President Clinton’s Waco Role Argued

As the Waco hearings neared their end Monday, congressional Democrats and President Clinton’s counsel, Abner Mikva, angrily denied Republican allegations that Clinton was somehow responsible for the tragedy.

“There is not a shred of evidence that the president did anything other than hear of the plan and approve it,” said Rep. Charles Schumer of New York, a ranking Democrat on the joint subcommittee holding the hearings.

Schumer was referring to the FBI plan to tear gas the Branch Davidians’ compound on April 19, 1993 - a plan that ended in tragedy.

On Sunday, hearing co-chairman Bill Zeliff, R-N.H., without offering any evidence, charged that the president had a role in the decision.

Zeliff will have an opportunity to return to the issue today when Attorney General Janet Reno is scheduled to testify as the hearing concludes. Reno took full responsibility for the disaster at the time.