Did Bill Accuse Hillary's Dem Opponents Of "Swift-Boating" Her?
November 7, 2007 -- 5:01 PM EST // //
Updated below.
Memo to MSNBC and other media -- have you ever heard of that handy little thing known as a transcript?
You may have heard in recent days that Bill Clinton accused Hillary's Democratic opponents of "swift-boating" her when they criticized her answers to an immigration question during and after the recent Dem debate. This claim has been all over the media of late, in particular, MSNBC, which has repeated this claim ad infinitum.
The other day, for instance, Tucker Carlson wondered whether this showed that "the Clinton campaign was cracking under the pressure." Multiple other MSNBC reporters made similar claims about Bill's alleged "Dems swiftboated my wife" charge. It's become a big issue in the Dem primary right now, with multiple rivals hitting Bill for comparing their criticism of Hillary with the attacks Kerry endured.
But did it actually happen?
Let's take a look at the AP's transcript of the relevant part of Bill's actual speech. Here are the key excerpts:
"The point I'm here to make to you is whoever you're for, this is a really big election. We saw what happened the last seven years when we made decisions in elections based on trivial matters. When we listened to people make snide comments about whether Vice President Gore was too stiff.Okay. This is murky stuff. But a fair reading of this shows that Bill is not saying that Dems "swiftboated" Hillary when they criticized her immigration answer. Instead, he's saying that forcing simplistic "raise your hand" answers to complex questions ultimately makes it easier for Republicans to "swiftboat" Dems later by using them as wedges."And when they made dishonest claims about the things that he said that he'd done in his life. When that scandalous Swift Boat ad was run against Senator Kerry. When there was an ad that defeated Max Cleland in Georgia, a man that left half his body in Vietnam...
Why am I saying this?
"Because, I had the feeling that at the end of that last debate we were about to get into cutesy land again. Ya'll raise your hand if you're for illegal immigrants getting a driver's license. So, we then let the Republicans go ahead saying all the Democrats are against the rule of law.
"I think it's fine to discuss immigration. We should. I believe immigration needs to be discussed. And it's fine for Hillary and all the other Democrats to discuss Governor Spitzer's plan. But not in 30 seconds, yes, no, raise your hand. This is a complicated issue. This is a complicated issue.
"So do I hope you vote for my wife? You bet I do. It'd be good for America, and good for the world. But, more than that I came here to tell you today, don't you dare let them take this election away from you...Don't be diverted, don't be divided."
In other words, Bill isn't comparing the current Dem attacks on Hillary with the Republican attacks on Kerry, as her Dem rivals have charged. The swiftboat attacks Bill's alluding to here are the inevitable future attacks from Republicans.
Just to be clear, Bill is indeed faulting the other Dems implicitly here, or at least trying to get voters not to listen to them. He seems to be implicitly appealing to Dem voters not to listen to Dem rival criticism of Hillary by telling Dems that a focus on such "trivial" differences between the candidates will make them more vulnerable to Republican tactics later.
I'm not defending that; it's in some ways a problematic argument. I'm just reporting what Bill actually said -- and that he didn't make the loaded accusation that Hillary's Dem rivals had "swiftboated" her.
A full transcript of Bill's remarks after the jump.
Update: It's worth pointing out that Hillary supporter Wes Clark has been sympathetic to the idea that Dem criticism of Hillary is "swiftboating." On MSNBC he suggested that the Dem criticisms of Hillary had a "certain character aspect to them" that had a "swift boating implication."
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Full transcript:
"The point I'm here to make to you is whoever you're for, this is a really big election. We saw what happened the last seven years when we made decisions in elections based on trivial matters. When we listened to people make snide comments about whether Vice President Gore was too stiff."And when they made dishonest claims about the things that he said that he'd done in his life. When that scandalous Swift Boat ad was run against Senator Kerry. When there was an ad that defeated Max Cleland in Georgia, a man that left half his body in Vietnam. And a guy that led several departments ... with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden because he dared to vote against the president's version of the Homeland Security bill. Most Americans still don't know the truth. The president was against the Homeland Security Bill for 8 1/2 months.
"And Karl Rove told him they were going to lose the 2002 election unless the American people were scared about terror again. So they decided to be for a bill they opposed. And they put a poison pill in it. That bill was designed by the president to take the job rights away from 170,000 federal employees that had no access to secure information, no access to secure technology. No business being treated like CIA. We need to be able to fire CIAs. .. But we don't need to treat secretaries at FEMA that way. The whole thing was a scam.
"So Max Cleland said, I didn't go to Vietnam and leave one arm and two legs to come home and hold my job by stripping the job rights of 170,000 good, hardworking Americans. I don't want to do it. So they put an ad on comparing him to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Why am I saying this?
"Because, I had the feeling that at the end of that last debate we were about to get into cutesy land again. Ya'll raise your hand if you're for illegal immigrants getting a driver's license. So, we then let the Republicans go ahead saying all the Democrats are against the rule of law.
"I think it's fine to discuss immigration. We should. I believe immigration needs to be discussed. And it's fine for Hillary and all the other Democrats to discuss Governor Spitzer's plan. But not in 30 seconds, yes, no, raise your hand. This is a complicated issue. This is a complicated issue.
"So do I hope you vote for my wife? You bet I do. It'd be good for America, and good for the world. But, more than that I came here to tell you today, don't you dare let them take this election away from you. This belongs to you.
"Don't be diverted, don't be divided. Thank you ... "