President Clinton Does More Damage Control on Black Radio

Posted by Josh Gerstein
Mon, 14 Jan 2008 at 9:03 AM Permalink

In an interview Monday, President Clinton mounted a less-than-vigorous defense of comments a prominent supporter of Senator Clinton's presidential bid, Robert Johnson, made which many interpreted as a reference to Senator Obama's admission of drug use during his younger years.The interviewer, Roland Martin of WVON-AM in Chicago, played Mr. Johnson's statement Sunday in which he praised the Clintons for having "been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood - and I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in the book…" Mr. Martin sounded incredulous about Mr. Johnson's subsequent denial, in a statement issued by the Clinton campaign, that he was referring to drug use by Mr. Obama. "When you listen to that tone and the inflection, he was not talking about community organizing. It seems to me very clear what he was implying," Mr. Martin said.

"Ironically, this is the first time I've heard it, what you just said," Mr. Clinton said. "I listened to it on the tape and I think we have to take him at his word."

Mr. Clinton then launched into a defense of his "fairy tale" comments from New Hampshire which had not been raised at that point. The former president also sharply criticized Mr. Obama and his top adviser, David Axelrod, for statements suggesting that Mrs. Clinton's stance on Iraq made the death of assassinated Pakistani leader benzir Bhutto more likely. "That's a lot worse than anything Bob Johnson implied or said," Mr. Clinton said. "I don't believe anybody even asked Senator Obama about it. 'Oh you say she's responsible for something like that, that's fine.'

"Mr. Clinton then lit into the Obama campaign for its "overtly racist" opposition research piece labeling Mrs. Clinton as a senator from India "(D-Punjab)." Pressed further on Mr. Johnson's comments, Mr. Clinton retreated a bit, disclaiming any advance knowledge of his remarks on the part of the campaign. "Bob Johnson said what he said yesterday. Nobody knew what he was going to say. It wasn't part of any planned strategy."

Mr. Clinton also said campaign officials did not plan for the Attorney General of New York, Andrew Cuomo, to use the term "shuck and jive" in what appeared to some to be a reference to Mr. Obama's campaign, but which Mr. Cuomo said was a general comment about campaigning techniques in New Hampshire and Iowa. "Certainly, nobody had any advance notice of anything Attorney General Cuomo said," Mr. Clinton said.

Mr. Martin insisted that Mr. Johnson's denial was implausible. "Anybody listening can know what he was talking about—he wasn't talking about community organizing," the host said. "That's something between Bob Johnson and Barack Obama," Mr. Clinton eventually said, seeming to give up on defending the remark. "I think the psychological tensions on everybody are considerable. There are a lot of people who are supporting Hillary who always wanted to vote for an African-American for president. There are a lot of people who are supporting Barack who always wanted to vote for a woman for president," he added later. "It's not surprising that these sort of things will happen….They just happen. I think it's important not to overreact to them."

A series of callers to Mr. Martin's program following Mr. Clinton's call were deeply skeptical of his explanation and harshly critical of Mr. Johnson. One even doubted the former president's statement that he hadn't heard Mr. Johnson's comments, since the words were read to him on another program earlier in the day. Mr. Martin said Mr. Clinton seemed to be saying he had not previously heard the tape of the comments. It took more than an hour to hear a caller defend Mr. Clinton, even tangentially.

Mr. Clinton complained he had been the subject of sharp opposition research attacks by the Obama campaign over his business dealings with the Teamsters and reinvestment in minority communities. "It was a hard hit, man. I didn't say a word about it. And nothing happened to anybody who called Hillary the senator from Punjab," the former president said. "What they're trying to do both of them is figure out how they air their disagreements in a totally new and uncharted field loaded with minefields where people are nervous about is somebody playing the race card or the gender card or whatever," Mr. Clinton said. "I think we should just take what they say on the merits….I'm really proud to be in a party where you've got a woman and an African-American fighting out their differences of opinion."

Mr. Clinton refused to say whether he would vote for Mr. Obama or John Edwards if the race came down to them. "I don't think that that's fair to get me into that," the former president said. He did say he considered Mr. Obama more qualified than any of the Republicans seeking the White House.

Mr. Clinton also appeared Monday morning on the syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show, where the former president suggested Mr. Obama was benefiting from an unfair double standard. "We have been much kinder to him than he has been to her," Mr. Clinton said.

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