Skip to main content

tv   The Last Word  MSNBC  June 7, 2011 11:00pm-12:00am EDT

11:00 pm
eye on the american public with all the lies that he tol last week repeatedly. no one is throwing the congressman under the bus. he's been driving the bus. one interview after another booking himself on
11:01 pm
on january 27th, 1992, a political sex scandal became a chaotic media circus at a press conference in a new york hotel. atmospherically similar to what we saw yesterday in a press conference in a new york hotel. i wasn't the only one who was certain then in 1992 that the politician at the center of that scandal was finished in american politics. he went on to become the 42nd president of the united states. >> i think, he's going to come under i think a lot of pressure to resign. >> the man should resign and we should move on.
11:02 pm
>> republicans want anthony wiener out. democrats are a little more forgiving. but just a little. >> what anthony weiner did as far as i know up to now didn't hurt anybody other than himself and maybe his good wife. >> i wish there was some way i could defend him, but i can't. >> it's a loose rope around their ankle. >> republicans are going to keep this in the media as long as they can. >> last thing we need is emeshed in a discussion about congressman weiner and his twitter activities. >> what will the house democrats do? >> nancy pelosi has a desire to remove that rope. >> the next seven days are going to be hard for him. >> not if the new york tabloids are any indication. >> the most important story of the day. the naked truth. >> constituents in new york city love their guys. >> they're not easily shocked in new york. >> this story officially became sad. >> anthony wiener enough said. >> the actual part of men doing stupid things, we do stupid things sometimes. >> for a look at anthony
11:03 pm
wiener's future, we'll look to the past. >> no one wanted this presidential campaign to get sidetracked by stories of an extramarital affair, but tonight that's exactly what happened as a result of allegations against arkansas governor bill clinton. >> 150,000 years of human duplicity. >> david vitter broke state laws, he did cheat on his wife and he got re-elected. >> elliot spitser did resign. >> and mitt romney thinks his past will help him in the future. >> just getting started. >> for the first time mitt romney edges ahead of barack obama. >> people get tired of seeing the same person day in, day out. >> this is great news for mitt romney. >> i'll finally get the nomination. good evening from new york.
11:04 pm
a day after congressman anthony wiener admitted to sending sexually suggestive text messages and photos to six women other than his wife. the backlash and the details of the sex scandal that so far still includes no actual sex continued to dominate the headlines, none of them flattering to the congressman. conservative blogger andrew breitbart whose website first broke the story says he is holding back at least one photograph which abc news says quote, shows a man's erect penis, end quote. on the "today" show, matt lauer tried to press breitbart about whether he would release that photo? >> if anthony wiener decides to make this a jihad against me for his interpretation of putting me into this situation, you know what? i'll take that as a, you know,
11:05 pm
you said an insurance policy, maybe. if he wants to open himself to an investigation there a a lot of women. >> congressman wiener obviously had hoped that yesterday's press conference would put what he called terrible mistakes behind him. house democratic leader nancy pelosi sent a letter to the ethics committee calling for an investigation into the matter and democrats are not eager to defend the congressman. >> i know congressman wiener. i wish there was some way i could defend him, but i can't. >> what advice would you give him if he called you? >> call somebody else. >> hours after the congressional committee put out press releases calling for more than a dozen democrats in congress to return campaign contributions they have received from congressman weiner's campaign committee. one democrat announced she's doing just that. ohio congresswoman betty sutton says she's donating the funds to
11:06 pm
charities in her district. rans prix bis said -- congressman wiener's actions and deceptions are unacceptable and he should resign. we do not need an investigation to know he lied and acted inappropriately. we need a resignation. house majority leader eric canter agrees. >> we've got a lot of serious challenges going on in this country and a lot of work for congress to do. the last thing we need to do is be emeshed in discussion about congressman weiner and his twitter activities. i think it is up to congressman weiner and his constituents to make that decision. i don't condone his activity. i think he should resign. >> and with that answer, eric canter lost all hope of ever winning the last words prize for consistency in reaction to political sex scandals.
11:07 pm
>> when you've got republican leaders like governor mark sanford of south carolina or nevada senator john ensign admitting to extramarital affairs and staying in office questionable use of private funds or state money in the case of sanford, doesn't the gop with all its talk of family values risk looking like a bunch of hypocrites? >> look, i mean, is anyone happy to see all that have happened? no. it's not good. but listen, we have our thoughts with their families and they themselves. >> if you're going to talk the talk, walk the walk and say they should step down. >> again, in the instance of the people in south carolina and nevada it is up to them. >> joining me now "the washington post" columnist and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson, and also howard fineman. thank you goth for joining me tonight. eugene, we see that consistency
11:08 pm
is very hard to come by in reaction to these things. this one seems purely partisan. i can't remember a single republican saying that vitter should resign. even saying that ensign should resign before he resigned as well as all these other republican scandals that we've had in the last couple of years. do they actually think we're not going to roll this videotape on them in these situations? >> to mix up an old proverb, if you want consistency in washington, get a dog. you don't expect consistency. nonetheless, you know, i don't think wiener's going to be able to survive this. i really don't. there was no actual sex that we know of in this incident and there were no laws broken that we know of. but there was creepiness. and i think to go through an ethics investigation where all that kind of comes out, was it just six women, was it more than six? did he send a tweet on his
11:09 pm
official blackberry or not? meanwhile, with breitbart holding the sort of -- over his head, i don't see how he survives this. >> the scandals have been left to voters in these states. that's what happened in vitter in louisiana. charlie rangel found in violation of house rules by the ethics committee serious rules involving financial transactions gets re-elected with 80% of the vote in his district. why can't anthony wiener stick with it in his district and get 80% of the vote like charlie rangel? >> well, i suppose he can try. in some sense it's not entirely up to him. it's a somewhat different situation from charlie rangel in that anthony wiener's story is one that republicans across the country could attempt to use, hypocrisy notwithstanding, and one they're willing to go to in
11:10 pm
a way they would never go to charlie rangel for other reasons. reasons of accusation of racism, et cetera, et cetera. the fact that harry reid, the democratic leader in the senate who's exquisitely sensitive to the cultural fault lines of politics as they play in the election season would run in the other direction the way he did is an indication of what is eating at democrats here. what they're worried about an ethics investigation as eugene said, the play by republicans in swing districts. the fact you had a democratic congresswoman in swing state of ohio giving the money back shows you that the democrats aren't going to stand with weiner, who by the way on the personal level they don't like a whole lot. >> let's get to that, eugene. in these situations friendship matters. with charlie rangel decades of friendship with people throwing their arms around him every day hoping he could get through
11:11 pm
this. we saw this with other guys who have been there for decades and built up loyalty and friendship for decades. how much does that matter here and what kind of friendship deficit is anthony wiener working with in the house right now? >> he's a scratchy guy. he doesn't have the sort of loyalty and years of friendship that say charlie rangel enjoyed. everyone was rooting for charlie rangel to survive his scandal somehow and as you noted he did. but there's also just the kind of unattractiveness of this scandal. the question of -- let's assume he does tough it out. he does go through an investigation to have put his wife through that, to have put the women with whom he corresponded through that establishing that they were all over 18, for example, and this activity was all consensual and all the details coming out.
11:12 pm
what sort of political image will he have other than a cad who doubled down on his caddishness by dragging -- dragging these women through this sort of inquisition. i don't see this playing out well. i really don't. >> howard fineman there's a flash poll in new york city overnight where a slight majority comes out in favor of anthony wiener not resigning, staying in office. is that number -- is it your sense in the way this story is likely to play out in the next couple weeks, is that number likely to change in one direction or the other? >> part of the problem anthony wiener's got and the democrats have got is they don't know what else is out there. you don't know what other women are there. you don't know the rest of the story. you don't know what's going to happen with his marriage to huma who he adores, but may not be in it for the long haul. you don't know.
11:13 pm
she hasn't spoken yet. nothing's happened yet. don't forget that hillary clinton was huma's mentor and good friend which complicates things in a number of directions. there's a lot more possibly to the story here that makes it difficult. difficult for the democrats as much as for wiener himself. >> i want to get from both of you quickly before we go. eugene first, how this cam pairs to the bill clinton scandal that we saw play out in a hotel ballroom here in manhattan in a press conference in 1992. jennifer flowers playing audiotapes of bill clinton talking to her obviously in the midst of an affair. that turned out not only to be survivable, the guy got elected president of the united states. >> anthony wiener is a talented politician. he's no bill clinton. he doesn't have that sort of charm. bill clinton was the comeback kid. i'm not sure that anthony wiener is. >> howard, quickly compare wiener to clinton. >> well, i guess if anthony
11:14 pm
wiener's forced to resign in the history of sex scandals nobody will have gotten less for greater sacrifice. >> howard fineman and eugene robinson, the line of the night. so far it belongs to howard fineman. thank you both for joining me tonight. later in the show, we will unveil a new segment, the media circus that msnbc missed. we will travel back in time and imagine what it would have been like if this network existed when jennifer flowers had her bombshell news conference about her relationship with presidential candidate bill clinton. also, the republican lies about taxes. now that tim pawlenty has come out with a crazy tax plan, will mitt romney be forced to come out with an even crazier tax plan? former michigan governor joins me next as the romney campaign heads into her state. ♪
11:15 pm
11:16 pm
11:17 pm
coming up in one early and therefore meaningless poll, mitt romney is now polling ahead of president obama despite romney's own dismal jobs record. former michigan governor joins me next as romney's campaign heads into her state. and on the birthday of the bush tax cuts, candidate tim pawlenty announces an even more dangerous tax plan. that's tonight's rewrite. at bayer, we've been relieving pain for over 100 years. and today, we're re-inventing aspirin for pain relief. with new extra-strength bayer advanced aspirin. it has microparticles so enters the bloodstream faster and rushes relief right to the site of your tough pain. in fact, it's clinically proven
11:18 pm
to relieve pain twice as fast. new bayer advanced aspirin. extra strength pain relief, twice as fast. [ male announcer ] try it at no cost. look out for your coupon in this sunday's papers. [ male announcer ] try it at no cost. ♪ ♪ membership rewards points from american express. they're a social currency with endless possibilities.
11:19 pm
president obama says he hopes the latest jobs report showing an increase in the unemployment rate back up to 9.1% is just an abnormality and not a longer trend. and he's trying to convince voters that his administration has made progress recovering from the financial crisis that they inherited in 2008. >> we are on the path of recovery, but it's got to accelerate. recovery's going to be uneven. there are going to be times where we are making progress, but people are still skittish and nervous and the markets get skittish and nervous. so they pull back because they're still thinking about traumas of just two and a half years ago. >> but a recent poll shows that a majority of voters, a majority of whom don't really know anything about the economy don't
11:20 pm
believe that the economy is recovering and blame president obama for the struggling economy. that view has helped republican mitt romney to pull ahead of president obama in a poll that asked voters who they would vote for if the 2012 election were held today. 49% chose romney and 46% chose barack obama. romney is the only republican who defeats president obama in a theoretical matchup. sarah palin loses with 40% to president obama's 55%. after announcing his presidential bid, romney said he was going to keep a low profile saying quote, your greatest enemy is overexposure, that may be particularly true in romney's case where even the conservative group club for growth has accused him of being a flip-flopper and liberals are attacking his record on job creation. while romney accuses president obama of surrounding himself with people who quote has never worked in the real economy, end quote, his critics point out that his job was in the role of corporate raider a job that made
11:21 pm
companies more profitable by laying off employees and killing jobs. when romney was governor of massachusetts his state ranked 47th in the rate of jobs growth from 2003 to 2007. joining me now is former michigan governor jennifer granholm. thanks for joining me tonight. >> you bet, lawrence. >> governor, i want to take a look at some video of mitt romney's boyhood home being destroyed in detroit last year. as i read to you from a 2008 op-ed that mitt romney wrote in 2008 saying let detroit go bankrupt. that was the title of his op-ed piece in which he said, if general motors, ford and chrysler get the bailout that they're chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the american automotive industry good-bye. it won't go overnight. but its demise will be virtually
11:22 pm
guaranteed. governor, as we know that bail out was delivered. how's the american auto industry doing? >> it's such -- this contrast that you just et up here is so remarkable because in the same -- at the same time he's saying let detroit go bankrupt, don't give them the rescue that they're asking for, this was during that election year, this was at the end of 2008 when he had won here in the primary as the son of the auto industry. his father was the head of american motors. and when he wrote that op-ed in "the new york times," which by the way was purely opportunist. he saw put his finger in the air, saw which ways the polls were headed and goes after his own home state throughout the halls of the auto industry. people's hair was on fire. they couldn't believe that they were being stab maryland the back in such a horrible way. so of course the auto industry now there was a rescue in michigan alone just general motors and chrysler have hired
11:23 pm
back 12,000 people. over 50,000 people hired back just in general motors and chrysler. if this had gone the way mitt romney wanted it to go and there was no rescue of the auto industry, then we would have seen 1.4 million people unemployed. in michigan alone it would have been a 20% unemployment rate. now that this has worked out pretty well and the auto industry is paying back their loans and the obama administration's smart intervention has put them on a path of profitability and hiring, interesting that when chrysler said that it was done paying back its loans last week, romney says, whoa, they followed what i was suggesting. it's -- they followed me. it's an incredible -- the guy is shameless. i just can't believe that people are going to buy this fellow? there's a whole string of flip-flops that i know you know about. to me he's here in michigan tonight at a fund raiser with his hand out.
11:24 pm
i think that people who want to donate should be looking at when the auto industry was asking for a donation. i think they should give him the same answer. >> he keeps the flip-flops coming. it's not just the old flip-flops from when he was a liberal governor of massachusetts. he keeps creating new ones. on these early polls, governor, as we know they are meaningless. these highly theoretical matchups of a sitting president against a theoretical nominee. they are so unreliable for example that in june of 1995 comparable position to where we are now, bob dole who was the likely republican nominee at that time, bob dole led president clinton 49 to 40%. he had a bigger lead in this kind of theoretical poll over bill clinton at that time in the campaign. so it doesn't seem like there's very much in that poll for president obama to be worried
11:25 pm
about. >> no. you know how this works, lawrence. the campaign hasn't even begun yet. campaigns are all about a choice. people don't know. mitt romney you cited the job statistics that massachusetts was 47th out of 50th this is an economy that's diverse. massachusetts economy is supposed to be a knowledge economy. how did it get to 47th out of 50 states during this period of time when he was governor? it's going to be, believe me, people are going to be able to have a selection here. and yes, it's going to be a tough race. i don't think there's any question about it. i know that the administration is going to be out there every day trumpeting their successes and their plans for how they're going to put america on track. >> former michigan governor jennifer granholm. and i hope future candidate for some office that i could vote
11:26 pm
for without having to move to michigan. something like president of the united states. >> oh, no. >> thanks for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. appreciate it. coming up, today is the tenth birthday of the signing of the bush tax cuts. in honor of that, governor tim pawlenty manages to come up with a new tax plan that is built on republican lies about taxes and luckily for us, does not have a chance of becoming law. that's in the rewrite. ♪
11:27 pm
[ sponge ] okay, team. time to tackle these greasy dishes. we're facing some tough opposition today. i'm gonna need my biggest player. a change in the lineup? that little squirt? [ cheers and applause ] [ female announcer ] one bottle of ultra dawn has the grease-cleaning power of two of the leading non-concentrated brand, giving you double the cleaning ingredients in every drop. [ sponge ] way to go, kid. you really knocked the grease out of them. [ female announcer ] dawn does more... [ sponge ] so it's not a chore. of some of the annoying symptoms menopause brings. go it's one a day menopause formula. the only complete multivitamin with soy isoflavones to help address hot flashes and mild mood changes. one a day menopause formula.
11:28 pm
11:29 pm
still ahead this hour, remember in 1992 when jennifer flowers held a press conference to expose her 12-year affair with arkansas governor and presidential candidate bill clinton? oh, you're under 30 and you don't remember it at all? well, stick around. it's sci-fi night on "last word" we're going to travel to 1992 and re-enact our reactions to what was then the greatest political sex scandal of our time. and next in the rewrite, tim pawlenty's tax lies. ♪ [ instrum]
11:30 pm
hey, max. [ announcer ] your dog's one of a kind. and now, you have the power... [ giggling ] to help significantly extend his healthy years. a groundbreaking 14-year study by purina... proves that puppy chow, then dog chow nutrition, fed properly over a lifetime, can help extend his lovable antics... up to 1.8 healthy years. [ barks ] long live your buddy. oh, max! long live your dog. purina puppy chow and purina dog chow.
11:31 pm
this past year alone there was a 93% increase in cyber attacks. in financial transactions... on devices... in social interactions... and applications in the cloud. some companies are worried. some, not so much. thanks to a network that secures it all and knows what to keep in, and what to keep out. outsmart the threats. see how at cisco.com cisco.
11:32 pm
♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] thanks to advanced natural gas turbine technology from ge, the power that will help make our nation more energy independent is right here in america. [ crickets chirping ] ♪ [ cheers and applause ] advanced gas turbine technology from ge. ♪ time for tonight's rewrite. tim pawlenty who on this program and nowhere else is considered the front runner for the republican nomination for president picked today the tenth anniversary of the bush tax cuts to announce the stupidest tax cut proposal ever advanced by a republican front runner for the party's nomination for president there be proving once again that he has exactly what it takes to be the front runner in today's republican party.
11:33 pm
the republican party that believes paul revere's job was warning the british. in today's republican party the difference between the real leaders like john boehner and the gadflies like sarah palin is the real leaders know when they were saying stupid things. john boehner, for example, has been in congress long enough to understand that the debt ceiling must be raised and has voted to raise it himself a few times already. but he is now willing to say all sorts of stupid things publicly about not raising the debt ceiling. sarah palin on the other hand, we have passed a lie detector test when she said that paul revere's job was to warn the british because she wasn't lying. lying is when you are saying something that you know isn't true. what you heard was sarah palin's very best attempt at explaining
11:34 pm
paul revere's role in american history. who are you more comfortable with? who do you feel is more dangerous to you? a politician who understands the basic truths of governing? and is willing to lie about it for his political convenience? or a politician who is drowning in her own relentless ignorance. and has no idea of the magnitude of his ignorance. i for one have grown slightly more comfortable with the lying politicians who understand the basics of governing and are willing to lie about it to score political points simply because there is so much more of that in our politics than the sheer ignorance thing.
11:35 pm
and there always has been. in our political history, up to and including the present day nothing but nothing has been lied about more than taxes. by the time bill clinton ran for president in 1992, republicans had been successfully lying about taxes for so long. that the only way clinton could find to counter what republicans had lied about was to do what apparently came so naturally to him both as a person and a candidate and lie about it himself. bill clinton campaigned on a middle class tax cut after taking the oath of office, he flip-flopped. and pushed through congress the biggest tax increase in history. because it was the right thing to do for the government and for our economy. it was the single most important and politically most difficult step in getting the budget deficit under control and moving
11:36 pm
us toward a balanced budget. and when bill clinton left office, the budget was better than balanced. he left us with $128 billion surplus. the good thing about political liars is that they are sometimes capable of flip-flopping and doing the right thing. politicians who are completely ignorant have virtually no possibility of ever landing on the right thing in their guessing game about what to do or say next. tim pawlenty's big lie about taxes that he announced today is that america suffers from too much taxation, which he knows is a lie. and that it's time to cut our already low tax rates to much, much lower tax rates and actually eliminate most of our income tax rates leaving only two, a bottom income tax rate of 10% and a top income tax rate of 25%. this takes the decades' old
11:37 pm
republican tax plan of starve the beast, the beast being government, of course, to a new logical extreme. the real reason republicans want to cut taxes is not to stimulate economic growth. they know that doesn't work the way they claim it does. they want to cut taxes because they want to make government unable to do things liberals want government to do. they want to make sure the government is starved. the government nerve has enough money. that's the easiest way to keep government small. to take our 35% top tax cut rate down to 25% and then crush all our other intermediate tax rates to a bottom 10% would cut the flow of revenue to the treasury
11:38 pm
by something on the order of 50%. at least. balancing the budget would then mean cutting government in half, at least. and then the ensuing economic depression would cut government revenues even more dramatically leaving the economy and government in a death match that in the end would end up killing both of them. tim pawlenty and his economic advisors know all that. they also know that his plan would never even get a hearing in congress. but it certainly is a lie worth telling to get elected. as you listen to tim pawlenty and other republicans lie about taxes in this campaign, you would never know that federal taxes are at their lowest level since 1950. federal taxes are taking just
11:39 pm
14.8% of our national income, our gross national product. federal taxes have been hovering at below 15% of our income for the last few years. our taxes are lower than japan, lower than all european countries. and of course, lower than canada. but republican talk about taxes has always been a reality free zone. democratic talk about taxes unfortunately is usually only slightly more realistic than republican talk about taxes. democrats commonly suggest that the tax code can work all sorts of wonders that we have time and again proven it cannot do. targeted tax incentives commonly described as corporate tax loopholes for certain kinds of businesses have never created the jobs or the economic growth that both democrats and
11:40 pm
republicans have promised from such schemes. but finally a tax plan has emerged that makes more sense, anything anyone in congress or the white house has proposed it is the fairness in taxation act introduced in the house oof representatives. and surely on its way to nowhere legislatively. it would provide for higher tax bracket for the the rich. the truly rich. not people making $250,000 a year. not couples making $250,000 a year. it would provide new tax brackets for millionaires. real millionaires. more incomes over $1 million the new bracket would be 45%. over $10 million taxes would go up 1% to 46%.
11:41 pm
for incomes over $20 million 47%. and the top tax bracket would be for incomes over $1 billion at 49%. those rates on those 21st century incomes which we now know to be common in our economy all of those rates are still lower than the top tax bracket when ronald regan was president. all of those tax brackets are more than affordable at those income levels. all of those income levels are now taxed at a maximum of only 35%. and everyone who lives at those income levels employs at great
11:42 pm
expense accountants and lawyers who found legal tax avoidance strategies that reduce their real income tax rate to something far below 35%. none of them, not one of them actually pays 35% of their income in federal taxation. no one does. not one taxpayer. tim pawlenty now says he wants to cut their official tax rate ten full points down to 25%. if that happened, none of them would actually pay 25%. they would all pay much less than that through legal tax avoidance schemes including simple deductions like the home mortgage deduction, which for them is a deduction of interest over a million dollars on the interest they're paying on their mortgages. now that pawlenty has put tax lying pressure on mitt romney don't be surprised if mitt
11:43 pm
romney wants to cut the top tax bracket to something even crazier. something below 25%. what every republican is going to continue to lie about in the face of all the facts to the contrary is the tax cuts will magically increase revenue to the federal government. with the bush tax cuts we now have a ten-year, irrefutable proof that that is a lie. but you would have to be born yesterday in our politics to believe or hope that there could ever be a mathematical proof or a set of facts that could ever get republican presidential candidates even the smart ones who know better to stop lying about taxes. [ female announcer ] kiss everything you know about cookies goodbye. new newtons fruit thins. real cranberries and cranberry citrus oat... crispy whole grain.
11:44 pm
newtons fruit thins, one unique cookie.
11:45 pm
male announcer ]t thins, of some of the annoying symptoms menopause brings. go it's one a day menopause formula. the only complete multivitamin with soy isoflavones to help address hot flashes and mild mood changes. one a day menopause formula.
11:46 pm
somewhere in america, a city comes to life. it moves effortlessly, breathes easily. it flows with clean water. it makes its skyline greener and its population healthier. all to become the kind of city people want to live and work in. somewhere in america, we've already answered some of the nation's toughest questions. and the over sixty thousand people of siemens are ready to do it again. siemens. answers. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 are still talking about retirement tdd# 1-800-345-2550 like it's some kind of dream. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it's either this magic number i'm supposed to reach, or... tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it's beach homes or it's starting a vineyard. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 come on ! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 just help me figure it out tdd# 1-800-345-2550 in a practical, let's-make- this-happen kind of way. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 a vineyard ? schwab real life retirement services is personalized, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 practical help that's focused on making your retirement real.
11:47 pm
open an account today and talk to chuck tdd# 1-800-345-2550 about setting up your one-on-one consultation. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 for another perspective on anthony weiner's troubles, tonight in our very first media circus that msnbc missed segment, we go back in time four years before msnbc was born to january 27th, 1992, when the
11:48 pm
political sex scandal of the day erupted into a media circus as it did yesterday at a press conference at a hotel in midtown manhattan. come back with us in time and imagine what it would have been like if msnbc had the chance to cover the biggest bombshell that hit the clinton campaign for president. >> bill clinton took his case to the people today saying the woman who claims a long love affair is a liar. which is the same charge she made against him today. >> this is "nbc news lightly news" with tom brokaw. reporting tonight from nbc news headquarters in new york. >> good evening. no one wanted this presidential campaign to get sidetracked by
11:49 pm
stories of an extramarital affair, but tonight that's exactly what's happened as a result of allegations against arkansas governor bill clinton. widely regarded to be the leading democratic candidate until last week. the issue is, who's lying? clinton or the woman who today made her charges public? andrea mitchell is covering the story for us tonight. >> tom, bill clinton had hoped that his appearance on "60 minutes" last night would end further questions about his personal life. that was wishful thinking. at an elementary school in jackson, mississippi, this morning it was a first question a reporter asked. >> i'm done with this. i've said i should say. >> last night. >> i have acknowledged wrong doing. i have acknowledged causing pain in my marriage. i have said things to you tonight and to the american people from the beginning that no american politician ever has. >> i'm not sitting here some little woman standing by my man like tammy whynet. i'm sitting here because i love him and i respect him and i
11:50 pm
honor what he's been through and what we've been through together. >> he implied having been unfaithful to his wife, but avoided a direct answer. he denied a long-term relationship with jennifer flowers calling her a friendly acquaintance. at a news conference in new york, flowers who had been paid by a supermarket tabloid for her alleged confessions called clinton a liar. >> yes, i was bill clinton's lover for 12 years. and for the past two years i have lied to the press about our relationship to protect him. the truth is i loved him. now he tells me to deny it. >> flowers would not ask questions about her background and what she had been paid to go public. "newsweek" reports that flowers embellished her resume that she never appeared on television shows on won beauty pageants. her lawyer insisted that she has done some of those things but
11:51 pm
not completely accurate. flowers produced a tape. she released only excerpts not complete conversations. they were obvious breaks in the conversation indicating the tapes were edited. there is no way to independently verify their authenticity. none of the conversations prove her claims. in one alleged excerpt she suggests that the governor helped her get her state job. >> the only thing that concerns me is the state job. >> yeah, i never thought about that but as long as you say you've been looking fur one to check on it if they ever ask about me, say, no. >> clinton's office says he referred her for the job as a routine matter. late today clinton again denied flowers' charges. >> she didn't tell the truth. she hired a lawyer a year ago to say that anybody that said that was a liar and would be sued. she admitted that she changed her position for money. >> it is not yet clear how all of this will affect the outcome in new hampshire three weeks from now. >> i thought it was an exercise in hypocrisy.
11:52 pm
i thought that he didn't answer the questions. >> i think people have put these charges behind them. i think it's the media that's keeping it out in front. >> part of clinton's strength was the perception that he was more electable than the other democrats running this year. now that is in question. still leading party members say if he is telling the truth, he can survive. tom? >> thank you, andrea. >> joining me now jonathan alter and margaret carlson. jonathan you were at the press conference. what was the feeling in the room anyway bill clinton can survive this? >> i think people are just unsure. the media's unsure about how to handle it lawrence after leaving the hotel ballroom where that press conference by jennifer flowers took place, i went to
11:53 pm
"the phil donahue show." the audience was perplexed. the media was perplexed. i wrote that ""newsweek" story where she lied about her resume. clearly the idea that she was just an acquaintance of bill clinton is not true. >> margaret carlson listening to those tapes today, i don't see any way bill clinton can survive this. >> i don't see how president clinton could survive it either. >> moving pictures, tapes all of the rumors about bill clinton were coming to fruition. they were there for all to see in the flesh. of jennifer flowers. and not to put too fine a point on it. so i thought he's not that well known. he's doing well in new
11:54 pm
hampshire, that's partly because nobody wanted to run against george h.w. bush about 90% popularity. at that moment i said, no. he cannot survive this. >> never seen anything like it. stay with us. much more ahead on tonight's bombshell story jennifer flowers telephone tapes of her conversations with her lover, governor bill clinton democratic candidate for president. at bayer, we're re-inventing aspirin for pain relief. with new extra-strength bayer advanced aspirin. it has microparticles, enters the bloodstream faster and rushes relief to the site of pain. it's clinically proven to relieve pain twice as fast. new bayer advanced aspirin. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years.
11:55 pm
what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪
11:56 pm
11:57 pm
and we're back in 1992 on the day when jennifer flowers played her telephone tapes of presidential candidate bill clinton at a press conference in midtown manhattan. let's listen to a portion of those tapes. >> he'd better not get on there and start naming names. >> well, that's what i mean. you know, if all the people
11:58 pm
named deny. that's all, i mean, i expect them to come look into it and interview you and everything, but i just think that if everything's on record denying it, you've got no problem. >> let's take a look at the latest poll in 0000 it shows bill clinton about 21 points ahead. big lead over kerry. margaret, this looks like bob ker ree's moment. i don't see what prevents him from running to the front of the pack now. >> well, you have him and song gas who could take advantage of the situation. bill clinton is not that well known. he can show that he can handle a crisis. this is an opportunity to be not like gary hart, whom you'll require was a grim fleeting presence after the donna rice affair. so there is an opportunity. and one thing we know is hillary
11:59 pm
clinton is not going to break character. she's shown that. she is going to play the good wife all the way through. >> we're going to find out what kind of difference that makes. just four years ago 1988 the democratic front runner gary hart collapsed in a sex scandal. his wife was not very publicly supportive of him. you see hillary clinton trying to hold this together. >> right. last night on that special edition of "60 minutes", monster audience right after the super bowl. i happened to be at steve kroft's house for a super bowl party, we watched the interview. afterward i was talking to donahue et the founder of "60 minutes" on the phone, huet said this might help bill clinton