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Tabacco 17 May 1996 MEMORANDUM FOR LEON PANETTA GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS MIKE MCCURRY EVELYN LIEBERMAN DON BAER DOUG SOSNIK MARCIA HALE KEVIN O'KEEFE LORRIE MCHUGH GINNY TERZANO MARY ELLEN GLYNN BARRY TOIV JENNIFER O'CONNOR FROM: HAROLD ICKES SUBJECT: Tobacco Reports As you may have seen in articles this morning, reporters have interpreted, through a combination of both the President's remarks yesterday and from comments from White House staff, that the President is willing to negotiate with tobacco companies on tobacco legislation. In actuality, his remarks, and Leon's conversations as described in the article, are consistent with our message since last August - that we won't negotiate, but if they agreed to legislation that accomplishes what the proposed rule accomplishes, the President would sign the legislation. It's not a negotiation because we won't budge from what we said in August. All of us need to be particularly sensitive to reporters' inclination to view our willingness to sign the right bill to be willingness to "negotiate."