tv Key Capitol Hill Hearings CSPAN August 30, 2014 6:00am-8:01am EDT
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in fact a political partnership and a business, a business enterprise. i think you say that the clinton foundation's revenue, $214 million last year, something like that? >> guest: something like that. >> host: that's an incredible way of looking at the clintons, a business. help us to understand what our the dimensions of clinton inc.? >> guest: like any business there are several leaders and messages those leaders are bill and hillary clinton. there are emerging leaders which we entered into. i also suggest it's not just the
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primary goal of money like any other corporation of that is a major goal but it's also political fortune. the clintons year since leaving the white house in a class scandal, impeachment and always unsavory things have really thought of the way back. they have created this organization which is a multi-million dollars, multinational, and then a sitting on top of the political and global elite. were there not she decides to run, whether she ends up running our becomes presiden president t doesn't matter because the story is so fascinating. this has never been done before. no other political couple have achieved so much success in so little time and come from really such a road to where they were in this pinnacle. >> host: in writing in the fouforward part you mentioned ty have an unquenchable thirst for wealth and power.
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you say the subtitle actual is meant to kind of skew with them because you talk about audacious rebuilding. so given they're coming from a point where they went through the impeachment and the scandal, you don't see this as a good thing. you see it as evidence of people who are shameless in a way. >> guest: there is an element of shameless. any sort of politiciapolitici on requires shameless is in or to stand up on stage and say i'm the best politician, there's nobody better than me, trust your future and your kids mmi to build a. it's not all bad. it's not all, you know, one of the keys to the success has been this philanthropy, or at least this vision of them doing philanthropy. that's been enormously successful and perhaps in some ways it's help people and it has trickled down to help people in need across the world. there is shameless is for sure. it's not totally shameless. it's a more complex and i hope
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more nuanced approach than just a single label to this political couple. >> host: newt gingrich suggested the title shouldn't be "clinton, inc.." what did he suggest? >> guest: i think you suggested something about them, how their mutual marriage -- it's in the book -- >> host: what i saw, power couple and mutual survival. it just strikes me that conservatives at the moment are preoccupied with hillary clinton but the clintons in general, and part of their preoccupation is the idea that the liberal media is insufficiently critical of the clintons. part of that is in your book in that people are reluctant to talk about clinton inc. >> guest: this is the conundrum. what they are saying now is for political gain, but as i was reporting the book i was struck by how many republicans have only nice thing to say about both bill and hillary, and i
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have credited to the systematic approach to win over their enemies. bill was impeached by republicans not democrats. they realized when you leave the white house at the problem is with republicans, not democrats. bill clinton calls up all these republicans. he has the late-night phone calls with newt gingrich. whenever he sees one united states senator i spoke to, great job on the last sunday. just small compliments that are meaningful to these people. on a very human level he wins over all his enemies from james rogan, the former congressman who helped lead his impeachment, he lost his reelection largely because they exchange letters these days. so i think one issue is that republicans have really been won over by bill and hillary clinton. hillary meanwhile, in the senate during this time after leaving the white house, and hillary is
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incredibly nice to people like john mccain and lindsey graham, also impeachment leaders, also staunch republicans. it soften their image but also softened hilary synott. i think that's an important key to understanding how they came back is the republican part of this. so when i'm speaking to them they only say nice things even if i'm not going to credit these people would sing nasty things about the clintons. they have one feelings for them. i think it's credit for human interaction understanding human nature that humans in a way are complex but anyway can be won over rather easily. when a powerful man like bill clinton gives you a compliment, you look toward him with more favorably than you did before him. so 15 years of doing this has paid off. i would also argue as i do in the book that in 2008 the comeback had been
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self-sufficient with the conservatives, with republicans, that hillary's problem was never with conservatives and republicans. hillary's problem was she didn't win over democrats. democrats were disappointed that bill clinton as president wasn't a transformational little president they envisioned. that he couldn't be the ronald reagan that he wanted to be. instead he has served at a time of relative peace, relative prosperity, some due to his governing but some do the good fortune. nonetheless, his problem with democrats that they run to and i think that's one of the reason she goes into the state department and over the last five years they have been focusing on democrats and a little so on republicans. >> host: i'm interested to follow up on your line. one, i think the publisher of the pittsburgh paper when he is sick, and remember he was one of the prime antagonists during the clinton presidency for the clintons.
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with all kinds of conspiracy theories and the like, but when he gets sick, what happens? >> guest: as you suggest he was the vast right wing conspiracy. if there was such a thing, he is funding all these, sometimes overboard a tax on the clintons in the '90s. he is a staunch anti-clinton conservative in the way the koch brothers are painted now. that's the equivalent. he received a letter outreach and bill clinton himself when he gets sick and he gets a letter hey, dick, i'm really sorry i hear you're not doing well. i hope you hang in there, buddy. i'm praying for you. sincerely, bill. i think that's remarkable. >> host: that illustrate your point. also in the book you talk about how bill clinton reaches out in 2008 to john mccain as mccain is running against a democrat barack obama. >> guest: so this is in the general election. hillary has already lost and barack obama is in the heat of
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the campaign against john mccain. on the sly, september, october 2008, a heated campaign. there's the financial crisis and everything like that. on the sly making sure cityfolk also none other than bill clinton. they're talking about the state of the race, what american folks want to hear at a time like this. they are talking about all sorts of things regarding the campaign. i asked senator mccain, i ended it in his office and asked him, sounds a lot like he is giving advice, right? and he said well, advice may be a little too far. but nontheless, it's clear when he describes it that sounds exactly like advice. it sounds like he is essentially a campaign consultant, and that's i think shows that the clintons, no matter what happens, they always are looking out for themselves no matter what their fortune is, no matter what's going on. the clintons want to secure their place in history. they want to secure their place for the next election, whenever
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that might be. >> host: what's interesting here is, here in this book you actually say that contrary to public perception bill clinton is the cold, calculating one. hillary clinton you described as a warm, personable, charming figure. >> guest: right. this kind of surprised they because i grew up reading about the clintons, listening to them on npr or whatever, and i didn't really get to know them into reporting out this book. i was shocked that the people who knew them best suggested that the general perception of them was wrong, and it was the opposite of reality. and so bill clinton is bubba, a gregarious guy, great to hang out with, of course you want to have a beer with him and things like that. hillary clinton is this cold calculating, cunning, unapproachable women. but people who know the event people who like them say the
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opposite is closer to being true. that bill clinton is the constant politician. is constantly seeking his own place in his own legacy. he is constantly cold and calculating, and consequently doesn't have any friends. doesn't have any long-term friends. he has some hangers on that benefit transactionally with having a relationship with bill clinton. but any source of friends sort of come in and out of his life. hillary has real friends. she actually is considered likable. they actually say she is warm and funny, although funny is i guess somewhat subjective term. >> host: this is great because as i said at the start, we are in the summer of 2014. hillarhillary clinton the politl star seems to be rising at the moment. conservatives, especially conservative talk show tight people who are hell on wheels bound to bring hillary down before she becomes this titanic wave that sweeps another democrat into office is saying you've got to read daniel
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halper's book, it's a must read. karl rove says nick summer read and all that. so are conservatives going to be disappointed you don't portray her as the wicked witch? >> guest: well look i can't speak for conservatives but i will speak for myself the i wrote what i believe is an honest account of the last 15 years. there is some good, some bad. the point is these are more complex and he wants to people than partisans might suggest. and i think any ideologically staunch liberal or hillary lover might not like parts of my book, and likewise some staunch conservatives might be a little disappointed in some parts of my book. by think the point is that this is an accurate portrayal of who they are as far as i can tell, as far as i could see. i think it's getting a good reception and i think, i'm surprised people seem to like it and people seem to appreciate that when you take a more nuanced approach to these people, you can understand them
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better. if your goal then is to defeat her in the next election, and made it simple to actually learn about her a little bit. maybe it's better to be since of who she is and understand her in that way rather than this concoction or this -- >> host: let me just say we live in highly partisan times. what i do for a living is political politics all day long. so anybody picking up this book, especially on the right come is going to say, where's the dirt, daniel? what's the dirt on hillary? so let me suggest some nuggets for example, that we can -- >> guest: there is a dirt, don't get me wrong. >> host: and stephanie proposing the dirt that i read, you go and tell me what you think is the dirt in "clinton, inc." >> guest: i think the focal, but the trail of democrats -- >> host: bill clinton -- >> guest: and again. >> host: during the '08 election, potentially giving it away to attack barack obama tried to yes.
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>> host: and the back story there would be that if obama loses, it opens the door to hillary much more quickly guess that absolutely. so that's one element. i think another element is hillary clinton as i talked to one law school friend, there were few but one i quote she said she was an enthusiastic pot smoker law school. that by itself might not be such big deal. we know that bill clinton smoked, he didn't inhale but we know he smoked. we know barack obama has smoked marijuana. but we know other presidents have done. maybe not a big deal except a month ago she goes on network cable news network, and she says she has never done. and so i think that story, what it helps show, she's not always telling the truth. that she plays the part of the politician. because she's this sort of nice warm person, she's not as good a politician. she's not a natural politician. she's not good on the stump.
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she can't shake hands and wins people over the way bill clinton does. so she pretends to be a politician and she ends up laying sometimes because she is saying what she thinks it want to hear of her, not the true. meanwhile, what it does tell the truth, month ago or so at the start of a book tour she goes on tv and says that when she left the white house she was dead broke. that's a fact. she was dead broke, it's true. she's telling the truth. the problem is she sounds nuts because no one is feeling sorry for hillary clinton who also signed an $8 million book deal and it made $40 million, about $40 million in books alone. they have made $110 million in speeches alone. they've made all this money. why are we supposed to feel sorry for her? that conundrum, she's not able to tell the truth and because when she does she sounds awful so it forces her to lie about certain things. i think that's a problem just to contend with.
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i don't think that's me. i think that's her problem. >> host: although it's interesting she told the truth, she was broke. so getting another article of dirt. >> guest: i don't know about -- let me back off on the word dirt. there are some revelations, for instance, i talk about chelsea goal in the clinton inc. i talk about chelsea as an emerging force in claiming. i tell the story of a couple aides to president clinton, one to present clinton, want to hillary clinton starting a consulting company. they decide to have a meeting with bill clinton, chelsea clinton, chelsea's husband, mark, and these two h. sometime in the meeting chelsea asked for an equity stake in the medium. the eight to say no. we want to be an international copy. this is inappropriate that we will not do it. i think what the story shows, by the way, these aides no longer close to president clinton, no
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longer close to hillary clinton. the relationships have been essentially separate. i think what it shows is that there is a new force in clinton world. there is this loyalty in clinton world because there is knowledge cling world that nobody is loyal -- the only people that are loyal to each other are the clintons themselves. there are only three people who cannot be replaced in clinton world, bill, hillary and chelsea, everyone else is replaceable. if you cross one of them that's it. you could lose your standing despite spent a decade and a half at bill clinton's sidekick that doesn't matter. while it's not a silver bullet, it's not meant to be, it's meant to accurately portray what the buttons are right now and they have a real problem. people within clinton world are talking to me. they are talking to reporters. they are singing because they know that the place is not secure in clinton world because they know that nobody's place is secure in the world.
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this isn't a dirt. this is a problem they have within their company and as they seek to move it towards the toy 16 election, they are going to have to contend with this in some kind of way which i'm not really sure they can. >> host: let me do not throw dirt. here's the dirt that i saw. for example, talking about clinton inc., the foundation, one of the ways which they raise money is through the clinton global initiative. the story is told here that it's not only about the clinton global initiative inviting and world leaders and the very wealthy to talk and have access to president clinton and mrs. clinton, but you have a situation where louis freeh, the fbi director, is saying he needs some help from the saudis. when the word comes back you have to have a president ask for access, he sends the word along but then later here's the president doesn't ask for help in solving some of the mystery
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surrounding 9/11. but he said asked for money for clinton inc. tell me this. >> guest: so, louis freeh fbi director has a famously contentious relationship with bill clinton. louis freeh is the fbi director needed to take a dna sample from the president. never before heard of. >> host: did clinton appointed him country that's a good question but i don't know the answer. i don't think so. maybe he didn't. he must have because sessions was before and that he must have. but regardless, they kicked off -- you know, louis freeh takes his job very socially. they want to give them like a white house pass and say, and go at will. he says i'm not doing any of that. i'm going to have, i don't want direct access to the white house. i want it logged every time i can every time i come in and out. i'm not doing anybody special favors. i'm trying to do my job the best
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of my ability. so louis freeh automatically from the get-go starts off with a contentious relationship with bill clinton. it's made worse because he is pursuing these scandals, you know, like whitewater, all these scandals that sort of engulf the clinton administration. so by the time louis freeh wants to ask for something, bill clinton is going to do many favors. bill clinton is only in it for bill clinton. so louis freeh, the khobar towers bombing occurs. louis freeh is investigating it. the suspects are being held by saudi officials, and louis freeh needs bill clinton to talk to saudi officials and to make sure that they cooperate with them and they can access to the suspects. >> host: i said 9/11. i made khobar towers. >> guest: so they have this, so all the groundwork for this meeting is laid. the deputies on each level,
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louis freeh is talking to the saudi counterparts i know this composition is going to take place. by now this is the end of the clinton administration, toward the end. bill clinton in this private meeting doesn't bring up the khobar towers to keep rings up a donation to his own foundation from the saudis, which he secures. so he would've had the get-go. he would have the ability for them to say, go ahead and investigate, you know, go ahead, we are willing to operate as much -- >> host: give you access. >> guest: give you access to the suspects. gets stifled because clinton himself won't make the ask. >> host: how much money did he ask for? >> guest: i think he got about 10 or $20 million in that ask. >> host: another article of dirt is that you suggest, alito quite pin it down, that bill clinton is still behaving recklessly with regard to the sexual attitudes and sexual interactions with the woman. i think the name is julie or something like this. what do you know?
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>> guest: no clinton, i think a lesson on recklessness can be learned from bill clinton. bill clinton is reckless his entire life, certainly his entire political life. and i think with bill clinton its recklessness that gets into the white house in the first place. we talked about shane earlier. and i think recklessness is required by any politician in a way because you need to stand up and tried to win people over, and it's kind of, the stakes are so high and you can humiliate yourself on such a grand scale in any sort of politician needs to be reckless to some degree but to bill clinton being a bill clinton takes it to the extreme. this recklessness is something that hounds him in arkansas to it houses 90 presidential campaign. it obviously hurts his -- >> host: we're talking about sex. >> guest: correct. but i mean on many different levels. post a what do you mean by that? >> guest: it's not just the
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sex. it's a that he would do stuff like in the oval office, that you would do things like while a campaign is on the line. it's not just the philandering. it's like, it's just not philandering is reckless. it's that he would take such risk at certain times where could we come back to hurt you. this is a guy who understand politics and understands how these things manifest themselves and how they could hurt him. >> host: so now you think you still having affairs? >> guest: yes. >> host: and how do you know this? is there evidence or is this all -- >> guest: know, this is well david. this book is well-vetted by lawyers. is not just a position. bill clinton in 2008 campaign, aides advise them not to bring a mistress on the camping trip to they did not think would be good politics for a spouse to bring a mistress on the camping trip a
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rare act of discretion he decided not to do it. but normally he is fairly indiscreet and normally, this is a common occurrence for a president -- for president clinton. one aide to me that bill clinton is a political genius, and like all geniuses whether you're an artist or whatnot, you have a fall. but for bill clinton, bill clinton, his flaw is women. so i think that about sums it up. >> host: wait a second. you are saying to one specific woman he's been having a long-term relationship with? >> guest: i think the our multiple, constantly, that's correct. in the book i talk about one specific, but more broadly there are more. >> host: widget you learned about mrs. clinton's reaction to this track to a common question. what does hillary clinton say about this? a general consensus is that she probably doesn't know and almost certainly doesn't want to know. that hillary clinton realizes
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that bill clinton has this flaw. this is not new to her. she's been humiliated on a national stage by bill clinton. she understands how he works and how it operates, and she doesn't want to know the details. the way the clinton world works, clinton inc. works, is bill clinton has his own column. he has his own staff, his own secret service detail. that's completed separate from hillary clinton was her own chief of staff, our own staff, her own secret service detail. chelsea clinton, a little smaller, has her own staff and her own column. there is separation within clinton inc. to keep new separate, to keep these people separate. secret service details, especially when you have two of them, they can communicate back and forth and they know when someone is coming, someone is going. you don't have to worry about someone dropping in on you like that. it's less likely with secret service driving you around. that's basically how it is with
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clinton inc. >> host: another piece of dirt is the suggestion clinton wakes them up transferring -- actually raped someone tried to i think what you're referring to is the monica file. the monica files, the files i obtained for this book and they're essentially a detailed list of the various review files and media requests but there's also a file that their representatives had on bill clinton that they wanted to use against the bill clinton, but monica lewinsky wouldn't let them. so the point of that story is not to suggest that, but to suggest that they have this tranche, this file that they could use against bill clinton but that monica lewinsky was too in love with bill clinton to want to work against him. she was too politically naïve to try to hurt him in that way. so they could have thrown out these allegations. >> host: you think it's true? >> guest: it has been reported
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on before. it has appeared in other, other books, at least -- they believed it was true, certainly. they believed it could be very damaging, but monica wouldn't pull the trigger. she didn't want to engage them in that way. and i think that's really, it sort of shows how the clintons, and this is one thing that the book is the clintons have been benefited greatly by who their enemies are. they've also benefited greatly on who the people that have come who've been sort of embarrassed by them are. monica lewinsky is a great example. she was a young intern. she was, you know, she engaged in an affair at the white house with president clinton. when it all blew up in her face, when it all became public knowledge she didn't seek to try to hurt him. she didn't try to destroy bill clinton despite the fact that
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they were working against her and trying to destroy her. so that's the point of that story. to put it into context of monica lewinsky had this arsenal. but then decided not to fire on it because of the way she was and they have always benefited that they haven't come across somebody ready to fire posted recently in "vanity fair" she didn't exactly fire at the clintons. so let's move on to dirt about mrs. clinton. now, the dirt on mrs. clinton, i guess you could start with the recent talk about the head injury, people suggesting she suffered brain damage in office famously. i don't see any evidence of it but you suggest that either it could be that she might have had a stroke, or more curiously, that she may have been drinking and fallen down. >> guest: well, two things. one, when i was originally reported this book and i will talk to many aides i would say
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what's with the recent killings might not find in 2016? without fail the number one reason was everybody get in closer thanks health is an issue. she's almost 70. it's not crazy. it was an issue for john mccain. it's an issue for any president. even ronald reagan, it was an issue for him but he was able to turn it into his favor. i think so the point is health is an issue because people want to have, people want of faith in the command in chief that they're up to the task. it's not just an issue for critics like a karl rove or like other people who have talked about it to it is her own people recognize that her health might not be what it is but the most common malady i kept hearing was stroke. her health records are not public. shall probably have to release them at some point, but even bill clinton said she needed six months to recover. it was such a big problem. >> host: was this related to
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drinking? >> guest: no. the point of drinking is not about drinking. i think that's been mischaracterized to the point about drinking was i quote one known hillary clinton aide, are one clinton hater as company that perhaps it was about drinking. so the point of drinking is actually to show how clinton haters, as i said, the clintons have benefited greatly by who their adversaries are. and this is a perfect example because it shows how clinton haters will take one kernel of truth, the truth being they were jokes that she, there were jokes that she, you know, drinks and/or there were pictures of her parting in colombia with her staff and you know, barack obama made a joke about her drunk texting him and things like that. so the point was there to show wild eyed republicans get too wild eyed and a sort of pounds and they put forward these theories without any evidence to
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support it. so the point was not that she was drinking, but that people believed that they were automatically wanted to jump that she was thinking. so that's what i tried to do. >> host: it comes across as this is a possibility that the woman was drunk and fell down in history. let me just say, another piece of dirt with regard to her is the relationship within this foster. of course, we saw tabloid suggestions that chelsea is not even the child of bill clinton, but i think webb hubbell in that case. you have in your a very close intimate relationship between foster and mrs. clinton. >> guest: what i said is she will have to answer for things like that, some charges that will come about. people swear to me that they had a relationship. >> host: a sexual relationship traffic that they saw them kissing or whatever. it's been another books also. that is not new. that has been reported on
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before, for the last 20 years. i don't necessarily believe it. the point there was to show, i believe, i know for fact i was told that these things happen. the point was to show that these are issues that she has to contend with. she always has to contend with because all these numbers constantlconstantl y swirl around her. i'm not perpetuating these rumors. i'm merely showing that these are rumors that exist, that she would have to deal with in any 2016 run. >> host: but given the ur, daniel, what's the truth? >> guest: well, i wasn't of their. >> host: but in terms of your reporting, what have you been able to confirm in terms of either both vince foster and webb hubbell? and, of course, foster on a much larger scale commits suicide, everybody is wondering what happened. wasn't suicide? remember all that. >> guest: in her own book she talks about how they had a very
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close relationship and it wasn't, and the want for men and women to be so close which have and things like that. people have, like i said, people i've talked to, yes, i saw them kissing, i saw them. i don't know. i mean, i don't know, you know? in a way doesn't seem in character but in a way it's sort of constantly ascribed to her. i mean, are you supposed to just discount it automatically because credible sources are telling you these things, or are you supposed to say, so it's a contention when you write books like this and when you try to frame these people and to try to understand who they are. you come across things that are sometimes unbelievable, and you don't believe in right away. you try to do to diligence but i think that's what i tried to do. i think i'm not saying that they've done anything that they haven't done. what i'm saying is that people
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will ask questions about these things, which is on a different. >> host: in another episode, and this one involves this piece of dirt involving mrs. clinton and bill clinton. you have been putting pressure on a reporter, david shuster. what happened? >> guest: david shuster is a, 2008 he is a liberal talking head on the level network, msnbc. be a somewhat critical of bill clinton. just like this equipment else on the network, like chris matthews and whatnot. david shuster is hosting his own show, our guest hosting for someone one night and asked the guest a question. and he said, you know, and the question is about chelsea clinton and her involvement in the campaign, and he wants to know. she is calling a superdelegate time to get them on board to support the campaign, to support her mother's campaign over barack obama's campaign. and the question that arises is
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that david shuster asked his guest, is she being pimped out by her campaign? >> host: weight. is chelsea clinton the child -- >> guest: being pimped out by the parents for their own benefit. are they, what ever. >> host: by having her make calls just back right. this is a question he asked. the clintons go for it. the clintons are furious. the clintons are offended. hillary was said to be crying when she hears about this. that's what the aide to sadr told me. so david shuster doesn't think much of it. he doesn't think it such a bad thing and eventually gets called in to talk to the suits at msnbc about the conduct because they're hearing complaints about it. so we decided to apologize. goes on tv and apologizes. that apparently is not enough to satisfy the clintons.
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they are still upset that he was on tv. he tries to convince the suits at msnbc that hillary clinton is just using this, using him in his head, his example as a way to put her campaign and to show that she is a victim. because there's various polling throughout hillary clinton's history that when she is a victim she does well. monica lewinsky, great for her poll numbers. that sort of thing. so shuster is trying to make this argument at msnbc. they are not doing anything about it. hillary clinton meanwhile, is threatening to cancel the debate at msnbc that the democratic debate that they were scheduled to hold and a couple of weeks. msnbc doesn't do well in ratings. they know they need this debate. so shuster is in trouble. also what's happening is david shuster is getting complaint about to the msnbc parent
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companies, nbc and their parent company is ge, general electric. so the board members of ge are receiving phone calls from the clinton world, from clinton inc. and they're saying you got to do something about it. they call the ceo, jeffrey campbell, who calls of the president of msnbc axes why do you have this gut on the calling chelsea clinton a prostitute? why is one of my journa journals calling chelsea clinton a prostitute? you work at a news station. your complaints i'm sure for things that you see on tv probably every single day. that not many people who complain go directly to the top, you know, you are not just talking about the ceo of fox secure talking about the ceo of whoever the parent company, et cetera, et cetera. nobody is going to rupert murdoch to complain about what somebody, some talking head is saying but that's what's happening here. so he is given a two-week,
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shuster is given a two-week paid suspension from the network, and it hurts his career. it hurts his career and no longer works at msnbc. partly is attributed to that because it hurt his standing at the network. >> host: so this is a powerful couple obviously with a lot of connections, former president, former first lady, former secretary of state. but the picture you're painting is one involvement also with money. so let's go back to the clinton inc. part. how much, i said before 214 million last year was the wealth of the clinton foundation. how much are the clintons were? >> guest: that's a tough question to pin down. this is what we know. we know that they have been, made about $40 million from books. he writes a $15 million book, she writes and $8 million book and then a $14 million book was
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his written a couple of the books. we know they've made at least $40 million off the books. we know, based on reports, they have made over $110 million on speeches alone. some of bill clinton's speeches command $750,000. so we know that's about $150 million. we know they own two homes. that aren't worth anything like that, that are worth around $5 billion apiece. and we know that there are other consulting fees that are paid to them. so i think a reasonable estimation is probably about $150 million. that's reasonable. i think -- >> host: that's their personal wealth separate from clinton inc.? >> guest: that's correct. i mean, look, the book is basically you can't separate everything because it's all
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combined, altogether. but it is not in the foundation bank account. that would be in the own personal bank account. >> host: that's one and 50 in their own bank account and 214 or so in the foundation bank account? >> guest: something like that. that's the revenue from last you but i think that money in the bank. more than that. it's a lot to talk about a multimillion dollar organization but you're talking about people who, when you leav they leave te house not only other program i've talked to in aid they went with them from house to house as the looking to buy a home because they want to buy a home in new york so hillary could run for senate in new york. the aide said that she was amazed that when the clintons walked into an old '70s on, that they were like, i love this shag rug. i love these ornaments. these are people who hadn't lived in their own house since the '70s. they had been on the public dime for that many years, for almost
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two decades with a short stint when bill clinton lost reelection in early '80s as governor. not only were they poor, they didn't understand how people live. they lived in this bubble for so long. they had a secret service detail, and they still do, and in a way they really never left the bubble. the aide was struck by how embarrassed she was. don't complement these things in front of the reported. the reporters don't do anything like this. survey shows sort of how they were stuck in his time capsule, how they have to fight their way out. it also shows public service face. the clintons have shown that public service can do extraordinarily well, and be incredibly lucrative. if you want to be rich, don't go into business. go into politics to become the next president. you, too, can become a 100 million air thanks to people like the clinton redefined the way politics works. >> host: let's look at another
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angle of clinton inc. that you describe in the book which is all of the people who so the clintons. you mentioned three i think primarily to james carville, paul bacall, rahm emanuel now the mayor of chicago, the second of all you had people like maggie williams, whom aberdeen and cheryl mills and even lanny davis. and one faceting story about this cadre people as you talk about how the two who were key lieutenants had been pushed out. that's bill richardson and george stephanopoulos. why don't you tell those stories? >> guest: george stephanopoulos was present clinton's communications director and. >> host: stephanopoulos now host of -- just yesterday the level could america host the he's gotten his rise in american politics, working for bill clinton. he wrote was a pretty good book, pretty good memoir about
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competition a favorite of, ma unlike most of his political memoirs this is good and i think fairly honest and very revealing about the into workings of the clinton white house. but it didn't have any favors among bill clinton who was personally mortified and embarrassed that he would write something like this and reveal the clinton white house was enormous a chaotic. they feared them both eruptions. dick morris, i think the way stephanopoulos says, they would leave for the day, having agreed to a plan, you, some sort of strategy for the campaign and they would come back and bill clinton would've said okay, this is what we're doing and said something the opposite. stephanopoulos is like what happened? what went on? it turned out that bill clinton was talking to dick morris. they were having private phone conversations of which stephanopoulos was not part of, which is fine, it's his prerogative but it don't think
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stephanopoulos appreciated. he wrote that in his book and that annoyed to bill clinton. bill clinton, i tell the story of bill clinton at the horse racetrack, and he's confronted by a big group of people, some republicans but not all. some like bon jovi was there, governor bob ehrlich of maryland and a number of others. and he tells the story of stephanopoulos finding out about gennifer flowers and the audience is shot that bill clinton is bringing up the gennifer flowers. buddies bring up the gennifer flowers so economic stephanopoulos if one of all these people in the to make stephanopoulos look like a fool. so he said stephanopoulos, that he got on the floor in the fetal position, and basically starts growing. and bill clinton is telling this story and i don't is just, how is he just throwing his eight under the bus like that? it's because he didn't like them.
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he didn't like the guy in the dugout on them. he made sure, bill clinton wants to be loved by everybody except people who cross them. he doesn't care for people who cross the. >> host: you tell a story there was a reunion and stephanopoulos is not invited to any other been its. then with richardson, it's also the case, richardson is quoted in the book as saying he wants clinton's forgiveness but doesn't feel like he will ever get it. >> guest: yes. so bill richardson is governor of new mexico. well, he was in president clinton's cabinet, but he becomes the governor of new mexico and he runs into thousand eight, but that doesn't do so well. he doesn't resonate for many reasons, but for his own reasons he doesn't resonate well with the voters and he is soon out of the race. he is a hispanic governor of new mexico. he's a clinton guy, so clinton assumes that he can win them over and he can't endorse
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hillary. because this is in the battle between barack obama and hillary clinton. and i think richardson, bill clinton goes out to new mexico to watch the super bowl with bill richardson and is going to put the ask on. he's going to ask, he's not going to live without giving an endorsement. richardson doesn't budge. he decides later to endorse barack obama and the can, he has not won over by hillary clinton i think it's a basic list of the poll numbers and realizes that hillary is not going to win and barack obama is that he would rather throw his lot in with the winner and not the loser. calculations like are made in politics. richardson makes one himself and he's dead to the claims. the clintons are not happy with it and ambition in public and they go after him in public. it's a remarkable story. >> host: so i think here what we have then is, so if you're
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part of a conservative concern about hillary as a powerful force coming in 2016 and you read daniel halper's book and say now i have these pieces, potentially, of perspective on her about that past, but as i said at this comes in a similar people are saying there are all these books, everybody is trying to attack hillary. the most famous that is this book blood feud, ed klein's book about the obama's and the clintons. what is your take as the author of this book about that? >> guest: well, i haven't read it. i don't really want to comment on books i haven't read. i've seen some press reports. i don't know anything about it other than what's out there. i don't have any key insight into debt. i can tell you about hillary clinton spoke. she old -- she also came with a book and her book is what i call a 6-under page press release but
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it is $35 you can go read her take on what she wants you to think of her. i don't think that's a very accurate picture of who she is. it's not that, it's that it's worked over by a team cannot get her any problems in the future. it's just a boring book and i think many reviewers have agreed with me. so i think while the are a number of clinton books, i think really does henry clay's book which is like a 6-under page is released. there's also another book previously that came out in february but those also about hillary clings to a secretary of state, but that book was written by a former staffer, debbie wasserman schultz, the head of the democratic national party. if you want to read a more interesting and sometimes critical but sometimes flattering but sort of more nuanced book, i would turn to mind. i think it's an interesting book. i tried to tell a more complete
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story, and i'm excited about it post that i understand, and so do you think that in some ways that your book though would disqualify her? >> guest: no, no. it's not me too. that's not what the book is about. i never wrote it to bring her down. it's not, you, the title i think is riveting in that way. it's not she must be stopped or the country is going to hell. this is a book that shows who she is, what they are, what they been up to. and perhaps weatherhead and some of the pitfalls that might lie ahead. that's what i tried to tell. this is a reported book. i talked to senators, talked to form a cabinet members. i talked to her democratic and republican presidents. i talked to congressman. i've talked to a. i talked to critics. i talked to friends. i dr. smith it was a good and i tried to tell their stories about the clintons. this is not sort of just me reading press reports and
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putting it together. this is a thoroughly reported and -- book. >> host: what does it mean than, talking about the inner circle of lieutenants, about clinton world, going into the campaign? what can we expect? it sounds like it's a very hermetically sealed universe. litton inc. and part of clinton inc. being hillary clinton 2016 campaign. how these two relate? at one point you're talking about, for example, chelsea clinton as the campaign manager, the royal child. so she is not at the point where she can run a presidential campaign to be entrusted? >> guest: i tried to describe like this. you have a family business. you know family businesses tend to work. you know, they tend to be in charge by the family and everybody else is sort of auxiliary. clinging to is very much a
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family business. if you're in the family, not only issue placed secure flight but you were always there and you were always in charge. when a daughter or son comes into a family business they are allowed usually and certainly in this case to tell aids or staff members out of work, how the work should be done. this is what's going on here. she comes in. because of her own ambitions and own reasons she is a disruptive force in clinton inc. and that's something that they're trying to contend with because, i mean its complex but basically her parents aren't able to say no to her. chelsea's parents are -- chelsea is the one thing they been true to their whole life. they love chelsea gilbert they think the world of her daughter. so which he comes in and she starts to many things, they aren't able to say no. with bill clinton it's a more
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complicated relationship. it's a father-daughter relationship where the father has been caught previously cheating on the mother. i think that it creates a guilt complex within the father to where he can't say no to her. likewise, i think hillary has a guilt complex within their to where she feels guilty that she wasn't always there for the raising of chelsea clinton. and it manifests itself in the sense that she's not able to really say no, although she does more than bill apparently. able to say no to a. i think that's sort of a remarkable situation where you have this third emerging ceo eric what it means for the 2016 campaign, i contend, is that she is effectively going to be in charge because you have just as much say as the candidates. if you're the campaign manager and chelsea clinton calls you up and says we want you to do this, you are not going to say is that coming from you or from your mom? you are just going to do.
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that makes her de facto campaign manager. that makes her effectively in charge. so the aides have suggested to me it doesn't bode well for her campaign because she doesn't know what she's doing. she doesn't have the experience. running a campaign is remarkably hard. you're basically creating a multimillion dollar organization separate from clinton inc., in a way but that would be complex, that spans 50 states, that is hectic and fast moving. she's never done anything like that before. there's no sign within her that she would be any good at it and effectively be in charge. it could be detrimental for a hillary clinton 2016 run post that she's pregnant so she will be having a baby. i think that would also be something that preoccupies her during this period. >> guest: i don't know how that is going to our nannies and stuff. i don't know how that would work exactly. but this was a concern that i discovered in reporting this
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book. these are not my concerns looking at the. user concerns i learned from aids who have a handle on how things operate which in clinton world, pregnancy might change things for some of the dynamics obviously but i'm sure things will work through. >> host: you know, the -- aspect are women who raise children and yo to work so i dot see why chelsea wouldn't be able to be one herself. so i think she will be just fine. >> host: you know, for all this talk about the clintons and this idea that it is a partnership as much as a marriage and clinton inc. and ambition and the power and all the rest, there's this moment where you are talking to joe lieberman, the senator, and he says he is overhearing conversation between the two of them. >> guest: that they sound remarkably happy to talk to one another. >> host: he says they call each other sweetheart. >> host: and every tender to each other.
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one of the questions that is legally asked when a document this book is is it a session is there love in that relationship? there's a lot of love in that relationship. it is ultimately a business partnership but i think there is a lot of love. one old friend of hillary clinton told me it worked a little bit like this. i said the same thing. he is famously unfaithful to her and get she stands by her man constantly. how does that work? he said it like this. they both love the same thing to hillary clinton loves and adores bill clinton. she thinks the world of them. and bill clinton loves and adores bill clinton and he thinks the world of them. and that's how he described. i think that that's probably how that relationship pretty much works. >> host: so you're the editor of online at "the weekly standard." and so the question would be, as
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part of conservative media in america, people looking at the book, do you think that there is a case here, built here by daniel halper against hillary clinton? you said it doesn't disqualify her. >> guest: that's not the case i'm making. i don't know whether, after reading this book, somebody might decide that there's no way they could ever vote for hillary clinton, or i don't know, you know, the opposite. people are smart enough to make their own decision as to whether who they should vote for ethics like the. i don't want to go round and telling people who to vote for. my contention is this is an amazing story, you know, from ashes to where they are today. and that's what i'm trying to tell. this amazing story. so it's not, you know, people will conclude what they want to conclude. i can't control that, but what i can control is the story i've told. >> host: but it's not the case and i think this is what comes through today here on "after words," you're not a clinton
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hater. >> guest: look, i'm a young guy. you can see right now, i'm a young guy. i grew up reading about the clintons in my parents "new york times" subscription and "newsweek." i grew up in the car on the way to school, my mother had npr on and we listen to npr. that's how i learned about the claims. i am not a clinton hater of the '90s. i'm not, that's not how i approach the book at all. i approached the book as reported looking for a story trying to figure out what happened and try to tell that story. obviously, i'm conservative. i work at "the weekly standard." i come at it from the center-right but i make the case that that was an advantage in covering the subject. and certainly not a disadvantage. because while come when i reached out to people, they knew where i was coming from, first of all. every reporter has a bias. i have told you mind. you know where i'm coming from.
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it's also advantage in that i think a lot of reporters write with a concern about access. they write about, whatever their covering whether it's congress, whether it's the clintons, any topic, whether it's business, you write with a concern to access. because if you write something that is too critical of your subject, that's it. you're not going to get another interview with them, or that's it, it will make your job a lot harder. so i think with me, it's not as though i had to worry about my invitation to the holiday party at the white house. i didn't think that was ever going to, from the clinton white house, and i'm sure it won't. that's okay. i can live with that. but i think that the reporters are concerned about it and i think it affects their reporting in a negative way. >> host: in fact using like james carville's office called at one point, who have you talked to.
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and she did not get access to mrs. clinton. >> guest: well, i'm not going to say who i spoke to. >> host: there's a possibility you spoke directly with mrs. clinton tried to i will not speak -- anything is possible. look, i spoke to a lot of people. this is one of the questions i raised at the beginning of the book. i think it takes the whole book and just why would someone to talk to me in the first place? because your i am, conservative, but and in some ways the reporting has borne out certain criticisms of the clintons, in some ways it hasn't. why would somebody talk to me? and the short answer is basically, because there's a lot of disloyalty and clinton world. because clinton will be no longer exist. because there is no clinton loyalty anymore. and ultimately that's bad for clinton inc. it shows a weakness in clinton inc. and it shows that they are all
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in it for themselves and eventually they will have to realize they have, eventually some have begun to realize that they need to benefit themselves and not benefit the greater corporation. >> host: so going beyond this book, do you think she went into a 16? >> guest: maybe it's 50/50. look, she's the strongest candidate, but then you started this segment by talking about poll numbers after poll numbers are doing quite well. go talk to president rudy giuliani and asked him about poll numbers this early on. go talk to president gary hart and ask them about poll numbers. whole numbers don't mean so much to i think she's the strongest candidate, but she has weaknesses. whether she can recognize these weaknesses and semi-try to fix them, or whether she decides to ignore these weaknesses, i think that will help determine whether not should it comes the next president of the united states
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aspect daniel halper is the author of a new book, "clinton, inc.: the audacious rebuilding of a political machine." daniel, thank you so much for joining us on "after words." >> guest: thank you. >> booktv will be live today from the national book festival in washington, d.c. this year's group of featured authors include jonathan allen, doris kearns goodwin, congressman james clyburn. live coverage start attending eastern here on c-span2. over on c-span will have more from the event with authors of books about science and space, live all day starting at 10 a.m. eastern. >> c-span to provide live coverage of the u.s. senate floor proceedings, and key public policy defense. and every weekend booktv, now for 15 years the only television
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