The whole "Monica incident" reveals much about the First Lady and wannabe Senator -- and not because of the lewd relationship the President conducted with the ex-intern.
Monica matters because Hillary Rodham Clinton knew the truth about Lewinsky and President Clinton's relationship, yet proceeded to go on national TV to lie about and disparage her husband's critics.
Or, she truly didn't believe what the rest of the country knew to be true, and unjustly maligned more than a few people (Judge Starr, the three judge panel which appointed him, Senator Faircloth and Senator Helms, and other unnamed "members of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy"). If this is the case, then why hasn't she apologized to them?
Can we trust her to tell us the truth -- especially when it counts and when it may be embarrassing? Or will she persist in blaming her and her husband's critics for their own personal failures?
New York Post: "Hill Hinted Bill's Gotta Have It," August 9, 1999
Chicago Tribune: "The Evolution of Hillary Clinton's Feminism," August 6, 1999
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: "Wrong Again, Hillary," by Meredith Oakley, August 6, 1999
Washington Post: "Pardon Us, Mrs. Clinton," August 6, 1999
Jewish World Review: "Mommy Made Him Do It, Hillary Says," August 6, 1999
New York Daily News: "Hil Says Childhood Abuse Caused Bill 'Weaknesses,'" August 1, 1999
New York Post: "Hillary: Bill Can't Help Cheating," August 1, 1999
The Entire Transcript (Key passages are highlighted):
LAUER: On "Close
Up" this morning, the first lady of the United States, Hillary
Rodham Clinton. Mrs. Clinton, good morning.
CLINTON: Good
morning, Matt. Matt, before we get into your questions, I just
want to express again, Bill's and my condolences to Katie and
her children and Jay's entire family. And I know that everybody
who watches this show feels as we all do. We're with her and want
to help her in any way.
LAUER: And I spent some time with her yesterday, and I know she appreciated your call. Thank you very much. We appreciate you being here. This interview had been scheduled several weeks ago to talk about the subject of child care, which we will talk about this morning.
CLINTON: Right.
Yes.
LAUER: But we
appreciate you honoring the
commitment, even in light of recent events. So thank
you very much.
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 that relationship
in detail to you?
CLINTON: 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. But there's nothing we can do to fight this fire storm of
allegations that are out there.
LAUER: But he
has described to the American
people what this relationship was not in his words.
CLINTON: Right.
LAUER: Has he
described to you what it was?
CLINTON: Yes.
And we'll find that out as time
goes by, Matt. But I think the important thing now is to stand
as firmly as I can and say that, you know, the president has denied
these allegations on all counts,
unequivocally. And we'll see how this plays out.
I guess everybody says to me, how can you be so calm? Or how can
you just, you know, look like you're not upset? And I guess I've
just been through it so many times. I mean, Bill and I have been
accused of everything, including murder, by some of the very same
people who are behind these allegations. So from my perspective,
this is part of the continuing political campaign against my husband.
LAUER: To the
best of your knowledge, Mrs. Clinton, has your husband ever given
or received gifts
from or to Monica Lewinsky?
CLINTON: I'm not
going to comment on any specific allegation, because I've learned
we need to
put all of this into context. And it will be put into
context. And anyone who knows my husband knows
that he is an extremely generous person to people he
knows, to strangers, to anybody who is around him.
And I think that, you know, his behavior, his treatment
of people will certainly explain all of this.
LAUER: When you
say he's a generous person, so it is possible that he has given
gifts to Monica
Lewinsky?
CLINTON: I think
it's possible, of course, because
if you know my husband, you know that he is
somebody who will, you know, say, how would you like this. I mean,
I've seen him take his tie off and hand it to somebody.
LAUER: So that
wouldn't be a behavior that would
be unusual for him dealing with an intern at the White
House?
CLINTON: Dealing
with anybody, Matt. I mean,
seriously, I have known my husband for more than 25
years, and we've been married for 22 years. And the
one thing I always kid him about is that he never
meets a stranger. He is kind. He is friendly. He tries to
help people who need help, who ask for help.
So I think that everybody ought to just stop a minute here and
think about what we're doing. And it's not just what we're doing
in terms of making these
accusations against my husband. But I'm very
concerned about the tactics being used and the kind
of intense political agenda at work here.
LAUER: I want
to talk about Kenneth Starr in a
second. Before I get to him, let me just ask you, do
you know Monica Lewinsky?
CLINTON: No.
LAUER: You've
never met her?
CLINTON: I may
have. You know, there are hundreds and hundreds of young people
who serve as interns, and we have big events for them. We take
pictures with them. But unless they work directly in my office,
I'm not likely to meet them.
LAUER: Did Evelyn
Lieberman, the former deputy
chief of staff, or any other White House staffers, Mrs.
Clinton, ever come to you and say, we may have a
problem with one of the interns at the White House,
and mention Monica Lewinsky by name?
CLINTON: No, that
never happened.
LAUER: So these charges came as big a shock to you as anyone?
CLINTON: And to
my husband. I mean, he woke
me up Wednesday morning and said, you're not
going to believe this, but-and I said, "What is this?"
So yes, it came as a very big surprise.
LAUER: When he
said "but," he said "but" what?
CLINTON: But I
want to tell you what's in the
newspapers.
LAUER: I think
the part of this that makes certain
people across the country uneasy is that we have a
21-year-old intern at the White House who moves to
the Pentagon, who then gets a job interview at the UN
with Bill Richardson himself. And then a very dear
friend of your husband, Vernon Jordan, recommends
her for two jobs in this city here in New York and then
drives her personally to a lawyer's office when she's
subpoenaed by Kenneth Starr. Does it not appear, though, that
this intern had more clout in Washington than most others do?
CLINTON: I don't
know the circumstances of any
of that, Matt. I think that-you know, I just can't
describe to you how outgoing and friendly Vernon
Jordan is. I mean, when he stood up and said what I
believe to be the absolute truth, that he has helped
literally hundreds of people-and it doesn't matter
who they are. And if he were asked to help somebody, he would
help that person. I've seen him
do it countless times.
So I guess I know the people involved. I know them personally.
I know them well. I've known Vernon longer than I've known my
husband.
LAUER: So when
people say there's a lot of smoke here, your message is where
there's smoke...
CLINTON: There
isn't any fire, because think of
what we've been through for the last six years and
think of everything we've been accused of. And you
know, initially, when this first started, and I would be
accused of something or my husband would be
accused of something, I would be really upset. And I
would want to rush out, and I'd say, that's not true. And then
somebody would nit pick and say, well, what about this? I would
say, well, I hadn't thought about that. And then I'd rush around,
I'd say, well, that's not true.
LAUER: Are you
saying that you no longer-this
doesn't upset you anymore? You're almost numb to
it?
CLINTON: It's
not being numb so much as just
being very experienced in the unfortunate,
mean-spirited give-and-take of American politics right
now. So having seen so many of these accusations
come and go, having seen people profit, you know,
like Jerry Falwell, with videos, accusing my husband
of murder, of drug running, seeing some of the things
that are written and said about him, my attitude is, you know,
we've been there before, we have seen this
before. And I am just going to wait patiently until the
truth comes out.
LAUER: So if what
you have heard is something
you can believe and if what the president has told the
nation is the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then you'd
have to agree that this is the worst and most damaging smear of
the 20th century?
CLINTON: Well,
I don't know. There have been a
lot of smears in the 20th century. But it's a pretty bad
one.
LAUER: Pretty
devastating.
CLINTON: Well,
just think about it, and this is what
concerns me: This started out as an investigation of a
failed land deal. I told everybody in 1992, we lost
money. People said, it's not true. You know, they
made money. They have money in a Swiss bank
account.
Well, it was true. It's taken years, but it was true. We get a
politically motivated prosecutor who is allied with the right-wing
opponents of my husband, who has literally spent four years looking
at every telephone...
LAUER: And thirty
million dollars.
CLINTON: More
than that now. But looking at
every telephone call we've made, every check we've
ever written, scratching for dirt, intimidating
witnesses, doing everything possible to try to make
some kind of accusation against my husband.
LAUER: We're talking
about Kenneth Starr, so
let's use his name, because he is the independent
counsel.
CLINTON: Well, we're talking about-but it's the
whole operation. It's not just one person. It's an entire
operation.
LAUER: Did he
go outside his rights, in your
opinion, to expand this investigation? After all, he got
permission to expand the investigation from a
three-judge panel?
CLINTON: The same three-judge panel
that
removed Robert Fisk and appointed him, the same
three-judge panel that is headed by someone who
was appointed by Jesse Helms and Lauch Faircloth.
LAUER: Also Janet
Reno approved this expansion of an investigation?
CLINTON: Well,
of course, she is, because she
doesn't want to appear as though she's interfering
with the investigation.
I don't-look, I'm not going to take all that on, because I've
learned that we just have to ride this out. It's just a very unfortunate
turn of events that we are using the criminal justice system to
try to achieve
political ends in this country.
And you
know, when I'm here today, I'm not only here because I love and
believe my husband. I'm also here because I love and believe in
my country. And if I were just a citizen out there, maybe because
I know about the law and I have some idea of some of the motivations
here, I would be very disturbed by this turn of events.
LAUER: When-the
last time we visited a subject
like this involving your family was 1992, and the name
Gennifer Flowers was in the news. And you said at
that time in an interview a very famous quote, "I'm not
some Tammy Wynette standing by my man."
In the same interview your husband admitted that he had, quote,
"caused pain in your marriage." Six years later you
are still standing by this man, your
husband, through some difficult charges.
If he were to be asked today, Mrs. Clinton, do you think he would
admit that he again has caused pain in this marriage?
CLINTON: No, absolutely
not. And he shouldn't.
You know, we've been married for 22 years, Matt.
And I have learned a long time ago that the only people who count
in any marriage are the two that are in it.
We know everything there is to know about each other, and we understand
and accept and love each other. And I just think that a lot of this is deliberately
designed to sensationalize charges against my husband, because
everything else they've tried has failed. And I also believe that
it's part of an effort, very frankly, to undo the results of two
elections.
LAUER: Let me
talk about your role. There have
been reports that you've taken charge at the White
House and decided to be the chief defender of your
husband, of the president, and deflect these charges.
How much of a role are you taking in this and do you
think you should take?
CLINTON: Well,
I certainly am going to defend my
husband. And I'm certainly going to offer advice. But I
am by no means running any kind of strategy or being
his chief defender. He's got very capable lawyers and
very capable people inside the White House, and a
lot of very good friends outside the White House.
LAUER: But you're
probably the most credible
defender of the president at this time?
CLINTON: Well,
I probably know him better than
anybody alive in the world. So I would hope I'd be the
most credible defender.
LAUER: James Carville,
who you know...
CLINTON: Great
human being...
LAUER: I'm sure
you like him, especially at this
time. He has said this is 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.
CLINTON: Well,
I don't know if I've been that
dramatic. 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 right-wing 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.
LAUER: Has your
husband, though, through some
of his actions possibly made it easier for those people to attack
him?
CLINTON: You know,
Matt, that's a tough question, because I can remember in Bill's
very first race in 1974, there was a great effort against him
then. One of the funniest things that ever happened, although
at the time it wasn't funny, is that the people
who were against him claim he had been up in a tree
demonstrating against President Nixon during a
Texas-Arkansas football game in 1969. It didn't
matter that he was in England at the very day listening to the
game on short-wave radio.
They took a picture out of a newspaper. They cut the head off
the man who was in the tree. They put Bill Clinton's head on it.
They printed thousands of them. They passed them out in every
country church and every country store so you had hundreds and
thousands of people believing this.
Now, I have to say, I don't know what it is about my husband that
generates such hostility, but I have seen it for 25 years.
LAUER: Let me
take you and your husband out of
this for a second. Bill and Hillary Clinton aren't
involved in this story. If an American president had an
adulterous liaison in the White House and lied to
cover it up, should the American people ask for his
resignation?
CLINTON: Well,
they should certainly be concerned about it.
LAUER: Should
they ask for his resignation?
CLINTON: Well, I think that-if
all that were proven
true, I think that would be a very serious offense. That
is not going to be proven true. I think we're going to
find some other things. And I think that when all of this is put
into context, and we really look at the people involved here,
look at their motivations and look at their backgrounds, look
at their past behavior, some folks are going to have a lot to
answer for.
LAUER: One more
subject before I get to child
care. I've talked to a lot of people about this story. It's
certainly a topic of conversation...
CLINTON: It's
a big story. I know, I know.
LAUER: One of
the comments I hear a lot, Mrs.
Clinton, is how's Chelsea handling this. It's not easy
being a freshman in college, anyway. How's she
doing?
CLINTON: Right.
Well, she's all right. And I really
want to thank people for just letting her continue to be
a freshman, because any time accusations of any
kind, but especially like this, with such publicity around the
world, are made, it really does affect your whole family. I mean,
it's not only my daughter. It's my
mother. It's Bill's stepfather. It's our brothers, our
sisters-in-law. It's all of us.
LAUER: How often
do you talk to Chelsea about
it, or have you?
CLINTON: We've
talked a lot. Both Bill and I have
talked a lot.
LAUER: Does she
offer any advice to you? It's
usually the other way around. But has she offered you any advice?
CLINTON: Not advice
so much, but, you know,
since she was 6- years-old, I have know, both
because-I think my husband's personality and his
kind of gregariousness and his-as well as his
political ideas really do engender very deep hostility.
So I was telling Chelsea when she was a child that this is going
to happen, and it's very unfortunate. I honestly wish if people
had political differences, if you don't like his stand on something,
fight it out on that.
Don't try to destroy somebody personally.
So I have told her that this is the kind of things that
would happen, and she has seen many, many
examples of it in her very short life. So it's not a
pleasant experience, but it's given her sort of the
grounding to be able to see what this is and get
through it.
LAUER: Want to
talk a little child care?
CLINTON: Yes,
I'd like to talk about the State of
the Union, and not only child care, which I'm very
excited about, but also some of the possible
programs for the millennium the president will be
announcing tonight.
LAUER: Go ahead.
I'll give you an opportunity.
CLINTON: Thank
you. Well, you know, the child care proposal has been, I think,
well put out there, and we're getting a fabulous response from
around the country. And you know, we had an announcement yesterday
at the White House, and I was here in New York talking about it
again yesterday. I think it's going to make a big difference in
the lives of a lot working people. So I hope there is going to
be support for that, and I have a sense that we're going to have
bipartisan support.
LAUER: You talk
about bipartisan-I heard one critic say that this was more of
a Republican plan than
the one you first possibly talked about when you came to Washington
five years ago. It deals with tax credits and grant blocks to
the states, which takes some power away from the federal government.
How do you respond to that?
CLINTON: Well,
I think it's a good plan, and I have
no problem in taking good Republican ideas and
mixing them with good Democratic ideas to get good
ideas for Americans. And I think that you'll see that
some of the Republican members of the conference
are coming up with some other ideas. And I hope that
at the end of the day we'll have the best mix we can
possibly have.
But I did want to mention one other thing about what the president
will talk about tonight, and that is, you know, we are going to
be celebrating the
millennium and the turn of the century. And I've been
working very hard with the president to come up with
a way we could honor the past and imagine the future, and I've
learned in my studies a lot of what we value as Americans is in
real disrepair, like the
Star-Spangled Banner is in danger of disintegrating.
And our constitution, our bill of rights have to be, you
know, really better taken care of. And there are many
examples of that around the country.
So we're going to launch a public-private
partnership-some money in the federal budget, but I
hope raising some private money-to go out and save these precious
parts of our past.
LAUER: It's interesting
in listening to you talk, though, when you deal with the allegations
against the president you refer to him as your husband.
CLINTON: Right.
LAUER: And when
you deal with issues in the
State of the Union address, you talk and refer to him
as "the president."
CLINTON: You know,
this has been so hard for me, because, you know, I remember reading
one time
that when President Kennedy became president,
even his brother said, I can no longer call you Jack. I
have to call you Mr. President.
Well, obviously, I call my husband Bill, and I refer to him as
my husband. But when he's acting in his official capacity, like
he will tonight when he stands up and talks about where we are
as a nation, I guess I feel that he's my president as well as
my husband.
LAUER: Just a
few seconds left. Based on what you know now, five years after
coming to Washington-the personal attacks, the political attacks-do
you sit home at night and think it's worth it, it has been worth
it?
CLINTON: I do,
Matt. And I'll tell you why. Obviously, I've thought a lot about
that, because this has been a grueling ordeal, and it has required
every bit of religious faith and spiritual resources Bill and
I have. It has been an incredible personal challenge. But I think
about it in two ways.
I believe the country is better off because my husband has been
president. I think the economy, the crime rate, a lot of the social
problems were finally
addressed with a smart strategy. And we've seen the
results.
Just yesterday in New York, I mean, in elevators, in a hotel,
you know, waiters, other people came up to me, grabbed my hands,
and said, you tell the president to stand firm, we need him, he
is on our
side. He is, he is on the side of the American people.
So when I balance what he's accomplished and the hope he's given
to people and the way the
economy has created opportunities for people
against all of the challenges we've been through
personally, it is worth it. Now, do I wish that we didn't
live in a time where people were so malicious and
evil-minded? Of course. But you know, that's human
nature.
So you take the good with the bad, and the good has far, far outweighed
any bad at all.
LAUER: Mrs. Clinton,
we certainly appreciate your
time and your candor this morning. Thank you very
much.
CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you, Matt.