Major Garrett interviews President Clinton TRANSCRIPT

Senior White House Correspondent interviewed Former President Bill Clinton this morning about Haiti relief efforts. Read the transcript below, watch a clip here and tune into Special Report tonight for more...

GARRETT: Mr. President, thank you very much for joining us on Fox News. I want to get a sense of your conversation with President Bush, when will Americans see you two together, what are your short term goals and how will you approach your participation in helping Haiti recover?

CLINTON: Well, first we had a very good talk yesterday former President Bush and I did. And he was glad to be asked to do this work. We talked about what I did with his father in the tsunami area and we agreed unless the White House asked us to do something differently we would be inclined to do the same thing. And we expect to go down and meet with President Obama and have an announcement about that. We know it's going to be long term recovery process and what we want to do is see Americans involved in that and, right now, we're in an emergency phase and let me wear my UN hat here, the work I've been doing down there.

We need to just deal with the emergency food shelter & medical supply needs but when this emergency passes, and we've gone through all the rubble, when we've recovered every person we possibly can, living or dead, when we've cleared the streets, then we know Haiti is going to have to get back on its feet again. We want to be a part of that. So we have, President Bush and I have committed to try and make sure the overall level of giving in every area of American society is consistent with what Americans would want to do in their heart. And what we should be doing because they're our neighbor. And let me say, we're not alone in that. Yesterday I talked to the governments of all the major donor countries including their neighbors in Mexico and Brazil. And Brazil has been particularly active there leading the military mission. I also met with more than 50 of the non-governmental groups, the philanthropists and the private sector investors, all of whom promised they were ready to go right back in and resume implementing the long term development plan that we've been working on for nearly a year now. So, we're going to be a part of that, and we're going to be asking our friends to help as well as ordinary Americans. But, let's get back to where we are. You've seen the pictures, we're still taking people out alive out from under the rubble. And there will be more taken out alive today. Meanwhile, you've got people who are now starting their third day walking the streets with no place to sleep, no food to eat, no water to drink. And sometimes, people with pretty serious injuries without even basic aspirin. So that's why we tried to say, I have, to everyone who listens to these programs: What we need now, more than anything else, is small amounts of cash from large numbers of people to buy food, medicine, water and shelter. And a little bit of protection now, we're trying to give the folks ability to have some areas that are lighted at night. Because there are only so many nights you can go through, thousands of people wandering around, never getting a night’s sleep, tripping over bodies living and dead, no water to drink and no food to eat. That's what we're addressing now. The American military has been great, the State Department and the USAID have been great in doing their part and people around the world have been wonderful. We even got two big helicopters from Russia coming in. We got 21 more search and rescue teams coming in today. But, if you're watching this and you want to help, just remember, 10 dollars, if you give it to the Red Cross, you can give it to my U.N. operation, at Clintonfoundation.org/haitiearthquake, or you can give it directly go to Haiti on a text, you can text HAITI at 20222 and it will automatically transfer the money. We're turning that money around in a day. And sending it down in the form of medical supplies, food and water. Meanwhile, American troops on the ground are helping us to distribute it so that we can keep things calmer there and try and help get through this. We're going to have another rough 10 days, then I think you'll see the whole world start to help that country rebuild.

GARRETT: I want to pick up on that point you just left off at President Clinton. You're an optimistic person by nature, the American people are optimistic by nature but, the next 7-10 days are going to be very grim in Haiti, I'd like you to address Americans who may sit at home and feel a sense of helplessness of what they're going to see. And how they should overcome that, and understand that maybe $5 or $10 can make an essential difference even though the pictures are going to probably convey to them this looks like a nearly hopeless situation?

CLINTON: You may see some things the next 7-10 days that don't just tug at your heart strings, but may upset you. You may see a lot of very angry people, you may see some people looting, you may see some people doing some things that you don't like. But, keep in mind what happened. This earthquake, first of all, disabled the government in the short term. The presidential palace and the parliament building were injured, we have had days where we are missing government ministers and leaders of the legislature. Ask yourself how you would feel if you couldn't find your loved ones, you hadn't had a good night’s sleep in three or four days, there was no clean water, no food. You had a child with a broken leg and nobody was even giving the child aspirin. That's what these people are facing. And then at night, all the lights are off, people are wandering the streets, literally tripping over bodies living and dead. The frustrations will be build. Which is why getting these search and rescue teams in, having American and other people on the ground who are good at logistics and figuring out how to distribute this aid is so important. If you're sitting at home just remember how you would feel there and realize that that those of us who are involved down there can take your $10 and put it with the $10 of millions of other people and immediately turn it into food, medicine, shelter and clean water and distribute it. And that's what we have to do. The whole town was leveled. And we just got to, we're all learning as we go along here how to, in effect, create new structures of cooperation. I'm really pleased, I can't say enough about what the Americans have done, from the president to the military to the State Department and USAID, Hillary flew home from her trip to Asia to work on this. We're all committed, but you're not alone. People around the world are responding and the neighbors, in the Caribbean and Latin America have been wonderful. So we can do this, but just remember, there's going to be some rough edges here. The infrastructure of the country was essentially crushed in the capital city because of this earthquake. But, on the other hand, there's a lot of reason to hope. The rest of the country was largely intact except for some of the communities just west of Port-au-Prince. And we can rebuild, but we've got to get through this next week or two and it's going to be rough and sometimes not very pretty and millions and millions of citizens around the world, looking at your program and others can make a big difference by giving a little bit together.

GARRETT: In order of magnitude Mr. President, is this worse than the tsunami?

CLINTON: Well, we don't know how many people were killed yet. In the tsunami more than a quarter of million were killed, millions were displaced but it was over a much larger geographic and population area. In Haiti, a country of nearly 10 million people, probably 3 million people have been affected by this, either been made homeless or injured or lost their livelihoods because of what's happened inside of Port-au-Prince. And the death toll as a percentage of the people affected will certainly be much higher. Just, you take the U.N., it’s almost certain now this will be the largest loss of life the United Nations has suffered in a single day since the establishment of the U.N. after World War Two. But, we're still hopeful that a lot of our people, we have more than 100 people still under the rubble of our old headquarters there still unaccounted for. But a lot of you saw the smiling security guard who came out of the rubble and stood up yesterday. There's still a lot of people alive there. We got another American out from under the rubble in a different place yesterday. I know there are lots of people alive under this rubble, we just have to keep moving it and trying. And meanwhile, we've got all these people in the streets with nothing and we have to let them know where to go to get help and give it to them and try and keep the situation calm. Once the emergency passes I think you'll be impressed by how the rebuilding begins.

GARRETT: The Cubans have agreed to open their airspace. It only cuts out 90 minutes. It might sound like not much but it is a significant change. You talked about re-orienting regional cooperation, is that a sign of it, do you expect other things to happen in the coming day?

CLINTON: It's very interesting, the one place that I've seen in these last few years where there's no Latin American tension is in Haiti. If you see that moving equipment moving the big stones off the street in all probability that's equipment the Haitian government bought with a grant given to them by Venezuela after the four hurricanes damaged them so badly the year before last. The Cubans opening their airspace is a very good sign. What it means is, everybody recognizes that these people are our neighbors. That Haitians do really well when they go to other countries. That there's a serious modern effort there to modernize the country and that there's no point in thinking that Haiti has to be the poorest country in the hemisphere forever and in trouble. And so now they're in trouble while they're trying to do the right things and the rest of us should forget our differences right now and deal with the human challenges. This may open a lot of possibilities for us in our hemisphere. But I'm personally very grateful to the Cubans for allowing the Americans to get there quicker. It shows that we're putting the people first and that's the right thing to do now.

GARRETT: Mr. President, I know you believe the Haitian government has turned the corner, but anyone who does a quick Google search will find international transparency organizations still rate the government near the bottom of transparency and near the top at corruption. Why, or what would you tell Americans who still wonder if this government, once it re-asserts itself can be trusted to either deal with U.S. aid or rebuilding the country?

CLINTON: I would say, first of all look at what they have done in the last seven months, eight months that I've been working there though. For the first time they have agreed to give the Haitian Diaspora which is interested in transparency and an end to corruption, they've given them dual citizenship. Which means all these people who had built successful business and amassed some wealth in the United States and elsewhere can now be Haitian citizens, making them eligible to invest there and to exercise positive political influence there. Secondly, they have adopted a large number of the changes that we and the international business community recommended they adopt to guarantee that people can invest there more quickly and can do business without paying bribes without having to deal with corruption. Thirdly, we are engaged in a really serious effort with them to open a modern new airport at the end of the island, and to modernize the port operations and all with the desire to open up transparency, to make more open and apparent. They have been willing to work with me and the U.N. and be totally transparent about how this aid money is spent. They have asked the U.N. military force under the Brazilians to stay there to maintain security and order in the streets and to work openly with the government. So, anybody who has worked with Haiti over the last 20-25 years will tell you this is the best situation we've ever had. We've had two prime ministers in a row now, for the first time in my lifetime, who were both primarily appointed because of their technical skills, their understanding of private sector development, and their commitment to make the country work. Not because of their political connections or making some deal with somebody somewhere. They are trying to turn a corner here. And I believe they will keep turning as soon as this is done. And I think frankly, the needs that the Haitian business and political class are going to have, because they were also damaged here, are going to be enormous. The Montana Hotel, which you probably showed pictures of the collapse of it, had one of the most beautiful views in the world at the harbor of Port-au-Prince, fell all the way down the mountain, turned upside down and fell on houses. That's in the neighborhood where a lot of wealthy people lived. And that whole neighborhood was destroyed. They're going to have to pull out of this together and together, we may find it even easier to take a path of openness and transparency. I don't, when I work places, everybody knows I don't tolerate corruption, I'm going to do the best I can to help them. But, they want to do this, they want to build a modern society for the first time.

GARRETT: Mr. President, thank you very much for your time. We look forward to talking to you and former President George W. Bush again when this recovery effort gets up and running. Thank you very much for your time sir.

CLINTON: Thank you Major, thank you so much.