Bill Clinton confronted today by reporter |
Was it an outright lie or merely a "senior moment" for Bill Clinton?
Campaigning for his wife, Hillary Clinton, in Pennsylvania ahead of today's crucial primary, the former president was asked yesterday by host Susan Phillips at Pittsburgh's WHYY if he regretted comparing Rev. Jesse Jackson's presidential primary win in South Carolina to Sen. Barack Obama's victory in the state. The suggestion was that Clinton had tried to marginalize Obama as "the black candidate."
"I think that they played the race card on me," Clinton began. "We now know, from memos from the campaign that they planned to do it along."
He went on to say, "you have to really go some to play the race card on me."
Hear excerpt of Bill Clinton's radio interview:
Today, however, he completely denied the remarks when confronted by a reporter he apparently knew.
The conversation when like this:
REPORTER: "Sir, what did you mean yesterday when you said that the Obama campaign was playing the race card on you?" the reporters began.
CLINTON: "When did I say that, and to whom did I say that?"
REPORTER: "On WHYY radio yesterday"
CLINTON: "No, no, no. That's not what I said. You always follow me around and play these little games, and I'm not going to play your games today. This is a day about election day. Go back and see what the question was, and what my answer was. You have mischaracterized it to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your game today. Have a nice day."
REPORTER: "Respectfully sir, though, you did say …"
CLINTON: "Have a nice day. I said what I said, you can go and look at the interview. And if you'll be real honest, you'll also report what the question was and what the answer was."
REPORTER: "They asked you if you regretted your comparing Jesse Jackson to Barack Obama on the day after the South Carolina primary."
CLINTON: "And I pointed out that I did not do that, and that I complimented them both. And that Jesse Jackson took no offense. And I called him myself, I said, 'Did you find that offensive?' And he said no.
During the Pittsburgh radio interview, thinking he was off-mic, Clinton added a vulgar remark.
"I don't think I should take any sh-- from anybody on that, do you?" he said, apparently speaking to someone in the room.
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