to be content and happy and i look forward to seeing him and mrs. bush next week. >> so you do keep in touch? >> well, i'm going to be at the bush library talking about james madison. >> reporter: and her new book in which madison is considered the prophet of small government. >> madison really was a strong government man at the beginning but as soon as he and alexander hammilton began to have policy disputes, madison began to worry about too strong a central government. >> reporter: sound familiar? ask the tea partiers. >> and we will restore our constitution. >> reporter: looking for a home among republicans. james madison and lynne cheney would give them one. >> you can't say just because someone is really conservative they shouldn't be part of this party. and that's what i often hear about the tea party is, oh, you know, they're over there. no, no, we have to be

ideologically conclusive as well as in all other sorts of ways. >> reporter: it's a battle that will no doubt play out among republicans in 2016. jeb bush, would you like to see him run? >> i think he'd make a great contribution. he has to sort that out. it is so hard to run for p that, you know, have to be sure in your own heart. >> would you like to see hillary clinton run? i think she's going to run. my opinion has nothing to do with it. hillary's there. i in fact don't understand what the debate is about, will she or won't she? she's running. >> tough to beat? >> you know, she was defeated in the 2008 election, in the primary, and we didn't see that coming. so i'm not sure i could predict that one for you. >> reporter: as for the cheneys, they're not looking back. do you misses being in the thick of the political arena? >> well, that was a great time, and a time that both of us enjoyed. but it's, you know, one stage of your life and you move on to another one. we're in our western years now.

>> right. >> gloria, what about the health of the vice president? >> well, actually i was at their home in mcclain and the vice president was there. wouldn't two go on camera with . pst liz cheney's book tour. he seemed robust. had the heart transplant two years ago when he was age 71. she says he has a wonderful energy level which i saw and she feels lucky every day when she wakes up that he's there and he seemed quite fit and robust to me. >> did you get the -- going back to the daughters, liz cheney, dwroid get a sense she might run for elected office? >> i got a clear sense that she's not done with politics. that the cheneys don't want her to be done with politics. i think they kind of want to push this, her first attempt in the rearview mirror and i think they all believe that she has a future in politics. so i don't think we've seen the end of liz cheney. >> that run for the republican nomination -- >> did not work.

>> -- in wyoming turned out to be a disaster. >> did not work out well but they continue to live in wyoming. i wouldn't be surprised if we hear from her again. >> are the two daughters talking to each other? she said they have a happy family but didn't tell you they were actually talking. >> it's clear mrs. cheney wanted to talk about the book, didn't want to talk about the family issues. so she would not expound upon their relationship when i asked. what she told us was, we're happy. >> she made it abundantly clear she like the former vice president supports same-sex marriage. >> what she says is freedom means freedom for everyone. they both believe this is an issue that should be left to the states to decide, but it's very clear to me that when you heard lynne cheney, freedom means freedom for everyone, that includes both her daughters. >> gloria borger, good work. thank you very much. remember, always follow us on twitter. tweet me @wolfblitzer. tweet the show@cnnsitroom.

join us again tomorrow right here in "the situation room." certainly watch us live. always dvr the show so you won't miss a moment. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." now let's step into the "crossfire" with s.e. cupp and van jones. wolf, we have brand new quotes from monica lewinsky's "vanity fair" article. we're looking at her impact on hillary clinton's potential campaign. >> actually i think the republicans have fallen into some ikind of time warp. they are going to lose. debate starts right now. tonight on "crossfire" he's a global statesman. she's the democrats' heir apparent. so is monica lewinsky the real victim? on the left, van jones. on the right, s.e. cupp. in the "crossfire," ruth marcus from the "washington post." and penny young nance of concerned women for america. the return of monica lewinsky. does it hurt hillary clinton?

tonight, on "crossfire." welcome to "crossfire." i'm van jones on the left. >> i'm s.e. cupp on the right. in the "crossfire," she's back. cnn obtained the entire monica lewinsky diatribe in "vanity fair." a glamorous working 40-year-old monica. here's the part i hope we all get to focus on. lewinsky writes hillary clinton's impulse to blame the woman is, quote, all too familiar. with every marital indiscretion that finds its way into the public sphere, many of which involve male politicians, it always seems like the woman conveniently takes the fall. and this is what really kills me. 16 years later, and we're still talking about the two women at center of this scandal and not the one man who actually broke the law. van, tell me, man to man, how does bill clinton get away with this? >> well, first of all, he got

impeached. i don't know if you can say he got away with it. >> he's loving life now, come on. >> we have two women here that can have their o pin wherepinio. ruth marcus from the "washington post" and penny young nance, president of concerned women for america. we have interesting language. i want to get your response to. monica own opens up, talks abouw hillary clinton called her a narcissistic loony tune. she says this, presidethe 16-ye descriptions of me triggered memories of past anguish particularly in the area of women lobbing derision at one another. where, you might be wondering were the feminists back then? again, hillary. it's a question that troubles me to this day. i want to get your reaction to this. it sounds like to me she's saying hillary clinton who spent her whole life out there fighting for women going all around the world somehow doesn't have the right to be critical of a woman who slept with her husband. do you think that if hillary clinton has the right to be

critical of monica lewinsky for sleeping with her husband? >> i think this goes deeper than the fact she was the wronged wife. she was the enabler in chief if you remember correctly. his indiscretions didn't start with monica lewinsky. they went back to gennifer flowers. any woman who dared bring up the fact she had an affair with him, he made a pass at her, sexually harassed her, the clinton machine kicked in of which hillary clinton was a part, which they destroyed, demeaned and raked her over the coals. >> enabler in chief. that's pretty strong. i don't think we can pretend to understand what goes on in anybody's marriage, particularly not the clinton's marriage. it's a very complicated enterprise, that marriage. but i think that clearly if you read the diane blair papers where hillary clinton used the words, according to diane blair, narcissistic loony tunes, i'd like to say in my husband's trade, that would be the nicest

possible thing. if i'm the other woman, you can see her wrestling with her husband's indiscretions. it was obviously very, very painful to her. >> i got to take -- >> trailer trash. >> hold on. hold on. wait a second. you are a family values traditional conservative, loud and proud well known in the country for that. are you no the pro-divorce caucus now? hillary clinton is the only person in the world -- >> i'm commenting on whether or not she should have stayed married. >> shouldn't you be proud of hillary clinton for sticking with her marriage? >> hang on. what i'm commenting on is whether or not she actually took on the issue of these women being demeaned and destroyed. she was not the only one. there were victims all around the clintons. the month one woman -- by the way, remember all the articles that came out from the arkansas state police how that he would use them to procure women. this has been going on for ages. so the minute he sent her out front to say it was the

right-wing conspiracy, she's lying. >> oh, come on. i just think that goes way too far to say that she was lying. you might say she was in denial. you might say she was way too defensive. >> willfully ignorant. >> you might say that also. but, you know, many of us have done that. can i just say one thing? i do think -- i'm really d disagreeing with your criticism of hillary clinton but i think there's a fair criticism of other feminists who were not married to bill clinton at the time of the affair and scandal where they really -- >> there was a pile-on. >> -- did not rise to monica lewinsky's defense. >> yeah. i also -- i also don't know that we can get inside hillary's mindset, but i do know that the clintons got off pretty easy here. you know, bill clinton is beloved around the world. she could be the next president of the united states. it's really been all uphill for them since. and reading this "vanity fair" article it's clear it's been

downhill for monica. she's alonalone. hasn't been able too to get a job. she was suicidal. >> hasn't been married. >> that's what i mean, she was alone. it was a sad read. someone i assume who's interested in fairness, because you're a good liberal, do you really think the past 16 years have been fair? >> well, i thought it was a sad read also. >> yeah. >> i do think that you're a little bit airbrushing some of the difficult pieces of the clinton's history. clearly the post-presidency has been very good to both of them. >> yeah. >> he's been extraordinarily successful. post-presidency, she, well, could become president of the united states. >> yeah. >> but you had those pictures of the famous walk to the helicopter up there with bill and hillary and chelsea. and it was a painful, humiliating time. as van pointed out, he was impeached. >> that will be in history forever. >> no doubt. oh, no doubt. >> that is a big piece of

history. >> they are multibillionaires. >> i wrote in the "washington post" this morning monica lewinsky, some people took offense at this, i didn't not mean it offensively, monica lewinsky is the tragic road kill of this entire sordid episode. she's the one who really has never recovered while they've gone on to fame and fortune. >> i agree with you, ruth. i mean, he's the rock star and darling of the media and rock star to the left. she has had so much pain from this. clearly from the article, still dealing with the pain. really, very sad. >> we're going to talk more about it when we get back. ben when we get back, i'm going to tell rand paul why he should keep quiet the next time this monica lewinsky issue comes up. weigh in on today's "crossfire" quiz. how old was monica lewinsky when she began her affair with president clinton? 19 2r 19, 22, or 24? we're going to give you the answer when we get back.

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welcome back. now we're going to answer the "crossfire" quiz. monica lewinsky was 22 when she started the affair with bill clinton. seems to me some of my republican friends want to relive 1998, even before monica lewinsky wrote this article the republican front-runner. 2016 senator rand paul was using this tire ancient scandal as an excuse to attack the clintons. >> democrats can't say we're the great defenders of women's rites in the workplace and will defend you against some kind of abusive boss that uses their position of authority to take advantage of a young woman. when the leader of their party, the leading fund-raiser in the country is bill clinton who was a perpetrator of that kind of

sexual harassment. >> okay. so we can talk about sexual harassment which he clearly does not know, however, let's talk about the reality of the republican party. they desperately need to attract younger voters. that's what they need. guess what? the 18-year-olds are going to be voting for the first time in 2016, they were in diapers the year the monica lewinsky scandal broke. that was the year they were born. they care about this scandal as much as they care about frank sinatra. back in 1998 the democrats picked up seats the time republicans went on this bench last time. some republicans don't ever learn. >> i think rand paul is thrilled to hear you call him a front-runner. that's the breaking news here. >> that's exactly what the polls tell. anyway, look, welcome back. this "crossfire." ruth marcus, penny young nance. i'm going to go to you first. something about the clintons drives republicans nuts. listen to this.

the past couple days, past couple weeks we've heard conspiracies from the right wing. chelsea clinton is pregnant. why? because it's about hillary becoming president. there was a guy on fox who said hillary clinton deliberately knocked herself on the head so she wouldn't have to testify about benghazi. somebody said the shoe that was thrown was all staged. now you have lynne cheney saying stuff like this about this recent "vanity fair" article. she says i really wonder this isn't an effort on the clinton's part to get that story out of way. would "vanity fair" publish anything of monica lewinsky that hillary clinton wouldn't want in "vanity fair"? >> probably a fair question. >> they do care about gwyneth paltrow but probably don't care about hillary clinton. you know, look -- >> it's a crazy conspiracy theory? >> going to keep you off the blogs, first off, and secondly i would say, you know, i think timing is everything. i don't think they hate it that

it's out now. i don't know that they could control that. they don't like being reminded. they know it's going to be part of the conversation. they'd be fooler n ee eish not over with. >> lynne cheney is conjuring up this world in which hillary clinton or one of her minions calls up monica lewinsky and says, this would be a good time. come on. i do agree this is actually -- we -- rand paul is making a big mistake. you should encourage him -- >> to do more of it. >> keep doing more of it. exactly. >> let me remind everyone at this table republicans didn't write the "vanity fair" article. >> right. i do think the timing of it is actually healthy for the clintons and a potential clinton run. >> to get it out of the way. >> asked and answered. inoculation is the best medicine in american politics. even though we're all, you know, we cannot resist a good monica lewinsky story and reliving it and reliving it and re-reliving it, there's only so many times

we're going to be able to sit around this table. >> oh, from your lips -- >> on her fourth piece in "vanity fair" perhaps we won't be talking about it. so i think it's healthy for a clinton presidential run to have this discussion now. >> let me just satisfy everyone at the table that republicans will have plenty more to talk about when it comes to hillary. there's benghazi, relationship with goldman sachs, missing state department record. there's plenty to go after. ruth, be honest with you. it seems as if there is a bubble around hillary. liberals are very cagy. there's a whole list of things you cannot wring up when it comes to hillary clinton. her past is one of them. >> i never got that list, s.e. this is what you're talking about. maybe it's in my spam. >> can't bring up benghazi. we're over that. it was two years ago, dude. you can't bring up a past scandal. it was the '90s. it wreaks of insecurity. this is a woman who i think can

defend herself. >> she totally can defend herself. honestly i don't know what list you're talking about. if i had an interview with hillary clinton, i wouldn't be scared of bringing up anything. >> this stuff is fair game, right? part of her history. >> i think there are a lot more things that are a lot more important to ask about than some of the things you had on your list, but one question that i would ask hillary clinton right now is what do you say you were quoted by diane blair as calling her a narcissistic loony tune? what did you think? she's had this piece in "vanity fair," you might not have read it but certainly heard about it. >> i'd like to see you ask her that. >> i'd like to see me ask her that, too. >> if she's watching, you have an invitation. >> we began this in the first block. i want to bring it back. listen, we have a big new article out there. everybody is talking about this now. do you think there's anything about this scandal that disqualifies hillary clinton from being

is there anything that disqualifies her from your point of view? >> i think she has a lot to answer for. there are a lot of things about hillary clinton that disqualifies for president. i don't know if it's this particular scandal. but really important point here that i just don't want to miss. >> sure. >> and that is there is an injured party here. monica lewinsky, she did -- she says that it was consensual, and it was. but she is still a very injured party. and the left has never, ever gone out of their way to say they're sorry for what they did to her. but i would just point out that, you know, there are people to look for. she does need to get out there. she does need to move on. but i would -- can i point to donna rice hughes? remember the gary hart scandal from the '80s? donna rice hughes was caught in a scandal in her mid-20s and spent the rest of her life. she became a christian, and she spent the rest of her life fighting against child pornography. >> right. >> she is a hero. there is a path forward for her.

and there is a path forward for her to deal with. >> i think that's a very important point. and monica lewinsky has said that she wants to help against bullying and this kind of stuff. but you did point out that people maybe owe her an angie on the left. but do you think people on the right like ken starr and others who used her as a political weapon owe her an apology? >> i don't think he used her. i think what happened is the direct result of the president lying under oath. i mean, i was here for this. and we can go back and refight that whole thing if you guys want to. i was here for that. and most of you were too. >> all right. >> but the bottom line is the left treated and the clinton machine treat herd horribly. she is a victim. and she was mistreated to some extent by both sides. >> i think we can all agree with that. all right. stay here. we want you at home to weigh in on today's fireback question. does monica lewinsky speaking out help or hurt hillary's 2016 ambitions? tweet help or hurt using #crossfire. we'll have the results after the break. we also have the outrages of the

day. i'm outraged because some of hollywood's biggest stars, though properly outraged, are also quite naive. we've never sold a house before. (agent) i'll walk you guys through every step. there are a lot of buyers for a house like yours. (husband) that's good to know.

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welcome back to "crossfire." now it's time for our outrages of the day. imagine a place where police have used online dating services to entrap and arrest gay men, or

a country that arrests a 14-year-old girl for adultery and then performs an invasive virginity test on her. or where a woman is sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. hollywood celebrities are outraged to discover that places like this exist, and they're showing it by boycotting the beverly hills hotel, owned by the sultan of brunei to protest his country's new sharia laws against homosexuality and adultery. but the place i was talking about wasn't brunei, it was the united arab emirates, a favorite destination and filming location for wealthy hollywood celebrities. justin timberlake will perform there in may. fast & furious 7 is reportedly filming there right now. george clooney, the kardashians, all popular guests of dubai. rather than boycott a hotel in the town you live in, putting hundreds of americans out of jobs, hollywood should get cozy with the very uncomfortable truth about the world it lives in, and really, put your money where it counts.

>> okay. i'll take that one. here is mine. i was actually already outraged about republicans who were trying to cash in politically on the murder of four americans in the benghazi terror attacks. but now they're trying to cash in literally, literally, financially. now that's not only gross, it is beyond hypocritical. let's not forget, the big republican critique of president obama was this. in the middle of a national tragedy, the white house was more concerned about politics than about dead americans. okay. interesting. now what is the gop response? make as much political hay as possible and rake in as much cash as they possibly can off of this thing. now, check out -- i'm not making this up. check out the national republican congressional committee's fundraising page. it asks you to, quote, stand with congressman trey gowdy and house republicans as we fight for the truth what happened with the benghazi terror attack. and then the bottom line, help fight liberals by donating money today. now wait a minute. i thought this was about the truth, not political attacks,

not fundraising. these people should not get two cents. it's an absolute outrage what you're doing. >> i assume you're equally outaged by the moveon.org funding. >> okay, let's check in on the fireback results. does monica lewinsky speaking out help or hurt hillary clinton's 2016 am additions? 24% say it helps, 36% say it hurts. what do you make of that? >> i think it's marginally helps. >> i think it's marginally hurts. but i would love to talk to monica lewinsky about redemption. >> oh, we have two offers on the table. >> i'll take either. >> monica is -- monica, give a call. >> hillary is going straight to voice mail. >> anyway, thanks. the debate is going to continue online at cnn.com/crossfire as well as on facebook and twitter. from the left i'm van jones. >> from the right i'm s.e. cupp. join us tomorrow for another edition of "crossfire." "erin burnett outfront" starts right now.

next, breaking news. a major u.s. embassy closed. the reason, terror. a live report coming up. then, quote, slut shaming monica lewinsky. that what is happening? and michael jordan says he was once against all white people. the basketball legend in his own words. let's go "outfront." >> good evening, everyone. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, breaking news following two major stories tonight. terror shutting down an american embassy in yemen, while terrorists in nigeria are holding still more than 200 girls hostage tonight. new violence erupting there today. hundreds dead. first to yemen. american official saysing tonight a number of