Clinton Grants Election-Eve Interview to Cable Channel

President Clinton will sit down on election eve with Black Entertainment Television talk-show host Tavis Smiley for his first one-on-one interview since January, executives at the cable channel said Tuesday.

Under the agreement with BET, Clinton is expected to spend much of Monday’s interview discussing the Tuesday election and its possible effect on the White House and will encourage viewers to go out and vote, BET officials said. African Americans have been among Clinton’s strongest supporters.

But Smiley said that the interview also will touch on aspects of Congress’ impeachment inquiry, the effect of the investigation of independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr on Clinton and his family and whether there are any circumstances under which he would ever consider resigning from office.

Clinton has made public statements about the impeachment inquiry, and his testimony in front of the grand jury about his inappropriate relationship with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky was broadcast on most networks.

That interview on PBS’ “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” came not long after Starr began investigating Clinton’s relationship with Lewinsky, whether he had lied about it and encouraged Lewinsky to lie about it.

Smiley, the host of “BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley,” said the interview will be taped Monday morning at the White House and will be broadcast at 8 p.m. PST. The interview marks the second time in almost three years that BET, a cable network targeted for African Americans that is seen in more than 44 million households, has scored a major interview over the mainstream media. In January 1996, then-BET news anchor Ed Gordon interviewed O.J. Simpson a few months after he had been acquitted of murder.