. >> reporter: on the job for less than a month when the waco siege ended, attorney general janet reno say it was her concern for the children inside that prompted her to okay the attack. reports that they were being abused. >> people had come out and had said that he was beating babies, slapping them around and beating them. again, we can't verify it but you become really concerned, i mean the best information you have from the people who had been in there are that children are being abused. and you've got to make the best judgment you can. balancing all the interest, what's the best way to go about getting them out safely. >> it is a decision for which i take responsibility, i'm the president of the united states and i signed off on the general decision. >> reporter: reno would later back away saying there were no official reports just the history of abuse allegations. president clinton would distance himself as well saying the decision was reno's. >> i talked to her on sunday saying, i want you to tell me once more why you think we should move in now and not wait. and she said it's

he later served as a top deputy for attorney general janet reno, he was special counsel to ted kennedy and served as the president's advisor on civil rights issues. he was also director for civil rights at the department of human health services. tom, you will find, is passion ate and committed to equality and justice for everyone. tom, more than anyone i know, makes every single day in his life matter, whether it's focused on anti-bullying work, voting rights, disability rights, housing rights, the eighth amendment, immigration, hate crimes or human trafficking. tom cares about all of those issues to his core and he works every day to make the world a better place. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome assistant attorney general tom perez. (applause). >> good morning, it's an honor to be back here. i got to spend some time last night with my brother who lives down the road apiece, his daughter is a sophomore in high school, she asked me if i wanted to go golfing at the presidio, i said i can't walk that much, i just had my knee replaced. melinda has been an incredible partner, it's a p

. >> attorney general janet reno scrambles to defend use of tanks and tear gas on the davidians. >> hed executed the plan he rehearsed march 2nd by putting on explosives and coming out and blowing up fbi agents and you have asked me why i hadn't moved earlier. >> with the media's glare now on the government, the fbi swiftly blames david koresh for the devastating loss of life. >> david koresh controlled those people's lives absolutely. absolutely. he's the one responsible for their deaths. >> even newly elected president bill clinton jumps in to defend the agency. >> we know that david koresh had sex with children. where i come from, that qualifies as child abuse. >> just days after the fire, branch davidian david thibodaux places the blame for the deadly inferno squarely on the fbi. >> what was the cause of the fire? >> more than a decade later, he's not so sure. >> my opinion, how did the fire start? i simply don't know. i just don't know. i don't believe that anyone inside set that fire. i didn't see anybody pouring any kind of fluid or any kind of accelerant or anything like that.

i'm going with janet reno.applause] now, the party is the cast party for the stars of the "west wing" who are celebrating the end of their first season. i to have give them credit, their first season got better ratings than mine do, not mention the reviews. the critics hated my travel ffice episode. that david cameo, fell completely flat. speaking of real life drama, i'm so glad that senator mccain is back tonight. i welcome him specially. as you all know -- [applause] as you all know he made a difficult journey back to a place where he endured unspeakable abuse at the hands of his oppressers, the senate republican caucus. [laughter] [applause] i am glad to see that senator mccain and governor bush are talking about healing their rift, or they are thinking about talking about healing their rift. you know, i would really like to help them. i've got a lot of experience with ng rifts, i worked catholics and protestants, i worked with joe lockheart and david westin. the differences between bush and mccain may be to

and when several of us worked for attorney general janet reno many decades, several decades ago, there was just one drug court in miami with judge goldstein. and so to see the expansion of an evidence-based program that actually works, i think, is truly heartening. we hope this new grant will bring the work, will continue to work and the progress that you all have done, and we're proud to stand with you and proud to be supporters of drug court. and this is also what drug policy reform looks like. well, dr. clark, general dean, devin fox, they represent just some of the innovations of drug policy that are being achieved today. and it's a hit to prevention -- a shift to prevention, to treatment, to recovery services and toward criminal justice reform. it is a shift to science and toward evidence-based programs that strengthen public health and safety. and drug policy reform is not easy, and there is no quick fix solution. what i've outlined today doesn't lend itself to a slogan that you'll see on a bumper sticker, and it doesn't make, unfortunately for the journalists, it doesn't make a

of course, this confirms the study that was done by researchers selected by janet reno, not one of the cabinet officers in american history to conduct a study in the 1994-2004 feinstein ban on so-called assault weapons and the magazines. and that report issued, the preliminary reports over the years and the final report in 2004 said that that ban accomplished nothing. no lives were saved that they can see in a statistically discernible way. did not change how many shots were fired. it did not do anything else. they could find after ten years no benefits from the loss. and yet president obama after giving that very good speech at sandy hook about sandy hook in newtown, conn. on the sunday after the murders said, we have to change. it is undetectable to continue like this, and i certainly agree with him about that. yet, what we have? something says, well, if repeated may be sometime after ten years it will start to do some good. as a hypothetical. you cannot know. we can know is that it will not do any good for ten years. and that is not acceptable. that is the wrong approach. that is a

and when several of us worked for attorney general janet reno many decades, several decades ago, there was just one drug court in miami with judge goldstein. and so to see the expansion of an evidence-based program that actually works, i think, is truly heartening. g th work, will contue the rk a the prress that you all have done, and we're proud to stand with you and proud to be supporters of drug court. and this is also what drug policy reform looks like. well, dr. clark, general dean, devon fox, they represent just some of the innovations of drug policy that are being achieved today. and it's a shift to prevention, to treatment, to recovery services and toward criminal justice reform. it is ahi to science and towardev-bas programs that strengthen public health and safety. and drug policy reform is not easy, and there is no quick fix solution. what i've outlined today doesn't lend itself to a slogan that you'll see on a bumper sticker, and it doesn't make, unfortunately for the journalists, it doesn't make a lot of catchy headlines. but this approach works. each year we're diverting