Scarborough: Hillary 'Strong-armed' MSNBC to Kill Story

MSNBC's Scarborough Country ^ | April 29, 2004 | Joe Scarborough

[Carl/NewsMax]

MSNBC TRANSCRIPT

Scarborough Country

April 28, 2004

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Today, the senator‘s office tried to strong-arm us into retracting that story. . . .

Last night, we showed you comments made by Hillary Clinton that criticized George Bush and America‘s foreign policy in the Middle East. Her complaints run by Arab newspapers and repeated across the Middle East. She said this—quote—

“Their stubbornness and arrogance is breathtaking. And, as a result, we continue to go down a path that I think is fraught with horrible dangers, especially for the young men and women serving in Iraq, but also for Iraqis, for the stability of the region.”. . .

Early this morning, Ms. Clinton‘s office began calling our staff and the president of MSNBC, claiming the statements we reported last night were never made by the senator. . . .

This morning at about 10:00 a.m., we got an angry phone call from Senator Clinton‘s office. They were demanding an apology and a retraction. They said she never spoke to the Arab press. She never criticized the president, and, in fact, never did the interview at all.

Our producers immediately double-checked our sources and we tracked down the reporter who did the interview with Senator Clinton, and by noon we found out that the interview did take place. And the senator‘s press secretary then started to back down.

And by 4:30 this afternoon, the senator‘s representatives admitted that she did the interview. She did know the reporter was writing to an international audience, and she did criticize the president.

[GottaLuvAkitas1]

This is link works for me.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4862940/

[nopardons]

BTTT

[lainde]

You're right...Whole areas of the transcript are totally blank. How conveeeeeenient of MSNBC!

[kcvl]

SCARBOROUGH: Hold on a second. At 10:00 this morning, Senator Clinton‘s press people called our office, said that we lied, that she never even gave this interview, that she never even made these comments. She called the president of MSNBC. She demanded that we retract the statement. She never made them. At 12:30, we found out...

WOLFSON: She did not call the president of MSNBC.

SCARBOROUGH: No, she did not. Her press secretary called the president of MSNBC twice. I said her office did. And check the transcripts on that one, too.

And, tonight, I think you are splitting hairs. And, again, the bigger point is, what kind of impact does this kind of talk have on the morale of our troops overseas?

WOLFSON: Let me say two things. One, we don‘t walk away from her comments one iota.

You want to know about the impact? The impact is that we live in a democracy. And some people in a democracy here in the United States these days want to stifle debate. You would rather have debate over the way George Bush has conducted this war, presumably after the war is over, 10 years from now. That‘s not the time for the debate.

There are legitimate questions being raised about the way George Bush brought this country to war. You don‘t want to debate the fact that he told us we had weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and we couldn‘t find any.

snip


SCARBOROUGH: I cannot believe that Senator Hillary Clinton believes that. Does Senator Hillary Clinton really believe that United States policy in the Middle East has made the Middle East, has made Iraq worse off today than it was before Saddam Hussein was taken out of power?

WOLFSON: I think a lot of people have real questions about whether the Middle East is safer or not.

SCARBOROUGH: Does Senator Hillary Clinton believe that? What does Senator Hillary Clinton believe? What does she believe?

(CROSSTALK)

WOLFSON: I will tell you.

She has real questions about whether or not—as she said, real questions about whether or not the region is safer now than it was before. And the reason is that the way George Bush took this country to war. Senator Clinton voted for the war resolution. The president came before the nation and said: We are facing a grave threat. I need a war resolution to deal with this. And as patriotic Americans, many of us supported him.

And you know what? It‘s turned out that he has misled the American people, that many of the things he told us were not true, that we have made many enemies in the Middle East that we had not had before based on the way we conducted ourselves. So, yes, there are questions being raised and they are appropriate questions.

[thoughtomator]

Maybe they might figure out that the Left is a saturated market, but the rest of the political spectrum has a lot of room for competition.

[Mr. K]

geez- a story criticizing her heinousness in the press...??? who'da thunk it...

[nopardons]

It's be IMPOSSIBLE,even for Hitlery! to pull that off,at that date.Please remove your tinfoil.:-)

[cyncooper]

Liar, liar, crusty pants on fire.

[MEG33]

Her arrogance and her spokesman's arrogance is breathtaking.So much for the truth.I don't care if she was speaking to the international press,what does she think international means?.

.She denied what she said ,then the excuse is that she did not give an interview specifically to the arab press,using her power to suppress(it worked) and the harm to our military morale and to our mission in Iraq continues.It would seem our troops don't matter...it's an election year.

[nopardons]

Not gonna happen;especially NOT at the end of September!

[Petronski]

You do great work, and it means much. Thanks again.

[GOPJ]

I'll bet the strong arm techniques work on CNN, ABC, and CBS. Why else would they try them? They must work somewhere...

This morning at about 10:00 a.m., we got an angry phone call from Senator Clinton‘s office. They were demanding an apology and a retraction. They said she never spoke to the Arab press. She never criticized the president, and, in fact, never did the interview at all.

[kcvl]

REP. RANDY CUNNINGHAM ®, CALIFORNIA:

I have got friends of mine over in Iraq right now. My district director is a Marine reservist. Duncan Hunter‘s son is a lieutenant in Fallujah. And they are saying, tell these guys (including Hillary Clinton) to knock it off, because Arabs are using it against us in inciting their troops. So it‘s getting our kids hurt, and it‘s wrong.

[Henchster]

No tinfoil, I've put my money where my mouth is as early as spring of 2003 in a bet with FReeper Ironclad. In '03, he wanted me to remove my tinfoil. He's now keeping $100 in his wallet, as he's starting to think it's going to happen as well. Everything is proceding precisely as Bill & Hillary have planned it.

[cyncooper]

But first Joe had to undercut the point (when he was trying to bend over backwards--misguidedly and wrongly--to appear "fair") by saying this:

For the most part, Senator Clinton has been responsible with her words since 9/11.

How quickly he forgot her taking to the Senate floor yelling "BUSH KNEW? Bush knew WHAT?" as she flashed around the New York Post (and a pox on them for running that headline).

That is just one example. She's said several inappropriate and demoralizing comments. There was no reason for Scarborough to mitigate the crux of the matter here.

[lavrenti]

No, actually MSNBC is happy ticking off its audience of Freepers.

Other than us, and the hosts relatives, that network has precious few other viewers.

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP - Wicked Witch of the East ALERT!

[hoosiermama]

One day it will catch up with them....mark my word.

[MHGinTN]

Not at all out of line. I prefer sinkEmperor's first b!tch though. She is such a blatant liar! And so stoopid, to think she could A) say such crap as spews from her heart, to an ARAB source (she's a treacherous b!tch, don'tcha know) and B) think she could lie her way through an intimidation of a news network to cover her fat liberal flanks. I wonder, does she still believe it is her destiny and socil;aist lieberal birthright to be queen over America ... er, I mean president over America?

[kcvl]

WOLFSON: If any kind of criticism at all is giving aid and comfort to the enemy, then I guess tens of millions of Americans are guilty of giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

SCARBOROUGH: But, Howard, why do you say that to troops in the middle of a war zone that are being shot at? That‘s what I don‘t understand.

WOLFSON: She was asked—I believe the quote that you read, she was asked directly by one of our soldiers in Iraq, what are people saying at home about the war?

Now, these are American citizens. These are not children. We don‘t have to coddle them. They deserve the truth. Some people can‘t handle the truth. They deserve the truth. It was a direct question, somebody asking their senator a direct question. And she gave an honest, thoughtful answer.

CUNNINGHAM: I would just ask, Howard, just be a little careful what we say. I just got back from Saudi Arabia. And they told me, they said, Duke, that the people have been under bondage so long that, if they choose the wrong side in this and we pull out, they are going to die. And any time candidates come up and talk about the administration, talk about how futile our war is, those people don‘t want to help the United States, because they feel they are going to be at risk. And it hurts and it damages it.

I would ask Howard, just have her be a little bit careful, because in some cases, it does hurt.