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Kerry: 1 2 3 I think you ought to have a certain amount of time to collect your own recollections, write your own history 4, but I think it’s basically the property of the American people, and it ought to fast be put available in a library 5.
Question: By the way, it makes me want to ask, I read—
Kerry: [interjects] 6 7 8 9.
—C-SPAN interview, June 3, 2004, on public access to presidential records
[1] Within a certain number of years
[2] or pretty quickly after you leave the presidency
[6] With the exception, obviously, of national security pieces
[7] or something that’s critical to, you know, protect some source
Kerry version:
Kerry: I think that within a certain number of years, or almost pretty quickly after you leave the presidency, I think you ought to have a certain amount of time to collect your own recollections, write your own history and so forth, but I think it’s basically the property of the American people, and it ought to fast be put available in a library or in some fashion.
Question: By the way, it makes me want to ask, I read—
Kerry: With the exception, obviously, of national security pieces, or something that’s critical to, you know, protect some source or method or something.
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