Text of The Associated Press interview with U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., on Wednesday in Fernley:
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QUESTION: You've been through a lot here lately, what's your take on where everything is right now? What would you tell Nevadans right now, what's the message they need to hear from you?
ENSIGN: Well, as I've said several times, what we're trying to do is go around (to) people in the state of Nevada and tell them how sorry I am for what I did. But now I need to focus on earning their trust back by working harder than I've ever worked for them.
QUESTION: How do you do that?
ENSIGN: You just, it is there's no magic to hard work. It is literally focusing on what is important to Nevada. Right now, the biggest issue that Nevadans and the rest of the country face is health care - I'm going to be talking about health care reform, you know, today in there. I'm going to be talking about debt and getting the economy back on track and the challenges that we face in the state of Nevada. Obviously tomorrow we have the Tahoe summit. You know, those are big issues, environmental issues and public lands issues in our state. And just, you know, doing what I did before as far as the work was concerned except working harder than I've ever worked.
QUESTION: Did you consider, I mean you must have talked about the possibility of resigning, was that something you at one point thought about?
ENSIGN: You know, I look at it this way: That the people in the state of Nevada elected me to a six-year term and I am completely focused on fulfilling that to them.
QUESTION: So that didn't, so it's not something you considered?
ENSIGN: It's not even something we've considered, I've said that before, I've said that many times.
QUESTION: And then just one last (question): You did call for President Clinton's resignation, how is your situation different from his?
ENSIGN: Well, first of all, if you look at the times, if you look at the times where I said that - and I understand where people have a problem with that - they were all either, remember I was in the House of Representatives, who was sitting basically in judgment of the president and had to evaluate the case, and I thought that there was a, as a basically a jurist at that point, I thought that there was a violation of a felony. The other two times, one was an admitted, an admitted felon and the other one was a convicted felon. So you know, I mean I never called for anybody else, OK, as far as if you look at you know, other people who have been accused of things or any of that kind of a thing, I never said anything. But it was when it passed over the legal, it was when it passed over the legal limit.
QUESTION: And how exactly, explain that to me one more (time), what was the felony?
ENSIGN: Other people who were accused, they weren't just accused, they were either convicted or admitted, or in the case of President Clinton, first of all he was president and he stood right before the American people and he lied to the American people. You remember the famous day that he lied to the American people, plus the fact that I thought he suborned perjury. That's why I voted for articles of impeachment.
QUESTION: But you think that the biggest difference is that you're standing up and facing the music so to speak?
ENSIGN: Well not only that, I haven't done anything legally wrong.