Bill Clinton Fights Back

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 11:06am

Rough transcript of of his Fox News interview tomorrow, in which Chris Wallace tried to ambush him:

===

WALLACE: When we announced that you were going to be on fox news Sunday, I got a lot of email from viewers, and I got to say I was surprised most of them wanted me to ask you this question. Why didn’t you do more to put Bin Laden and al Qaeda out of business when you were President. There’s a new book out which I suspect you’ve read called the Looming Tower. And it talks about how the fact that when you pulled troops out of Somalia in 1993, Bin Laden said I have seen the frailty and the weakness and the cowardice of US troops. Then there was the bombing of the embassies in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole.

CLINTON: OK..

WALLACE: …may I just finish the question sir. And after the attack, the book says, Bin Laden separated his leaders because he expected an attack and there was no response. I understand that hindsight is 20 20.

CLINTON: No let’s talk about…

WALLACE: …but the question is why didn’t you do more, connect the dots and put them out of business?

CLINTON: OK, let’s talk about it. I will answer all of those things on the merits but I want to talk about the context of which this…arises. I’m being asked this on the FOX network…ABC just had a right wing conservative on the Path to 9/11 falsely claim that it was based on the 911 commission report with three things asserted against me that are directly contradicted by the 9/11 commission report. I think it’s very interesting that all the conservative Republicans who now say that I didn’t do enough, claimed that I was obsessed with Bin Laden. All of President Bush’s neocons claimed that I was too obsessed with finding Bin Laden when they didn’t have a single meeting about Bin Laden for the nine months after I left office. All the right wingers who now say that I didn’t do enough said that I did too much. Same people.

They were all trying to get me to withdraw from Somalia in 1993 the next day after we were involved in black hawk down and I refused to do it and stayed 6 months and had an orderly transfer to the UN.

Ok, now let’s look at all the criticisms: Black hawk down, Somalia. There is not a living soul in the world who thought that Bin laden had anything to do with black hawk down or was paying any attention to it or even knew al Qaeda was a growing concern in October of 1993.

WALLACE: …I understand…

CLINTON: No wait…no wait…Don’t tell me. You asked me why I didn’t do more to Bin Laden. There was not a living soul…all the people who criticized me wanted to leave the next day. You brought this up so you get an answer.

WALLACE: I’m perfectly happy to. Bin Laden says…

CLINTON: And secondly…

WALLACE: Bin Laden says…

CLINTON: Bin laden may have said that…

WALLACE: Bin Laden says it showed the weakness of the US…

CLINTON: It would have shown the weakness if we left right away but he wasn’t involved in that. That’s just a bunch of bull. That was about Mohammed Adid, a Muslim war lord murdering..thousands of Pakistani Muslim troops. We were all there on a humanitarian mission. We had not one mission — none — to establish a certain kind of Somali government or to keep anybody out. He was not a religious fanatic.

WALLACE: But Mr. President…

CLINTON: There was no Al Qaeda…

WALLACE: …with respect if I may. Instead of going through 93.

CLINTON: You asked you. It you brought it up.

WALLACE: May I ask a general question that you can answer. The 9/11 Commission, which you talk about, and this is what they did say, not what ABC pretended they said…

CLINTON: Wait, Wait…

WALLACE: …they said about you and 43 and I quote, “The US government took the threat seriously, not in the sense of mustering anything like that would be….to confront an enemy of the first, second or third rank”

CLINTON: That’s not true with us and Bin Laden…

WALLACE: …the 9/11 commission says…

CLINTON: Let’s look at what Richard Clarke says. You think Richard Clarke has a vigorous attitude about Bin Laden?

WALLACE: Yes I do

CLINTON: You do?

WALLACE: I think he has a variety of opinions and loyalties but yes.

CLINTON: He has a variety of opinion and loyalties now but let’s look at the facts. He worked for Ronald Regan. He was loyal to him. He worked for George Herbert Walker Bush and he was loyal to him. He worked for me and he was loyal to me. He worked for President Bush; he was loyal to him. They downgraded him and the terrorist operation. Now, look what he said, read his book and read his factual assertions — not opinions, assertions. He said we took vigorous action after the African embassies. We probably nearly got Bin Laden.

WALLACE: …

CLINTON: Now wait a minute…

WALLACE: ..cruise missiles..

CLINTON: I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to kill him. The CIA was run by George Tenet who President Bush gave the medal of freedom to and said he did a good job.. The country never had a comprehensive anti terror operation until I came to office. If you can criticize me for one thing, you can criticize me for this, after the Cole I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban, and launch a full scale attack search for Bin Laden. But we needed baseing rights in Uzbekistan which we got after 9/11. The CIA and the FBI refused to certify that Bin Laden was responsible while I was there. They refused to certify. So that meant I would have had to send a few hundred special forces in helicopters and refuel at night. Even the 9/11 Commission didn’t do that. Now the 9/11 Commission was a political document too. All I’m asking is if anybody wants to say I didn’t do enough, you read Richard Clarke’s book.
Fox News Sunday, Interview With President Bill Clinton, 9/22/06 (Rough Transcript)

Updated On: 9/23/06 at 11:06 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 11:08am

here's the rest:



WALLACE: Do you think you did enough sir?

CLINTON: No, because I didn’t get him

WALLACE: Right…

CLINTON: But at least I tried. That’s the difference in me and some, including all the right wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try and they didn’t….. I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke… So you did FOX’s bidding on this show. You did you nice little conservative hit job on me. But what I want to know..

WALLACE: Now wait a minute sir…

CLINTON:..

WALLACE: I asked a question. You don’t think that’s a legitimate question?

CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked why didn’t you do anything about the Cole. I want to know how many you asked why did you fire Dick Clarke. I want to know…

WALLACE: We asked..

CLINTON:..

WALLACE: Do you ever watch Fox News Sunday sir?

CLINTON: I don’t believe you ask them that.

WALLACE: We ask plenty of questions of…

CLINTON: You didn’t ask that did you? Tell the truth

WALLACE: About the USS Cole?

CLINTON: tell the truth.

WALLACE: I…with Iraq and Afghanistan there’s plenty of stuff to ask.

CLINTON: Did you ever ask that? You set this meeting up because you were going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because Rupert Murdoch is going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers for supporting my work on Climate Change. And you came here under false pretenses and said that you’d spend half the time talking about…

WALLACE: [laughs]

CLINTON: You said you’d spend half the time talking about what we did out there to raise $7 billion dollars plus over three days from 215 different commitments. And you don’t care.

WALLACE: But President Clinton…

CLINTON:

WALLACE: We were going to ask half the question about it. I didn’t think this was going to set you off on such a tear .

CLINTON: It set me off on such a tear because you didn’t formulate it in an honest way and you people ask me questions you don’t ask the other side.

WALLACE: Sir that is not true…

CLINTON: …and Richard Clarke…

WALLACE: That is not true…

CLINTON: Richard Clarke made it clear in his testimony…

WALLACE: Would you like to talk about the Clinton Global Initiative?

CLINTON: No I want to finish this.

WALLACE: Alright

CLINTON: All I’m saying is you falsely accuse me of giving aid and comfort to Bin Laden because of what happened in Somalia. No one knew al Qaeda existed then…

WALLACE: Did they know in 1996 when he declared war on the US? Did no one know in 1998…

CLINTON: Absolutely they did

WALLACE: When they bombed the two embassies…

CLINTON:…

WALLACE: Or in 2000 when they hit the Cole.

CLINTON: What did I do? I worked hard to try and kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since. And if I were still president we’d have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him. Now I never criticized President Bush and I don’t think this is useful. But you know we do have a government that think Afghanistan is 1/7 as important as Iraq. And you ask me about terror and Al Qaeda with that sort of dismissive theme when all you have to do is read Richard Clarke’s book to look at what we did in a comprehensive systematic way to try to protect the country against terror. And you’ve got that little smirk on your face. It looks like you’re so clever…

WALLACE: [Laughs]

CLINTON: I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin laden. I regret it but I did try. And I did everything I thought I responsibly could. The entire military was against sending special forces in to Afghanistan and refueling by helicopter and no one thought we could do it otherwise…We could not get the CIA and the FBI to certify that Al Qaeda was responsible while I was President. Until I left office. And yet I get asked about this all the time and they had three times as much time to get him as I did and no one ever asks them about this. I think that’s strange.

Updated On: 9/23/06 at 11:08 AM

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 11:19am

GO HIM!! I hate the media . . . I really do!

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 11:23am

I also saw his interview on Countdown - which was obviously less combative than this.

I wonder how much of this will actually air on Fox.

His Global Initiative may just replace the UN, and actually work to help those in need.

When Keith O. gave him a check on air (which was a little self-serving by Keith) Clinton seemed genuinely surprised and was almost brought to tears.

Le Sigh... I miss him - even with a BJ in the oval office I miss him.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 2:20pm

Brilliant presidents. What a concept.

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 3:51pm

If Clinton's "Global Initiative" replaced the UN, it would be a great day for America. Since the UN is useless, anything new would be an improvement.

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 4:29pm

Even if he was making stuff up (and he's not), it's refreshing to hear a president with a vocabulary.

[romantico]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 4:37pm

Its about time! I wish Clinton would have put them in their place alot sooner! God I miss Bill! Look whats happened since he has left office to this country. It would be so nice to have grown ups in charge for a change!

Posted: 9/23/06 at 9:19pm

I was glad to see Clinton take the gloves off. He needs to go after more of this BS. And yes, it is refreshing to see a president who can answer a question in full sentences and refer to world leaders, countries and regions by their proper names and not say things like "That guy.....the military guy....he's a good change over the last guy and we're gonna...we like the change, it's good for Amerkins."

And this is Clinton answering a question that he had no prep time for. God I miss people valuing intelligence in their leaders.

[justthefacts2]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 10:38pm

Yeah, kind of the way I missed people valuing intergrity in their leaders when Clinton was in office.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 10:41pm

Luckily that was restored the day after he left office and never violated once since.

(Hard to type that without guffawing.)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 10:48pm

Assaults on Clinton's integrity fall on deaf ears after six years of the Bush administration lying to the Amrican people, lying to Congress, lying to the media, lying to the FBI, lying to grand juries and lying to investigators.

The lies of the Busheviks have far outshadowed Bill Clinton's now-insignificant lie about a blowjob, because Bush's lies have resulted in the unnecessary deaths of thousands of Americans, tens of thousands of Iraqis, and the integity of the United States of America.

So drop your smug comments about Clinton's integrity. Your guys have none.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 10:56pm

Now, to be fair, they have the vocal Pro-Torture Lobby.

Posted: 9/23/06 at 11:00pm

He is the only democrat that I have ever met that I like

[justthefacts2]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 11:36pm

I stand by my smug comments about Clinton's intergrity. I don't give a d*** about his sex life and I never did. Clinton supporters tend to (ahem) smugly assume that people who don't like Clinton don't like him because of that whole mess. Wrong. A lot of people didn't like him and didn't vote for him the first time he ran, long before all the Monica wretchedness.

Clinton is a child who collided with his ego. Even now, it's all about him. Even after 9/11, it's all about him. Boo hoo.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 8:29am

^^^^

Thats priceless, so what do you think about bush...hey on let me guess, he's the greastest man ever.

Updated On: 9/24/06 at 08:29 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 8:41am

Okay, be smug. But tell us what you think of Bush's integrity.

Tell us what you think of Cheney's.

And Rumsfeld.

And then we'll show you smug like you've never seen before.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 8:56am

Anyone know what time it's on?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 9:02am

10 AM on Fox 5 in NY--repeated later today on the Fox News Channel.

Fox, of course, in true Rovian/Swiftboat style is hyping it as "Clinton Loses It."

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 9:36am

As if on cue, Chanticleer posts a thread with Fox's spin.

Here's the NY Times's take:

==

Clinton Faults Bush Team Efforts to Get bin Laden Before Sept. 11

By REUTERS
Published: September 24, 2006

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (Reuters) — Former President Bill Clinton, angrily defending his efforts to capture Osama bin Laden, accused the Bush administration in an interview to be broadcast Sunday of doing far less to stop Mr. bin Laden before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In the interview for “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Clinton defended the steps he took after the bombing of the destroyer Cole in 2000 and faulted “right-wingers” for their criticism of his efforts to capture Mr. bin Laden, the Qaeda leader.

“But at least I tried. That’s the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now,” Mr. Clinton said when asked whether he had failed to anticipate the full threat from Mr. bin Laden. “They had eight months to try; they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed.”

The Sept. 11 attacks occurred almost eight months after President Bush succeeded Mr. Clinton in January 2001.

“I authorized the C.I.A. to get groups together to try to kill him,” Mr. Clinton said.

“Now if you want to criticize me for one thing,” he continued, “you can criticize me for this: after the Cole, I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban and launch a full-scale attack search for bin Laden.” But he said he was not able to follow through with his plans, adding, “We needed basing rights in Uzbekistan, which we got after 9/11.”

Mr. Clinton complained at the time that the C.I.A. and F.B.I. had refused to certify that Mr. bin Laden was responsible for the Cole attack.

Earlier this month, Mr. Clinton dismissed as “indisputably wrong” a television movie that suggested he was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky scandal to confront the Islamic militant threat that culminated in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Clinton Faults Bush Team Efforts to Get bin Laden Before Sept. 11

Updated On: 9/24/06 at 09:36 AM

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 10:34am

[Elphaba]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 10:42am

Him is, the kind of guy that makes a country proud, isn't Him?

HIM IS!

[jimnysf]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 11:46am

Fox "news" is a disgrace. The people who believe what they see and hear from the "newscasters" on that channel are idiots who have no brains. I'm glad Clinton stood up to them. That fool Bill O'Reilly thinks Osama is after him. The whole network is full of crooks: Newt, Liddy, Oliver North, Bill O'Reilly (sexual harrasser) and probably others I forgot and they also have that so-called journalist, Geraldo Rivera.

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 12:00pm

Fox News is beyond disgraceful. All morning they've been talking about nothing else besides Clinton's "meltdown." They keep talking about what great journalists their organization and Chris Wallace are. Um, Rule #1 to be a great journalist: Don't make yourself the damn story.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 12:10pm

I really think they can spin all they want on this one and still lose with their viewers.

The people who watch Fox News are not happy with the war in Iraq.

Clinton's "meltdown" seemed like righteous indignation, which often plays well. I think a lot of viewers will be saying, "You know, he's got a point...I'd be pissed off too."