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 didnt you do more to put Bin Laden and al Qaeda out of business when you were President? Theres a new book out which I suspect youve 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 lets talk about
WALLACE: but the question is why didnt you do more, connect the dots and put them out of business?
CLINTON: OK, lets 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. Im 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 9/11 Commission report with three things asserted against me that are directly contradicted by the 9/11 Commission report. I think its very interesting that all the conservative Republicans who now say that I didnt do enough, claimed that I was obsessed with Bin Laden. All of President Bushs neocons claimed that I was too obsessed with finding Bin Laden when they didnt have a single meeting about Bin Laden for the nine months after I left office. All the right wingers who now say that I didnt do enough said that I did too much. Same people.
Clinton takes on Fox News bias:
WALLACE: Do you think you did enough sir?
CLINTON: No, because I didnt get him.
WALLACE: Right
CLINTON: But at least I tried. Thats 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 didnt 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 FOXs 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 dont think thats 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 didnt 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 dont believe you ask them that.
WALLACE: We ask plenty of questions of
CLINTON: You didnt ask that did you? Tell the truth.
WALLACE: About the USS Cole?
CLINTON: Tell the truth.
WALLACE: I with Iraq and Afghanistan theres 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 youd spend half the time talking about
WALLACE: [laughs]
CLINTON: You said youd 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 dont care.
Clinton on his priorities and the Bush administration priorities:
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 wed have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him. Now I never criticized President Bush and I dont think this is useful. But you know we do have a government that thinks 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 Clarkes book to look at what we did in a comprehensive systematic way to try to protect the country against terror. And youve got that little smirk on your face. It looks like youre 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 into 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 thats strange.
Way to spin that...ToxicAdam said:
WALLACE: I know were over but can I ask you two political questions. Lets talk some politics. In that same New Yorker article you say youre tired of Karl Roves BS. I m cleaning up what you said.
CLINTON: I also say Im not tired of Karl Rove. I dont blame Karl Rove. If youve got a deal that works you just keep on doing it.
WALLACE: So what is the BS?
CLINTON: well every even number year right before an election they come up with some security issue. In 2000 right before the election In 2002 our party supported them in undertaking weapon inspections in Iraq and were 100% behind them in Afghanistan and they didnt have any way to make us look like we didnt care about terror. And so they decided they would the homeland security bill that they opposed and they put some pill in it that we wouldnt pass like taking the job rights away from 170,000 people and then say that we were weak on terror if we werent for it This year I think they wanted to make the question of prisoner treatment and intercepted communications the same sort of issue until John Warner came and Lindsey Graham got in there and it turns out there were some Republicans who believe in the constitution and their convictions some ideas about how best to fight terror.
As long as the American people believe that we take this seriously and we may have our differences over Iraq but I think well do fine this election. Even if they agree with us about the Iraq war we could be hurt by Karl Roves new foray if we dont make it clear that we care about the security of this country. We want to implement the 9/11 commission recommendations which they havent in four years. We want to Afghanistan against Bin Laden. We want to make America more energy independent. If they want to talk about Iraq say what they really want about Iraq.
But Rove is good and why I honor him Ive always been amused by how good he is. But on the other hand this is perfectly predictable. Were going to win a lot of seats if the American people arent afraid. If theyre afraid and we get divided again then well only win a few seats.
WALLACE: Do you think the White House and the Republicans want to make the American people afraid.
CLINTON: Of course they do. They want another homeland security bill and they want to make it not about Iraq but some other security issue. Where if we disagree with them we are by definition endangering the security of the country. And its a big load of huey. Weve got 9 Iraq war veterans running for House Seats. President Reagans Secretary of the Navy is the democratic candidate for Senate in Virginia. A three star admiral who was on my NSC staff who also fought terror by the way is running for the seat of Kurt Weldons in Pennsylvania. Weve got a huge military presence in this campaign and you cant let them have some rhetorical device that puts us in a box that we dont belong in. Thats their job. Their job is to beat us. But our job is to not let them get away with it and if we don;t well be fine.
WALLACE: Mr. President thank you for one of the more unusual interviews.
You mean like this guy?ToxicAdam said:
Hitokage said:You mean like this guy?
It's only "sacrificial" because those above him refuse to admit responsibility.pxleyes said:Got to love the sacrificial lambs.
Hitokage said:It's only sacrificial because those above him refuse to admit responsibility.
Teknopathetic said:Thread backfire. AdamBot abort.
Verboten said:Great read. He may have been a scumbag to his wife, but I always believed he was a good President. Awful husband, but great President.
Teknopathetic said:Thread backfire. AdamBot abort.
I'm not gonna pretend that I've always held this view. While it was happening, I thought he was an all-around bad apple. After time, though, it become too heavy and immeasurable to weigh such things. He did his job. He's saying he failed, yes, but no moreso than a bodyguard that tried to fulfill his duty. It takes grownup or a man to admit failure. He made his mistake and accepts it. Bush doesn't even recognize that. I hate talking politics, honestly. I just try to see things from a base view, you know, judge accordinglily and righteously and whatnot. That said, based on his work, Clinton was/is a good man. I don't know enough about his personal life, so I can't say.pxleyes said:True.
It still amazes me people cant separate the two qualities.
siamesedreamer said:What a load of shit trying to pass the buck off on Bush with the USS Cole.
PhoenixDark said:I like that. He took some responsibility for what happened, but he also stood up for himself at the same time. That's something most politicians wouldn't be willing to do. And he didn't do it in a wishy washy way either. Clinton FTW
We weren't even certain Al Qaeda was behind the Cole bombing until the January Clinton left office. Buck successfully passed!siamesedreamer said:What a load of shit trying to pass the buck off on Bush with the USS Cole.
it didn't matter until 9/11.Flynn said:It's a shame he didn't do the same when it mattered most: when he was in office, and most specifically when he testified under Starr. That was his all-time low point to be sure.
Oh you stop with your logic and all that.White Man said:We weren't even certain Al Qaeda was behind the Cole bombing until the January Clinton left office. Buck successfully passed!
Teknopathetic said:Thread backfire. AdamBot abort.
White Man said:We weren't even certain Al Qaeda was behind the Cole bombing until the January Clinton left office. Buck successfully passed!
Incognito said:I assume you'll say the same once Bush leaves the office of presidency saddled with Iraq, possibly Iran, incredibly massive debts and so forth?
Well then, at least we can discern that he's human and not puppet.Flynn said:It's a shame he didn't do the same when it mattered most: when he was in office, and most specifically when he testified under Starr. That was his all-time low point to be sure.
:lol :lol :lolsiamesedreamer said:Yes, very convienent.......I think they were waiting for a personal letter of apology from Bin Laden himself before they actually believed it was him.
It was feet dragging of epic proportions plain and simple.
Iraq, possibly yes. But, if Iran does become a nuclear problem, it won't be because Bush gave them the technology like how Clinton appeased Kim.
Its pretty obvious that Toxic's intent was a swipe at Bush for not admitting any mistakes.
siamesedreamer said:What a load of shit trying to pass the buck off on Bush with the USS Cole.