Clinton 1, Wallace 0

September 23, 2006

We won’t be able to see the video until tomorrow, but in the meantime, I think readers will enjoy checking out ThinkProgress’ item on Fox News’ Chris Wallace’s interview with President Bill Clinton. It was taped yesterday for broadcast tomorrow.

As Judd noted, the interview was intended to be about the Clinton Global Initiative and the non-partisan drive to secure commitments to address global crises. Wallace, however, began by regurgitating many of the same debunked myths from the now-infamous “Path to 9/11” docudrama. The chat became … animated.

WALLACE: Do you think you did enough [to get bin Laden], 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… 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?

The point of the attack on the USS Cole was of particular significance. The Cole was attacked late in Clinton’s presidency, and it was not immediately clear who was responsible. As Bush was taking office, Clinton learned that it was al Qaeda who executed the attack, and urged his successor to pursue the issue. Bush didn’t.

In talking to Wallace, Clinton emphasized the point — while bringing Fox News’ agenda into light.

CLINTON: 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.

Now, apparently, the transcript doesn’t fully reflect the fact that Clinton was rather livid. The New York Daily News said the former president “became red-faced” and delivered a “finger-jabbbing tirade.” The right-wing blogs are abuzz with word that Clinton lost his cool and exploded in anger.

But as far as I can tell, Clinton did exactly what desperately needed to be done: he set the record straight, debunked the right’s misguided talking points, and exposed Fox News’ sorry attempts at journalism.

The network was, once again, trying to smear Clinton, this time to his face. He didn’t just sit there; he fought back with facts and reason. I can’t say whether Clinton lost his cool or not — I haven’t seen the video — but if more Dems responded to the right’s nonsense with this kind of firm and aggressive reaction, I suspect we’d see a lot less conservative bullying in our discourse.

Jane at FDL has the YouTube clip of the Faux promo for the interview. Here is what I wrote over there is a few minutes ago.

Clinton did a masterful job of defending himself. No surprise there. I couldn’t understand how Faux could use this ambush to their-read wingnut-advantage. Now I know. Faux edited that clip rather artfully ending with Clinton saying, “I tried, but failed.”
The complete interview will only run one or two times. That clip will be played over and over and over again. Their dishonesty knows no bounds.

  • I’m betting a buck that this exchange won’t be part of the program; it will be edited down to CGI only. Wallace looks like an idiot.

  • “Lost his cool and exploded in anger”????

    These self-satisfied little pissants need a good kick in the gonads, and as they go down, smash their face into the chair. That would be “exploding in anger,” and nothing the mini-pricked fascists don’t deserve.

  • I wonder if the Right Wank blogs lit up when Bush flipped out in the Rose Garden last week. No, sorry, that was just President MonkeySpank being putting the dreadful upstart lackey of the liberal media in his place. Of course Bush rarely does interviews unless Cheney has approved the script and is standing near by with the shotgun at the ready should the journalist try to ab lib.

    If Wallace had taken a moment to recall Clinton is not a stumble-mouthed, easily confused moron like the cretin currently stinking up the White House, I bet he would have never gone down that road. Of course Clinton was angry. What the Hell do those Kool-aid swilling drones want? Oh yes, for Clinton to roll over and play dead so they can continue to make fun of him. Too bad for you, well done Clinton.

    Now, the presidental term limit thing…is that life time or just consecutive?

  • What is wrong getting mad? I don’t expect Bill to reach over and rip out Kinder Wallace’s throat, but no one should take this shit.

    Good for Bill. Instead of squirming, he fought back and for once, he was blunt and honest about himself instead of that DLC crafted talking point bullshit.

    The best part was he called them liars and scoundrals to the Kinder Wallace’s face.

  • If Ronald Reagan could get indignant about a microphone, certainly Bill Clinton could fight back against a smear job on his service to this country. I can’t see a whole lot difference between the recent behavior of Chris Wallace and Hugo Chavez.

  • That’s the right’s response to actually combatting terrorism effectively: call the guy who would actually be ready to do it a bunch of names, make up stuff about him, while talking about the guy who wasn’t ready to do it like he’s some kind of idealized hero.

    These people are a bunch of jackasses.

  • This should be considered the opening barrage in the war against the Reich—with emphasis on the term “war.” Let these filthy little pigs find out, here and now, that their day in the sun is over. “The Spin Formerly Known as *Fair and Balanced*” stops here

    Pleasant dreams, Chrissie….

  • “If pigs flew.”

    Well that’s just it… isn’t it Ed?

    It’s hard as hell to tell the swine (repugs) from the pigs (dims).
    And… getting harder by the second…

    For example:

    Did you hear the one about Diane Feinstein’s self congratulatory speech on Friday about getting over 2 billion for the produciton of the more C-17’s that the the military says it doesn’t need and doesn’t want?

    Good ol’ Diane the Dimocrat…
    Bringing home the pork (on a Friday no less) for her constituents.

    Suggestion:

    To boast about saving 5500 jobs by spending 2 billion is REPUGNANT. Instead… spend only 1 billion of our tax revenue and give each of the 5500 workers $181,000 to help them find a new way of life.

    But… oh… no….not Dummy Diane the anti-flag burning Dimocrat.

    Pig or swine?
    Swine or pig?
    Torturer or Torturer.

    I can’t tell the difference anymore between what is merely dimly repugnant and what is repugnantly dim.

  • Too bad the interview was taped, not live. Would be a lesson to the limp-spined dems as well as to the calcified-brains on the other side of the divide.

  • Clinton: 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.
    He is right, see the following:

    http://www.conservativeusa.org/wagdog.htm

  • Whats “koreyel’s” major problem??? It is a senators job to helf their constituates by keeping manufacturing jobs in their state. Funny thing is that the military wanted the C-17’s just 2 years ago until “dumbsfeld decided that his priorities were more important.

    As for the Faux interview Bill Clinton stood his ground and when you see it tomorrow u will see that it is Chris Wallace whom is getting angry because Mr Clinton won’t take his bullshit.

  • Whats “koreyel’s” major problem???

    I did the math.

    I don’t like corporate welfare.

    I don’t care if that welfare is generated by a dimocrat (C-17) or a repug (Bridge to Nowhere).

    My suggestion was:

    Halve the money spent (cut out the corporate welfare part) and get the rest directly to your favorite buggy-whip makers…

    Until Congressman and Senators act with that sort of wisdom and ethics… they have no right to enact laws that prevent the flag from being burned.

    End of story.

  • Well almost “end of story.”

    In regards to Pelosi’s and Charlie Rangell’s criticism of Hugo Chavez’s comments about the torturer Bush:

    Go bugger yourselves Dimocrats!

    The right to free speech is not just an American right.

    If neither of you believe Chavez has a right to freely speak his mind at the UN then you too…. STINK OF SULFUR.

    If you don’t believe Bush is the devil… fine.
    Present your arugments to the contrary.
    The world after all is a “marketplace of ideas.”

    But goddamn it… don’t shit on a third world leader merely because he says something that embarrasses your hegemony.

    For shame America.
    For shame.

  • Dear MisInformed In America:
    I have seen the broadcast today and he is a train wreck. Check out the timing of events in that misguided administration. Research the dates and anmes. In addition to his inability to “protect the country”, he is clearly a liar. He is protrays himself more innocent than a newborn child. Maybe I missed the Joseph and Mary during that fiasco of an administration. He probably had them in Los Angeles promoting a Barbra Streisand event. Anyway… If he wasn’t so busy courting Hollywood, playing with interns, maybe he would have been more reactive. His own “wife” exchanged kisses with a terrorist’s wife and continued to try to kiss up to Israel.

    These are the most disgusting individuals, the Clintons.

    Remember, he was IMPEACHED! Now I’ll smoke a cigar, the way a real man smokes one. With a match and an astray, not an impressionable young woman and her mouth to “stub” it out with.

  • koryel — actually, the right to free speech is an American right. Not exclusively, of course, but let’s see what happens if someone said the same thing about Chavez in Venezuela.

    melosh: “her mouth”? Geez, you lack imagination. If you think the same thing isn’t going on in the executive branch today, you really lack imagination.

    Frank A. & Molly Binder

  • “Remember, he was IMPEACHED! ”

    Even I remember he was not.
    He filled out his term.

    They tried to impeach him, but it failed.

    “Actually, the right to free speech is an American right.”

    Really? Uhmm. then what do I have here, in my country?
    Now, I am confused. I thought it was right to free speech.

  • The left is always going to spend a lot of time polishing the Clinton apple. He is the best president they have had since JFK. Now that much of the shine of JFK has been tarnished it’s time to ride the Clinton fantasy.
    Time is Clinton’s enemy too. The Wallace interview is just the beginning of layer upon layer of truth revealing a self-absorbed opportunist president that spent more time energy and effort on grooming his image than serving the country.

  • Being a republican and a republican campaign volunteer, I wasn’t surprused of FOX’s exposed deliberate bias and “unbalanced” views. The bit Fox did on clinton reapears Daily against Muslims and Arabs who love America and the American people. Fox needs to understand that we can win more people over by being persuasive and objective and not by encouriging division and hate-mongering.

  • Clinton was provided the questions ahead of time , you people have it all backwards, Clinton used this interview to smear Fox.

    And yes , Fox ask’s questions people want to hear asked, whether they asked these questions to right wingers or not , is moot.

  • I have seen the broadcast today and he is a train wreck.

    “He” being the broadcast? I’m confused.

    Check out the timing of events in that misguided administration. Research the dates and anmes.

    “Timing of events” does not a sound argument make. When you make timing of events anything more than a curiosity, you open yourself, and the administration you defend, to far more accusations than could ever be hurled at the Clinton administration.

    I assume by ‘anmes’ you mean ‘names’?

    In addition to his inability to “protect the country”, he is clearly a liar.

    It seems apparent to me that he “tried” to protect the country from what he considered a grave threat: Osama Bin Laden; something the current administration apparently didn’t try to do until it was too late. And then they put that on a back burner once the neocons were able to get back to what they’d wanted to do all along: invade Iraq (and based on lies that affected the entire world, not just one man’s marriage).

    He is protrays himself more innocent than a newborn child.

    ‘Protrays’ = ‘Portrays’?

    Anyway, I think the current administration holds the record for stubbornness and inability to admit they’ve ever done wrong. Actually, there is the old chestnut “mistakes were made” that this administration likes to use when it’s backed into a corner (countless times) but any idiot can see the insincerity behind that.

    Maybe I missed the Joseph and Mary during that fiasco of an administration.

    This is all useless rhetoric but indicative of your lack of communication and writing skills.

    He probably had them in Los Angeles promoting a Barbra Streisand event.

    More useless rhetoric and a reminder of just who the enemies of the right are: Streisand, Fonda, well most of Hollywood. Oh no… the movie stars are taking over. :-O

    Anyway… If he wasn’t so busy courting Hollywood, playing with interns, maybe he would have been more reactive.

    Hollywood movie stars do represent a significant voting bloc. 😉

    “Reactive”: again, I remind you that you and idiots like you were condemning Clinton for being “too reactive” and claiming that he was doing it to hide the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

    I guess the only acceptable “reaction” would have been to attack Iraq. But you know as well as I do that Clinton would have been condemned for that too. We all would have questioned his competence and intelligence had he attacked Iraq in response to terrorist attacks orchestrated by Osama Bin Laden.

    Is any of this getting through to you? Never mind.

    His own “wife” exchanged kisses with a terrorist’s wife and continued to try to kiss up to Israel.

    I doubt if this was some kind of lesbian kiss. Grow up, Melosh.

    A kiss in some cultures is the same as a handshake (y’know, like that picture of Rumsfeld shaking Saddam Hussein’s hand). Personally, I wasn’t familiar with this issue and I certainly wouldn’t have thought it interesting to anyone but the most rabid, brainwashed, ignorant right-wing morons.

    These are the most disgusting individuals, the Clintons.

    Again, you’re writing is at best, gradeschool level. Why do you think your opinion even matters? Get an education or keep your idiot opinions to yourself. There’s a world out there in crisis. You’re only helping to further destroy it.

    And do I really need to tell you that there are far more disgusting individuals out there than the Clintons? Are you really that brainwashed.

    Remember, he was IMPEACHED! Now I’ll smoke a cigar, the way a real man smokes one. With a match and an astray, not an impressionable young woman and her mouth to “stub” it out with.

    The impeachment took our attention away from impending disasters that would change our nation forever. Our attention and our collective eyes were taken off the ball so we could all wallow in a sordid scandel that affected nobody but Bill Clinton and his wife.

    The impending disaster was 9/11; something the Bush Administration was warned about by both Clinton himself and the now famous PDB.

    Get your mind out of the gutter, out of private citizens’ crotches and into something constructive if you want to contribute to your country or this forum. Otherwise, please spare yourself the humiliation.

    By the way, I must apologize for taking the “low road” here and critizing Melosh’es spelling, grammar and writing ability. I’m just tired of watching our country and all that we stand for dismantled by a frothing bunch of morons who, for some reason, think their opinions are somehow worthy of anything more than ridicule.

  • Perhapes my trolldar isn’t functioning properly this morning. It gets harder and harder to separate the trolls from the honest-to-goodness idiots. 😉

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