Little lapdog Chris Wallace gets bitch-slapped by Bill Clinton.

[Jenny]

http://thinkprogress.org/clinton-interview

Fox News Sunday, Interview With President Bill Clinton, 9/22/06


WALLACE: Mr. President, welcome to Fox News Sunday.


CLINTON: Thanks.


WALLACE: In a recent issue of The New Yorker you say, quote,


I’m 60 years old and I damn near died, and I’m worried about how many
lives I can save before I do die.


Is that what drives you in your effort to help in these developing
countries?


CLINTON: Yes, I really — but I don’t mean — that sounds sort of morbid
when you say it like that. I mean, I actually…


WALLACE: That’s how you said it.


CLINTON: Yes, but the way I said it, the tone in which I said it was
actually almost whimsical and humorous. That is, this is what I love
to do. It is what I think I should do.


That is, I have had a wonderful life. I got to be president. I got to
live the life of my dreams. I dodged a bullet with that heart problem.
And I really think I should — I think I owe it to my fellow countrymen
and people throughout the world to spend time saving lives, solving
problems, helping people see the future.


But as it happens, I love it. I mean, I feel it’s a great gift. So,
it’s a rewarding way to spend my life.


WALLACE: Someone asked you — and I don’t want to, again, be too
morbid, but this is what you said. He asked you if you could wind up
doing more good as a former president than as a president, and you
said, Only if I live a long time.


CLINTON: Yes, that’s true.


WALLACE: How do you rate, compare the powers of being in office as
president and what you can do out of office as a former president?


CLINTON: Well, when you are president, you can operate on a much
broader scope. So, for example, you can simultaneously be trying to
stop a genocide in Kosovo and, you know, make peace in the Middle
East, pass a budget that gives millions of kids a chance to have
afterschool programs and has a huge increase in college aid at home.
In other words, you’ve got a lot of different moving parts, and you
can move them all at once.


But you’re also more at the mercy of events. That is, President Bush
did not run for president to deal with 9/11, but once it happened it
wasn’t as if he had an option.


Once I looked at the economic — I’ll give you a much more mundane
example. Once I looked at the economic data, the new data after I won
the election, I realized that I would have to work much harder to
reduce the deficit, and therefore I would have less money in my first
year to invest in things I wanted to invest in.


WALLACE: So what is it that you can do as a former president?


CLINTON: So what you can do as a former president is — you don’t have
the wide range of power, so you have to concentrate on fewer things.
But you are less at the mercy of unfolding events.


So if I say, look, we’re going to work on the economic empowerment of
poor people, on fighting AIDS and other diseases, on trying to bridge
the religious and political differences between people, and on trying
to, you know, avoid the worst calamities of climate change and help to
revitalize the economy in the process, I can actually do that.


I mean, because tomorrow when I get up, if there’s a bad headline in
the paper, it’s President Bush’s responsibility, not mine. That’s the
joy of being a former president. And it is true that if you live long
enough and you really have great discipline in the way you do this,
like this CGI, you might be able to affect as many lives, or more, for
the good as you did as president.


WALLACE: When we announced that you were going to be on Fox News
Sunday, I got a lot of e-mail from viewers. And I’ve 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 Qaida out of business when you
were president?


There’s a new book out, I suspect you’ve already 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 U.S. troops. Then there
was the bombing of the embassies in Africa and the attack on the Cole.


CLINTON: OK, let’s just go through that.


WALLACE: Let me — let me — may I just finish the question, sir?


And after the attack, the book says that bin Laden separated his
leaders, spread them around, because he expected an attack, and there
was no response.


I understand that hindsight is always 20/20…


CLINTON: No, let’s talk about it.


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. Now, I will answer all those things
on the merits, but first I want to talk about the context in which
this arises.


I’m being asked this on the Fox network. ABC just had a right-wing
conservative run in their little Pathway to 9/11, falsely claiming it
was based on the 9/11 Commission report, with three things asserted
against me directly contradicted by the 9/11 Commission report.


And I think it’s very interesting that all the conservative
Republicans, who now say I didn’t do enough, claimed that I was too
obsessed with bin Laden. All of President Bush’s neo-cons thought I
was too obsessed with bin Laden. They had no meetings on bin Laden for
nine months after I left office. All the right-wingers who now say I
didn’t do enough said 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 six months and had an orderly transfer to the United
Nations.


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 Osama bin
Laden had anything to do with Black Hawk down or was paying any
attention to it or even knew Al Qaida was a growing concern in October
of ‘93.


WALLACE: I understand, and I…


CLINTON: No, wait. No, wait. Don’t tell me this — you asked me why
didn’t I do more to bin Laden. There was not a living soul. All the
people who now criticize me wanted to leave the next day.


You brought this up, so you’ll get an answer, but you can’t…


WALLACE: I’m perfectly happy to.


CLINTON: All right, secondly…


WALLACE: Bin Laden says…


CLINTON: Bin Laden may have said…


WALLACE: … bin Laden says that it showed the weakness of the United
States.


CLINTON: But it would’ve shown the weakness if we’d left right away,
but he wasn’t involved in that. That’s just a bunch of bull. That was
about Mohammed Adid, a Muslim warlord, murdering 22 Pakistani Muslim
troops. We were all there on a humanitarian mission. We had no
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 Qaida…


WALLACE: … with respect, if I may, instead of going through ‘93 and…


CLINTON: No, no. You asked it. You brought it up. You brought it up.


WALLACE: May I ask a general question and then you can answer?


CLINTON: Yes.


WALLACE: The 9/11 Commission, which you’ve talk about — and this is
what they did say, not what ABC pretended they said…


CLINTON: Yes, what did they say?


WALLACE: … they said about you and President Bush, and I quote, The
U.S. government took the threat seriously, but not in the sense of
mustering anything like the kind of effort that would be gathered to
confront an enemy of the first, second or even third rank.


CLINTON: First of all, that’s not true with us and bin Laden.


WALLACE: Well, I’m telling you that’s what the 9/11 Commission says.


CLINTON: All right. Let’s look at what Richard Clarke said. Do you
think Richard Clarke has a vigorous attitude about bin Laden?


WALLACE: Yes, I do.


CLINTON: You do, don’t you?


WALLACE: I think he has a variety of opinions and loyalties, but yes,
he has a vigorous…


CLINTON: He has a variety of opinion and loyalties now, but let’s look
at the facts: He worked for Ronald Reagan; he was loyal to him. He
worked for George H. W. Bush; 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: But…


CLINTON: No, wait a minute.


(CROSSTALK)


WALLACE: … cruise missiles.


CLINTON: No, no. I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to
kill him.


The CIA, which was run by George Tenet, that President Bush gave the
Medal of Freedom to, he said, He did a good job setting up all these
counterterrorism things.


The country never had a comprehensive anti-terror operation until I
came there.


Now, if you want to 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 basing 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’ve
had to send a few hundred Special Forces in 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, anybody who wants to say
I didn’t do enough, you read Richard Clarke’s book.


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. They did not
try. I tried.

[marika]

Post by Jenny
http://thinkprogress.org/clinton-interview
Fox News Sunday, Interview With President Bill Clinton, 9/22/06
WALLACE: Mr. President, welcome to Fox News Sunday.
CLINTON: Thanks.
WALLACE: In a recent issue of The New Yorker you say, quote,
I’m 60 years old and I damn near died, and I’m worried about how many
lives I can save before I do die.
Is that what drives you in your effort to help in these developing
countries?
CLINTON: Yes, I really — but I don’t mean — that sounds sort of morbid
when you say it like that. I mean, I actually…
WALLACE: That’s how you said it.
CLINTON: Yes, but the way I said it, the tone in which I said it was
actually almost whimsical and humorous. That is, this is what I love
to do. It is what I think I should do.
That is, I have had a wonderful life. I got to be president. I got to
live the life of my dreams. I dodged a bullet with that heart problem.
And I really think I should — I think I owe it to my fellow countrymen
and people throughout the world to spend time saving lives, solving
problems, helping people see the future.
But as it happens, I love it. I mean, I feel it’s a great gift. So,
it’s a rewarding way to spend my life.
WALLACE: Someone asked you — and I don’t want to, again, be too
morbid, but this is what you said. He asked you if you could wind up
doing more good as a former president than as a president, and you
said, Only if I live a long time.
CLINTON: Yes, that’s true.
WALLACE: How do you rate, compare the powers of being in office as
president and what you can do out of office as a former president?
CLINTON: Well, when you are president, you can operate on a much
broader scope. So, for example, you can simultaneously be trying to
stop a genocide in Kosovo and, you know, make peace in the Middle
East, pass a budget that gives millions of kids a chance to have
afterschool programs and has a huge increase in college aid at home.
In other words, you’ve got a lot of different moving parts, and you
can move them all at once.
But you’re also more at the mercy of events. That is, President Bush
did not run for president to deal with 9/11, but once it happened it
wasn’t as if he had an option.
Once I looked at the economic — I’ll give you a much more mundane
example. Once I looked at the economic data, the new data after I won
the election, I realized that I would have to work much harder to
reduce the deficit, and therefore I would have less money in my first
year to invest in things I wanted to invest in.
WALLACE: So what is it that you can do as a former president?
CLINTON: So what you can do as a former president is — you don’t have
the wide range of power, so you have to concentrate on fewer things.
But you are less at the mercy of unfolding events.
So if I say, look, we’re going to work on the economic empowerment of
poor people, on fighting AIDS and other diseases, on trying to bridge
the religious and political differences between people, and on trying
to, you know, avoid the worst calamities of climate change and help to
revitalize the economy in the process, I can actually do that.
I mean, because tomorrow when I get up, if there’s a bad headline in
the paper, it’s President Bush’s responsibility, not mine. That’s the
joy of being a former president. And it is true that if you live long
enough and you really have great discipline in the way you do this,
like this CGI, you might be able to affect as many lives, or more, for
the good as you did as president.
WALLACE: When we announced that you were going to be on Fox News
Sunday, I got a lot of e-mail from viewers. And I’ve 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 Qaida out of business when you
were president?

that is yours not mine

[Steve Hayes]

Post by Jenny
http://thinkprogress.org/clinton-interview
Fox News Sunday, Interview With President Bill Clinton, 9/22/06
WALLACE: Mr. President, welcome to Fox News Sunday.

Who is Chris Wallace?

Who's lapdog is he?

Why should we care?