Posted on 04/11/2008 5:25:11 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
Former President Bill Clinton gave a passionate defense Thursday of his wife’s claim about “landing under sniper fire” – just as the damaging controversy was dying down.
Bill Clinton said the news media treated her like she’d “robbed a bank” and claimed she was experiencing end-of-day fatigue, even though she had made the claim in morning speeches.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) acknowledged two weeks ago that she “misspoke” and “made a mistake” in her overly vivid account of the 1996 landing in Tuzla, Bosnia, during a goodwill mission as first lady.
Video of a tranquil arrival ceremony refuted the claim, and her comments hurt her struggling campaign by reviving questions about her candor.
Now, her husband has revived the issue by claiming the comments were true during a “Solutions for America” campaign event in at Boonville High School in Boonville, Ind. Here are his comments, recorded by networks and reported by CBS News:
"You know, I got tickled the other day. A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me. But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated — and immediately apologized for it — what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995 [sic]. Did y'all see all that? Oh, they blew it up.
"Let me just tell you. The president of Bosnia and General Wesley Clark – who was there making peace where we'd lost three peacekeepers, who had to ride on a dangerous mountain road because it was too dangerous to go the regular, safe way – both defended her because they pointed out that when her plane landed in Bosnia, she had to go up to the bulletproof part of the plane, in the front. Everybody else had to put their flak jackets underneath the seat in case they got shot at. And everywhere they went, they were covered by Apache helicopters. So they just abbreviated the arrival ceremony.
"Now I say that because, what really has mattered is that even then she was interested in our troops. And I think she was the first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone. And you woulda thought, you know, that she'd robbed a bank the way they carried on about this. And some of them, when they're 60, they'll forget something when they're tired at 11 at night, too.”
CBS News producer Ryan Corsaro, who covers Senator Clinton, reports she made the claim in mid-morning on St. Patrick’s Day.
CBS also has aired videotape of the senator making the claim on at least two other occasions. The Eleanor Roosevelt claim also has been questioned, since Pat Nixon traveled to Vietnam in 1969. Indiana holds its Democratic primary on May 6.
Hillary to Bill: “Don’t help.”
So, let me get this straight. You are saying they have a RIGHT TO LIE. ok. Got it.
Thanks. I've been meaning to ask abut this as it made very little sense to me. I would have thought that, if there was danger of being shot at, you would be WEARING the thing, not sitting on it.
So was the new Team Clinton’s (Grunwald’s or Ickies’) idea to get Bubba to give high profile to the issue again after it had pretty much bottomed out.
Good Call!!!
BTW—somebody needs to tell Bubba she lied repeatedly not once in exhaustion.
It’s his way of getting even.
Amazing that they’re both still repeating the lie that Hillary was the first first lady to visit a war zone since Eleanor Roosevelt.
Guess Pat Nixon going to Vietnam in 69 doesn’t count.
The word “dribble” is more commonly applied to Bill...
Minor correction, I said that it is Bill's arrogance that insists that they have a right to lie. I personally don't believe that the Clintons have a right to lie, but they do.
GMTA! I wonder if Bill realizes how badly he undermined her chief claim of competence with his senior-moment comment.
Two more lies.
She regaled her audience on multiple occasions with the Bosnia sniper story, not 'one time'.
And she didn't 'immediately apologize' for her lie. She apologized after her lie was outed and ridiculed.
I doubt it. These folks operate in worlds of their own, and don't think through the side-effects.
After all, his best move would have been to STFU - the controversy had died down a bit, so why bring it up AT ALL ??
If Bill was actively TRYING to sabotage her campaign, so he could keep his well-paying gigs rather than move into the WHite House basement, would things look any different?
I doubt it...
Bill has used the “it was late/I was tired” excuse at least twice when he was caught lying. Now he’s recycled it for Hellary.
VERY interesting choice of words.
I have a theory on why Bill seems to be hurting, more than helping ...
It’s deliberate. He does not want Hillary to get the nomination or to be elected POTUS. Her Presidency is a lose-lose proposition for him. If she wins, and does a miserable job, it’s a negative reflection on him. If she wins, and does better than him (a low bar to clear), his legacy is diminished. To his mind, his legacy is best preserved if she loses.
If Bill had actually served in Vietnam instead of dodging the draft he would know that the only time people would sit on their flack jackets was when there were extra jackets. No way would anyone with an IQ above 90 wtake your own jacket off to sit on. I for one HAVE sat on an extra jacket but I was still wearing the one I put on that morning.
Ah've come too farrrhhhhh, and I ain't no ways tahhhhrd.
Bill, STFU, yoo're kill'en me.
Well, the fleshy part of Hillary's @$$ is a much bigger target....
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