George H. W. Bush: Remarks at the White House Correspondents' Dinner - May 9, 1992

[The following is a FirstDraft -- a machine-generated transcript by our AI, Margaret. She's good, but neither perfect nor human. There will likely be a handful of errors. Please check any quotes against the primary video source. Thank you.]

Thank you all very much. And. Thank you, Charles. And please be seated. And. Tonight is a night for relaxation and fun. And Barbara and I are just delighted to be here. This is a strange and ugly year in politics. Not a lot of name calling out there. Candidates calling out terrible epithets like corrupt, liar, hypocrite, fascist, racist, incumbent, and even even normally relaxed Marlin Fitzwater.

My able right hand got a little hot with the press corps back a while. But I'll be honest, and I don't mean to be critical of the White House press corps. I think you went a little far when you referred to that simple flare up as global warming. Let me I hope you'll excuse me that if my normally hilarious one liners are set aside for just a few minutes here because I really have some.

I am just back from L.A. and and I. I would seldom deign to speak for the White House correspondents, but I think all of them were with me on this trip were very moved. But at least for me, it was a very emotional and moving trip. And the scenes of the wanton destruction just won't go away. Nor will the hurt of the people I met with. Nor will vivid pictures on television of the firefighters and the police officers stepping in harm's way or of neighbors coming to the rescue of friends.

And yesterday, I talked to a woman who used to go to our church in Houston, St Martin's church, and her son and her brother climbed on a motorcycle and set out to see a friend, a young Afro-American, living in an area that they were concerned about, an area that became a gang members riot zone and their motorcycle was upended by a gang of these thugs. The woman's son was beaten, pistol held up to his head and trigger pull and didn't go off.

And her brother, a guy that had been deeply offended by the King verdict and felt very close to the black community itself, was savagely beaten and then from close range, shot right through the head. Now that same terror gunned down, the now paralyzed firefighter that I went to see in Cedar Hospital yesterday. Justice, you might say. What did any of this have to do with with justice?

But the point I want to make tonight is that out of the fear and desolate desolation there, there was I really felt something stirring positively. The people I met with in that wonderful church service, the church leaders and civic leaders, the kids at the boys club, the the ministers, they all projected a sense of determination and hope. And it was genuine. It was pervasive.

And some of the reporters now, one of the really tough in some ways most moving moment was when we met with a Korean community and a young Korean afterward whose place of business had been totally wiped out, said, I'm staying. I want the American dream now. South Central will be restored. We will find many ways to help. Everybody. Well, local, state, federal, private sector to help not only in the restoration, but giving those people there a real shot at the American dream.

And in some out there, it was ugly. The scene made a profound impression on all of us. And yet there's that certain spirit. That's very hard to describe. But the spirit says we'll come back. We'll we'll make it back. So I want to just share that with you. And I'm sorry for being so somber. And now there's an expression you don't hear much of anymore. Perk up, perk up. The best is yet to come.

Charles Bierbauer brought Paula Poundstone over to the White House this. And I said to her, How are you? She immediately turned to me and said, Stop being political. Now it's that kind of year and I know it. She knows it. I told her not to hold back any of the shots. Paul and I are both very funny people. But she's funny on purpose. Thank you very, very much.