Bill Clinton defends wife's Bosnia remarks
Former President Bill Clinton gave a passionate defense Thursday of
his wife's claim about "landing under sniper fire" - just as the damaging
controversy was dying down.
Bill Clinton said the news media treated her like she'd "robbed a
bank" and claimed she was experiencing end-of-day fatigue, even though
she
had made the claim in morning speeches.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) acknowledged two weeks ago that
she "misspoke" and "made a mistake" in her overly vivid account of the
1996
landing in Tuzla, Bosnia, during a goodwill mission as first lady.
Video of a tranquil arrival ceremony refuted the claim, and her
comments hurt her struggling campaign by reviving questions about her
candor.
Now, her husband has revived the issue by claiming the comments were
true during a "Solutions for America" campaign event in at Boonville High
School in Boonville, Ind. Here are his comments, recorded by networks and
re****ted by CBS News:
"You know, I got tickled the other day. A lot of the way this whole
campaign has been covered has amused me. But there was a lot of
fulminating
because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated
-
and immediately apologized for it - what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995
[sic]. Did y'all see all that? Oh, they blew it up.
"Let me just tell you. The president of Bosnia and General Wesley
Clark - who was there making peace where we'd lost three peacekeepers, who
had to ride on a dangerous mountain road because it was too dangerous to
go
the regular, safe way - both defended her because they pointed out that
when her plane landed in Bosnia, she had to go up to the bulletproof part
of
the plane, in the front. Everybody else had to put their flak jackets
underneath the seat in case they got shot at. And everywhere they went,
they
were covered by Apache helicopters. So they just abbreviated the arrival
ceremony.
"Now I say that because, what really has mattered is that even then
she was interested in our troops. And I think she was the first first lady
since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone. And you woulda thought,
you know, that she'd robbed a bank the way they carried on about this. And
some of them, when they're 60, they'll forget something when they're tired
at 11 at night, too."
CBS News producer Ryan Corsaro, who covers Senator Clinton, re****ts
she made the claim in mid-morning on St. Patrick's Day.
CBS also has aired videotape of the senator making the claim on at
least two other occasions.
The Eleanor Roosevelt claim also has been questioned, since Pat
Nixon
traveled to Vietnam in 1969.
Indiana holds its Democratic primary on May 6.
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