| The media, to their credit, exposed Flowerss false claims about her education and work historyThese reports, however, were dwarfed by the allegationsI was dropping in the New Hampshire polls, and Hillary and I decided we should accept an invitation from the CBS program 60 Minutes to answer questions about the charges and the state of our marriageIt was not an easy callWe wanted to defend against the scandal coverage and to get back to the real issues without demeaning ourselves and adding fuel to the fire of personal-destruction politics, which I had deplored even before it burned meI had already said I hadnt lived a perfect lifeIf that was the standard, someone else would have to be elected President
We taped the program at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston on Sunday morning, January 26, for showing later that night, after the Super BowlWe talked to the interviewer, Steve Kroft, for over an hourHe began by asking if Flowerss story was prada fairy bags trueWhen I said it wasnt, he asked if I had had any affairsPerhaps I should have used Rosalynn Carters brilliant response to a similar question in 1976: If I had, I wouldnt tell youSince I wasnt as blameless as MrsCarter, I decided not to be cuteInstead, I said that I had already acknowledged causing pain in my marriage, that I had already said more about the subject than any other politician ever had and would say no more, and that the American people understood what I meant
Kroft, unbelievably, asked me againHis only goal in the interview was to get a specific admissionFinally, after a series of questions about Gennifer Flowers, he got around to Hillary and me, referring to our marriage as an arrangementInstead, I said, Wait a minuteYoure looking at two people who love each otherThis is not an arrangement or an understandingHillary then said she was sitting in the interview with me because I love him and I respect him and I honor what hes chanel black bucket tote bag been through and what weve been through togetherAnd you know, if thats not enough for people, then heck, dont vote for himAfter the early mud wrestling, Kroft grew more civil, and there were some good exchanges about Hillarys and my life togetherThey were all cut out when the long interview was edited, down to about ten minutes, apparently because the Super Bowl shortened the program
At some point during the session, the very bright, very hot overhead light above the couch Hillary and I were sitting on came loose from its tape on the ceiling and fellIt was directly above Hillarys head, and if it had hit her, she could have been burned badlySomehow I saw it out of the corner of my eye and jerked her over onto my lap a split second before it crashed on the spot where she had been sittingShe was scared, and rightly soI just stroked her hair and told her that it was all right and that I loved herAfter the ordeal, we flew home to watch the show black prada bag with ChelseaWhen it was over, I asked Chelsea what she thoughtShe said, I think Im glad youre my parents
The next morning I flew to Jackson, Mississippi, for a breakfast organized by former governor Bill Winter and Mike Espy, both of whom had endorsed me earlyI was uncertain whether anyone would come and what the reception would beTo my immense relief, they had to get extra chairs for a larger-than-expected crowd that seemed genuinely glad to see meSo I went back to work
It wasnt over, howeverGennifer Flowers gave a press conference to a packed house in New Yorks Waldorf-Astoria HotelShe repeated her story and said she was sick of lying about itShe also acknowledged that she had been approached by a local Republican candidate who asked her to go public, but she declined to name himSome of her tapes were played at the press conference, but except for proving that I had talked to her on the telephone, a fact I hadnt denied, the content chanel coin purse of the tapes was anticlimactic, given all the hoopla about them
Despite some later coverage, the Flowers media circus was endingI think the chief reason was that we had managed to put it in the right perspective on 60 MinutesThe public understood that I hadnt been perfect and wasnt pretending to be, but people also knew that there were many more important issues confronting the countryAnd a lot of people were repelled at the cash for trash aspects of the coverageAt about this time, Larry Nichols decided to drop his lawsuit, and he issued a public apology for, in his words, trying to destroy me: The media has made a circus out of this thing and now its gone way too farWhen that Star article first came out, several women called asking if I was willing to pay them to say that they had had an affair with Bill ClintonQuestions were raised about the tapes that were played at Flowerss press conferenceThe Star declined to release the original hermes birkin bags tape |