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Interview With Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
Aired June 30, 2003 - 15:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Former first lady and now New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's new book has been an instant best- seller with more than 1.5 million copies now in print. The reviews of "Living History" have included tough critiques by both "The Washington Post" and "The New York Times."
When I spoke with Senator Clinton late last week, I started by asking her if she thinks she should have been more candid in the book.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: I feel very comfortable about the book. And I've now probably, I guess, shaken hands with and signed books for maybe 12,000 people who have come to see me at these various book signings. And people are starting to come up and tell me about having read the book and saying, "Gee, I related to the story of your mom's life." Or, "I had the same kind of experience with my hair." Or whatever the note might be.
I hope that people will read it and draw their own conclusions. And that seems to be what's happening.
WOODRUFF: Do these criticisms, these reviews, do they ever get to you, or does it just roll off the back?
CLINTON: No. I mean I think people have -- you know, there have been a lot of positive reviews, there have been negative. That comes with the territory. But for me, what's important about this book is that it's my story that I've tried to tell in my way. And of course I care a lot about politics and policies, so people who don't like to read about adoption or foster care, or health care or welfare reform and think that it sounds political, you know they might skip those parts of it.
But those are really important matters to me, because I think politics matters. I think it really does count as to whether you're trying to help people, you know, get a better chance in life or not. And whether you're trying to help the circumstances of people's lives improve. And I have cared about that long before I've had the privilege to be a senator.
WOODRUFF: Just one other thing. I know you've been asked this question before -- I'm sure you've been asked this question before, but a number of people have said to me, all right, she's a smart woman, she's a canny woman. She's been around. How could she have been so surprised and so shocked when her husband came to her that August morning in 1998? All the indications were there, the handwriting was on the wall. You may be sick of the question, but there's still women out there looking at you and saying, Hillary Clinton, here she is, one of the smartest people around, how could she have not known?
CLINTON: Well, in the book I explain that by January of 1998 I had been accused of so many things that were totally untrue, and I had seen headlines about myself, I heard news reports about me that I, frankly, had stopped believing a lot of what I read because I knew that there was no basis and fact.
So when these stories started coming out and my husband said that they weren't true, I really did believe him because my view was that after what we had gone through and so many of these stories, I wasn't going to take the word or the charge of somebody else. And, you know, it was a terrible disappointment and a very personally wrenching time to be told by him. But until he told me, I was not prepared to believe it because I just thought it was part of the ongoing effort that I had personally been subjected to and that I found so distasteful, that I just really put it out of my mind.
WOODRUFF: A lesson there for other women?
CLINTON: I think the lesson here is that you have to do what is right for you. And that is my overriding message in this book. You know, I've had friends who have faced tough times in life, in marriage, in their jobs. They've made choices that I thought were responsible, but weren't the ones I would have made, and I'm sure vice versa.
But what I've fought for and really tried to stand for is that women now are full human beings with all that that means, to take responsibility for ourselves. So I made a decision that I thought was right for me and my family, and I will support other women doing the same.
WOODRUFF: Do you ever get mad at your husband that you have to answer these questions at all?
CLINTON: Well, you know, as I write in the book, I do consider these to be personal, private matters. I wish they had never been forced into the public, but unfortunately they were for partisan political purposes, as we know.
It should never have happened. It's regrettable that it did, that it put my family, our country through this. But since it was made public, then I had to address it. I couldn't very well write a book about those eight years and not talk about my reaction and experience.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on her book, "Living History."
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 30, 2003 - 15:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Former first lady and now New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's new book has been an instant best- seller with more than 1.5 million copies now in print. The reviews of "Living History" have included tough critiques by both "The Washington Post" and "The New York Times."
When I spoke with Senator Clinton late last week, I started by asking her if she thinks she should have been more candid in the book.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: I feel very comfortable about the book. And I've now probably, I guess, shaken hands with and signed books for maybe 12,000 people who have come to see me at these various book signings. And people are starting to come up and tell me about having read the book and saying, "Gee, I related to the story of your mom's life." Or, "I had the same kind of experience with my hair." Or whatever the note might be.
I hope that people will read it and draw their own conclusions. And that seems to be what's happening.
WOODRUFF: Do these criticisms, these reviews, do they ever get to you, or does it just roll off the back?
CLINTON: No. I mean I think people have -- you know, there have been a lot of positive reviews, there have been negative. That comes with the territory. But for me, what's important about this book is that it's my story that I've tried to tell in my way. And of course I care a lot about politics and policies, so people who don't like to read about adoption or foster care, or health care or welfare reform and think that it sounds political, you know they might skip those parts of it.
But those are really important matters to me, because I think politics matters. I think it really does count as to whether you're trying to help people, you know, get a better chance in life or not. And whether you're trying to help the circumstances of people's lives improve. And I have cared about that long before I've had the privilege to be a senator.
WOODRUFF: Just one other thing. I know you've been asked this question before -- I'm sure you've been asked this question before, but a number of people have said to me, all right, she's a smart woman, she's a canny woman. She's been around. How could she have been so surprised and so shocked when her husband came to her that August morning in 1998? All the indications were there, the handwriting was on the wall. You may be sick of the question, but there's still women out there looking at you and saying, Hillary Clinton, here she is, one of the smartest people around, how could she have not known?
CLINTON: Well, in the book I explain that by January of 1998 I had been accused of so many things that were totally untrue, and I had seen headlines about myself, I heard news reports about me that I, frankly, had stopped believing a lot of what I read because I knew that there was no basis and fact.
So when these stories started coming out and my husband said that they weren't true, I really did believe him because my view was that after what we had gone through and so many of these stories, I wasn't going to take the word or the charge of somebody else. And, you know, it was a terrible disappointment and a very personally wrenching time to be told by him. But until he told me, I was not prepared to believe it because I just thought it was part of the ongoing effort that I had personally been subjected to and that I found so distasteful, that I just really put it out of my mind.
WOODRUFF: A lesson there for other women?
CLINTON: I think the lesson here is that you have to do what is right for you. And that is my overriding message in this book. You know, I've had friends who have faced tough times in life, in marriage, in their jobs. They've made choices that I thought were responsible, but weren't the ones I would have made, and I'm sure vice versa.
But what I've fought for and really tried to stand for is that women now are full human beings with all that that means, to take responsibility for ourselves. So I made a decision that I thought was right for me and my family, and I will support other women doing the same.
WOODRUFF: Do you ever get mad at your husband that you have to answer these questions at all?
CLINTON: Well, you know, as I write in the book, I do consider these to be personal, private matters. I wish they had never been forced into the public, but unfortunately they were for partisan political purposes, as we know.
It should never have happened. It's regrettable that it did, that it put my family, our country through this. But since it was made public, then I had to address it. I couldn't very well write a book about those eight years and not talk about my reaction and experience.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on her book, "Living History."
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
