.
This is what the President, obviously, was
trying to say when he had the unfortunate choice of words
which, I think, have been badly misinterpreted.
But the nationality people of America are
now beginning again to realize --- at least, let me
say this: That that unfortunate slip has really made
them aware of the fact that they do have a President
who is working for them and working for self-determination
for the Eastern European countries. I believe it is
turning now in the President's favor.
MORE
- 6 -
Q
Would you suggest any changes, Mayor Perk,
in the President's campaign?
MAYOR PERK: No, I believe we all suggested the
same thing to the President, that he is doing a marvelous
job in campaigning, no one can do it more effectively than
he can, and that he should continue to do exactly what
he is doing.
Q
Was it the consensus of the Steering Committee
that he should get tougher with Jimmy Carter?
MAYOR PERK: I think somebody else ought to
answer that question.
Governor?
GOVERNOR EVANS: I speak from perhaps a different
viewpoint than some others. I have, for the past several
weeks in speaking to audiences in my own State and in other
States, said there are just two simple reasons why I am
for Gerald Ford. The first is that I know Gerald Ford,
and the second is that I know Jimmy Carter. I served with
him as Governor and I know him. I think I know him perhaps
better than a lot of others, and the campaign in the last
few days has turned into a mean, nasty, little campaign
from Jimmy Carter's point of view. He has distorted and
misled the American people in so many instances that it is
hard to keep track of them, and I am very familiar with a
good many of those.
He brags about a job done in Georgia in reorgan-
ization and management, and I am a Governor and I think
I know a little bit about what it takes. During the four
years as Governor, spending rose faster and the number of
State employees rose faster than in all but about eight
States. He was one of the biggest spenders and the biggest
expanders of Government of any Governor during that period
of time. That is just one example of many distortions
which he is attempting to foist onto the American public.
I think, finally, in a much broader sense, this
campaign comes down to some very fundamental decisions
regarding how we run this Nation and where the power of
Government ought to reside.
Jimmy Carter runs on an anti-Washington platform.
Well, he comes from Georgia but if he were to get to
Washington he would bring the power and the strength of
Government to Washington with him. The President is in
Washington, but he consistently, through his term and
consistently now, advocates the return of governmental
power to the States and the local communities and to the
people themselves.
MORE
- 7 -
It is not where you are now but what you would
do in terms of governmental direction in the future that
counts. And I think ultimately the people of this country
are going to realize that the strength, the stability,
the honesty and the integrity of this President is beyond
question, while that of his opponent simply is not.
Q
Do you see anything unfair about the use
you are making here today of the White House as a forum
for the incumbent in this race? Don't you think these
politics should be taken out of the White House?
MR. NESSEN: Every time we do, Sarah, you ask
why can't we bring them down to the Briefing Room, so we
brought them down to the Briefing Room.
Q
I am asking the Governor if he doesn't
feel today that as you stand there and make these statements,
it is something that maybe you should make on a platform
when you have him as a debater?
GOVERNOR EVANS: No.
Q
I would like to ask Mr. Dent about a
statement Mr. Spencer, the Deputy PFC Director, made last
week that he regarded the polls show that Ford is behind
in much of the South. Would you address yourself to that
statement?
MR. DENT: Yes. Here is a headline from a
South Carolina newspaper this morning. A UPI story out
of Atlanta said, "Carter's Once Solid Lead in South Slipping."
It says, "The Democrats grudgingly admitted, and we
Republicans are gleeful and gloating." And it is true,
because what has happened (Laughter) is the people in the
South, now Jimmy Carter's own back yard, have come to
realize they can't trust Jimmy Carter. He is a political
chameleon. When he is speaking before a union audience
he is one way, and when he is speaking before a Southern
Baptist audience he is another way. When he is speaking
before Playboy Magazine, my goodness, it is in another
way totally different from the Southern Baptist Convention.
There is nothing he can do now. Rigor mortis has set in
on Jimmy Carter in the South and the President is coming
on as being more Presidential by far than Jimmy Carter.
What has happened since Wednesday night's debate,
for example, and the way Jimmy Carter has conducted himself
with his excesses, his distortions, and so forth, brings
out the little mean streak in his character that I have
had so many Governors tell me about, such as Governor
Evans was referring to just now, and again, I think the
way he has conducted himself and the way he handled himself
with his impertinence in the debates proves that he is not of
Presidential caliber.
- 8 -
Q
Would you be kind enough to give us the
authority for that sheet you held up?
MR. DENT: Yes, United Press International.
Q
Who does it quote?
MR. DENT: It is a State paper, the largest
paper in South Carolina.
Q
Yes, but somebody as having polled or
somebody gathered?
MR. DENT: It quotes Republicans and Democrats
all through the South. We just had a briefing, also --
Q Is this a UPI poll?
MR. DENT: It is a UPI story based on its canvass.
Q Who did it poll?
MR. DENT: It says UPI did it.
Let me say this: We just had a briefing, also,
from Bob Teeter, the pollster, which further reinforced
the view that we have, and that is that the States in the
South where they have been repolling in each instance the
President has been gaining more and more momentum, and to
the point now where he is ahead in States such as Mississippi
and Louisiana.
As I told you before when I was here, the Cotton
South is blooming. Now we are producing the actual cotton
and we are going to have it baled on November 2.
Q
Is the President ahead in any other Southern
States besides Mississippi and Louisiana?
MR. DENT: Yes, in Virginia, of course, he is
ahead.
Q
Did Bob Teeter mention any other States?
MR. DENT: He discussed particularly Mississippi
and Louisiana.
Q
Is he ahead anywhere else?
MR. DENT: Yes, I found that out the last time
I was here. In my own State of South Carolina, the race
is very close. It is moving closer in Tennessee and all
of these Southern States. We have come from a long distance
back. I haven't seen polls in some of the other States,
but the point is that Jimmy Carter has trouble in his own
back yard because his own people -- remember, he was the
favorite son -- his own people no longer trust the favorite
son. That is what it is all about.
MORE
- 9 -
Q
Was that polling done before last week,
during or after last week?
MR. DENT: My understanding is it has been
done since then.
Here is my point: I don't know about the rest
of the country, but down where I come from the momentum
is still moving with and for the President.
Q
Do you expect the President to return
to the South?
MR. DENT: Yes.
Q When?
MR. DENT: I don't know.
MORE
- 10 -
MR. NESSEN: Let's get Mayor Cianci over here.
He is the last spokesman. Then, you can direct questions
to anybody.
MAYOR CIANCI: I am the Mayor of Providence,
Rhode Island, which is a solid Democratic State, as
everybody knows.
I have noticed a tremendous change in the last
three weeks in the campaign efforts of the President in
Rhode Island. It may be a small State, but it has been
the bellwether for an awfully long time. There are only
four electoral votes there, and it is a highly ethnic
State.
I think one of the things that changed quite
a bit of the thinking in the State of Rhode Island is
the statement that Governor Carter made concerning taxing
church properties. I know the mayor of a city that has
a $102 million budget, that if, in fact, those statements
of Mr. Carter are followed through and become a reality,
we would have to raise the taxes in my city because those
parochial schools would have to close automatically
within a matter of two or three years.
We would have to absorb those children into our
school system and it would probably cost the taxpayers
about another $4.00 or $5.00 a thousand.
I think, as we look to see the ethnic situation,
I happen to be an Italo-American, and some of you might
happen to remember I gave Mr. Carter an elocution lesson
at the Republican National Convention. I think it goes
back to what Harry Dent was saying, you have to say the
same thing all the time. You can't change your mind.
What really bothered me about Mr. Carter--and
Rhode Island is a highly ethnic State with Italo-Americans--
and he refused to meet with the Italo-American Caucus,
and that disturbed a lot of ethnic people -- ethnic-minded
people.
We are making some good moves in the State of
Rhode Island and I believe the neighborhood situation,
which was something I campaigned very hard for, this
Administration has shown, with the Office of Minority Business
Enterprise, with the Small Business Administration, things that
a Democratic Administration hasn't done, we have done.
In the Republican Platform in Kansas City, we
included planks on neighborhoods which made an awful
lot of difference because the Democrats didn't put it
in their platform. So, I think the American city is
going to be turned around an awful lot because of this
President.
We talked, at the Steering Committee meeting,
about that, and also, about the inconsistencies -- there
were about seven or eight of them -- in the Carter campaign.
Certainly, the middle income taxpayer was discussed, and also,
the inconsistency of the $15 billion defense cut.
MORE
- 11 -
So, I think the people are starting to see
that Governor Carter, and his record as Governor of
Georgia, is not really what we are looking for in the
White House.
I think revenue sharing is also very important.
Hopefully, within the next couple of days, the President
will be signing that legislation. That makes a big
difference to mayors who are on the front lines every
day trying to meet economic problems. And if revenue
sharing is signed by the President, I am sure it
will take an awful lot of pressure off a lot of mayors and
off an awful lot of citizens.
President Ford's record on revenue sharing is
consistent and it has been complete ever since he was
involved in it from the very beginning, not just while he
has been President.
Those are the kinds of things mayors are interested
in and those are the kinds of things I think every American
citizen is interested in.
Governor Carter, if we take his position,
we would be in serious trouble in the cities.
Q
Can you explain why your city is in such
trouble, now, economically?
MAYOR CIANCI: Probably becuase it was controlled
by a Democrat political machine for 35 years, until last
year.
Q
Governor, could we ask you to explain the
mean, nasty behavior of Governor Carter so we are not put
in the position of saying, apparently, he meant, or he
means that, what exactly do you mean?
GOVERNOR EVANS: I think his use of terms in
talking about brainwashing, and what I think is really a
level not fit for a Presidential campaign. He has
given the tone to a campaign which just simply isn't
justified in a major debate over the future of this nation
for the next four years, and I think the President, as a
marked contrast, has consistently, throughout the campaign,
conducted himself in a manner befitting a President.
After all, that is what we are selecting.
Q
Governor, isn't it true Georgia was too far
behind other States, that by increasing spending was the
only way they could improve things in Georgia?
GOVERNOR EVANS: That may be true, but you
don't say, on the one hand, I have reorganized and I
saved money, and claim a $50 million Administration
saving that his own State auditor, from his own party, says
is fiction, and then deny that perhaps there was an increase
in spending, and an increase in some of these other things.
MORE
- 12 -
If there was a needed increase, he ought
to talk about it. But to again mislead the people into
somehow thinking that his reorganization efforts in
and of themselves saved Georgia an enormous amount of money,
which I, as Governor -- and I think other Governors in
the nation -- just know very well isn't true, I think,
is misleading.
Q
I didn't think he ever claimed that.
GOVERNOR EVANS: He certainly has claimed a
$50 million administrative savings and his own people
in Georgia, his own State auditor --
Q
Governor, was it only Senator Javits, or
was there a consensus of advice that the President should
focus more now on what he said was Governor Carter's
character and what someone else characterized as untrust-
worthiness or chameleon? Is there a consensus now that
there should now be a greater focus on Carter's character?
GOVERNOR EVANS: I don't think I would put
it in terms --
Q
And integrity?
GOVERNOR EVANS: -- of character. You are using
the term "integrity."
Q
You said the President's integrity and honesty
were beyond question and his opponent's was not.
GOVERNOR EVANS: That is right. I think the
difference is between a known quantity, a President who has
been there, and in the arena, and has made progress and
occasionally has made mistakes, as we all have in political
office and almost anything we do. But he is consistent
and he is known and he has all of these attributes that
I think are terribly important in building the stability
of this country for the next few years.
Jimmy Carter, for all that everybody has followed
him and written about him, is still, in many respects, an
unknown quantity, mostly because he can't say the same
thing twice on many important issues. It is difficult to
peel away the skin and to find out what is really in
that heart and to find out, really, what he means
consistently.
Q
You said there was a marked contrast between
the President's demeanor in the campaign and Mr. Carter's,
and Senator Javits, to suggest that he personally was sug-
gesting that the President should become tougher. Can you
give us some idea of the consensus of the meeting, whether
there was a sense of the conference as to whether he should
stay in marked contrast, a quiet demeanor, or become tougher?
GOVERNOR EVANS: There is a considerable difference
between toughness and meanness, and I think we ought to leave
all the meanness to Carter. The President is plenty capable
of being tough.
MORE
- 13 -
Q
Governor Evans, aside from the qualifications
stated in the Constitution, is Jimmy Carter qualified to
be President of the United States, in your view?
GOVERNOR EVANS: The question isn't between
qualified and not qualified. The question is between two
men -- I suppose three, if you include Senator McCarthy. It
is between those who are running as to who is the better
qualified, and I think when you put it on that level,
which is what we are voting on, there simply is no question
who is better qualified to be President.
Q
I am sorry. I got here a little late. How
did you characterize it in the beginning?
GOVERNOR EVANS: Mean and nasty.
Q
If you all gave President Ford a good
report card, do you really all think things are going
swimmingly?
GOVERNOR EVANS: I don't think we gave President
Ford a good report card necessarily. I think Senator Javits
was accurate in saying we have had a whale of a four-week
consistent effort that has brought the campaign from a
place where few, if any, thought the President could win
to a point where no one on the Democratic side is reserving
inaugural ball gowns any more.
The last week wasn't as good as the four weeks
preceding it. I suppose you can liken it to a football
season. We had four straight wins and we might have had
one loss but we don't have to have an undefeated season.
All you have to have is 51 percent of the vote, and I think
we have now regained that momentum which has been coming
our way for such a long period of time.
Q
Why do you say that?
GOVERNOR EVANS: I think the President's efforts
in the last couple of days have been good efforts, excellent
efforts, and I think there is an increasing awareness
and an increasing public exposure of the misleading
statements of Governor Carter and increasingly the focus
is back on the Governor.
Q
Governor, you have said that Carter has
distorted, he has misled, he has been mean, he has been
nasty, and you have all come awfully close to calling
him dishonest, but nobody has quite done it. Was that
the feeling, that Ford ought to call a spade a spade and
call him that?
MORE
- 14 -
SENATOR JAVITS: I think the feeling was that
Ford ought to call a spade a spade and let the people
decide what that adds up to. For example, I will read
from a statement here in one of our prominent newspapers.
"Without specifying that Mr. Ford subsequently
rectified the errors, Mr. Carter asserted that the IRS
had determined 'campaign money was used by Mr. Ford and
his family to buy clothes and to pay for a vacation trip'"
It is that kind of thing I think we are talking about.
The record is now replete with it. You have
but to read the lead story in the daily news of today
or a lead story by Jim Wieghart to the same effect. There
are other stories throughout the country, so we are not
inventing something new.
Q
Would your advice to the President have
been the same if he were even or ahead in the polls and
do you think he was a little easy or reticent with
Governor Carter in the last debate?
SENATOR JAVITS: I can't hypothesize that. I
really don't know. All I know is that the present situation
requires him to speak his mind as to what he sees if there
should be a Presidency by his opponent based on the record,
which is now being made. That is what I advised him.
Q
Do you think he should travel more?
SENATOR JAVITS: I think he is going to travel
a lot. Like all of us, I have run the same way, you have
always a struggle between should I be here or should I
be there, but now I think he is going to be all-out.
Q
Will Mr. Baker answer some questions?
MR. NESSEN: I think Baker had a news conference
on the plane.
Q
What about Dole?
MR. NESSEN: Dole has a cold and wants to go
home and nurse his cold and will not come out afterwards.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
END
(AT 4:56 P.M. EDT)