Living History by Unknown (best non fiction books of all time .txt) 📕

yelling questions, and someone shouted above the rest, “Do you think the charges are false?” I stopped and turned to the microphones.

“Certainly I believe they are false―absolutely,” I said. “It’s difficult and painful any time someone you care about, you love, you admire, is attacked and is subjected to such relentless accusations as my husband has been.”

Why is Bill Clinton being attacked?

“There has been a concerted effort to undermine his legitimacy as President, to undo much of what he has been able to accomplish, to attack him personally when he could not be defeated politically.”

It was not the first time I had said this, nor would it be the last. With any luck, people might start to understand what I was saying. In my view, the prosecutors were undermining the office of the Presidency by using and abusing their authority in an effort to win back the political power they had lost at the ballot box. At that point their actions became everyone’s concern. I felt as if I had the dual responsibility of defending my husband and my country. They couldn’t beat his positions or the successes of his policies, and they couldn’t undermine his popularity. So they vilified him―and, by extension, me. The stakes were as high as they could get.

Like me, Bill did not back out of any prior commitments. He went ahead with previously scheduled interviews for National Public Radio, Roll Call and PBS television. He discussed foreign policy and the up coming State of the Union Address scheduled for Tuesday, January 27. Then he patiently responded to each question about his personal life with essentially the same answer: The allegations weren’t true. He didn’t ask anybody to lie. He would cooperate with the investigation, but it would be inappropriate to say more at this time.

Our old friend Harry Thomason flew in to offer help and moral support. Ever the television producer, Harry thought that Bill’s public statements were coming off as too tentative and legalistic and urged Bill to show how outraged he felt about the allegations. And so he did. At a January 26 press event designed to focus on funding children’s afterschool care, as Al Gore and Education Secretary Richard Riley and I stood by his side, the President issued a forceful denial that he’d had sexual relations with Lewinsky. I thought his show of anger was justified under the circumstances, as I understood them.

Washington was obsessed with the scandal to the point of hysteria. New facts were emerging daily about the mechanics of what was essentially a sting operation to entrap the President, including secret, illegal tape recordings. The Administration made a pitiful yet valiant attempt to preview initiatives in the upcoming State of the Union address, but the airwaves were saturated with speculation and predictions about Bill’s ability to remain in office.

The next day was the State of the Union address, and I kept a long-scheduled commitment to go to New York to appear on the Today show that morning. I would rather have had a root canal, but a cancellation would have created its own avalanche of speculation.

So off I went, confident that I knew the truth but dreading the prospect of discussing such matters on national television. Bill’s advisers and mine weighed in with advice.

Some worried that I would antagonize Starr if I talked about the partisan nature of his investigation.

David Kendall felt no need for such constraints.

Matt Lauer was hosting the show that morning without Katie Couric, whose husband, Jay Monahan, had tragically lost his battle with colon cancer three days earlier. Everyone was in a somber mood on the set in New York’s Rockefeller Center. I took a seat across from Matt, and immediately following the seven o’clock news, he began the interview.

“There has been one question on the minds of people in this country, Mrs. Clinton, lately. And that is, what is the exact nature of the relationship between your husband and Monica Lewinsky? Has he described the relationship in detail to you?”

I answered: “Well, we’ve talked at great length. And I think as this matter unfolds, the entire country will have more information. But we’re right in the middle of a rather vigorous feeding frenzy right now, and people are saying all kinds of things and putting out rumor and innuendo. And I have learned over the last many years being involved in politics, and especially since my husband first started running for President, that the best thing to do in these cases is just to be patient, take a deep breath and the truth will come out.”

Lauer mentioned how our friend James Carville had described the situation as a war between the President and Kenneth Starr. “You have said, I understand, to some close friends, that this is the last great battle. And that one side or the other is going down here.”

“Well, I don’t know if I’ve been that dramatic,” I said. “That would sound like a good line from a movie. But I do believe that this is a battle. I mean, look at the very people who are involved in this. They have popped up in other settings. This is―the great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast rightwing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for President. A few journalists have kind of caught on to it and explained it. But it has not yet been fully revealed to the American public. And, actually, you know, in a bizarre sort of way, this may do it.”

Later, when David Kendall called to discuss my appearance, I told him I had thought about him as I was going in to the interview.

“I heard your words of wisdom ringing in my ear,” I said.

“And which words of incredible wisdom were you hearing?” said David, going for the bait.

“Screw’em!” I laughed.

David, who was raised as a Quaker, chuckled and said sheepishly, “It’s an old Quaker expression.”

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