Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Senator Hillary Clinton's Tell-All Book on Sale
Aired June 09, 2003 - 08:20 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Senator Hillary Clinton's tell all about her eight years in the White House is on sale right now. Last night, the former first lady kicked off a promotional blitz for her book, titled "Living History." During an interview with Barbara Walters, Senator Clinton described her feelings after her husband admitted to his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: It was lonely, very, very difficult. I wasn't talking to my husband. I didn't have anything to say to him. I was so disappointed and angry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: More now on the interview and Hillary Clinton's history.
From New Orleans, senior writer Julia Reed of "Vogue" magazine and with us right here, our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield.
Good morning to both of you.
JULIA REED, "VOGUE": Hi.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi.
KAGAN: Julia, I'm going to go ahead and start with you.
Why does Hillary Clinton need to do this for herself? What's the game plan for herself and what she plans for the country?
REED: Well, I would have written any book that somebody offered me $8 million for.
KAGAN: Yes, well, there's that.
REED: I think there's the money. I think that, you know, obviously this is a woman very interested in staying on the public stage and I, you know, I think she certainly does have plans to run for the presidency. I don't think it was a particularly catharsis or anything. I mean I've heard other people say well, she needed to, you know, sort of get this out for psychological reasons. I don't think she got very much out.
So I think it would have to be, you know, a pretty economic and political move. KAGAN: Right. Well, there might be eight million reasons, as you said. One reason out there might be a potential run for the presidency, even though she says she's not. Barbara Walters asked her that.
Let's listen to a little clip from that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I don't have any intentions or plans of running. I'm flattered that the question gets asked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Jeff, she almost says it with a giggle in her voice, oh, me run for president? But do you think that there's a bigger picture in writing a book like this?
GREENFIELD: Yes. The first one is that you get the rough stuff out of the way presumably five years before she might run. But, look, of the 100 senators, no more than 95 look in the mirror every day and say, "And I should be president," right? I mean that's the first thing. The second thing, we're saying that we can know something about, as opposed to will she/won't she/might she is she's a very polarizing figure, uniquely so. Not just because of her politics, but because of the whole history.
But it turns out that sometimes polarizing figures who you never think could win get elected. I mean in 1962 Richard Nixon stomped off the national stage with a biter press conference after losing a governorship. Everybody wrote him off. Six years later he was president.
A lot of us, me included, at one point thought Ronald Reagan was too much of a polarizing figure to be elected president and he won two landslides.
So, as the Marxists used to say, if objective conditions change, if by 2008 people are looking back on the Clinton years with nostalgia, if, not so impossible.
But -- so that's as much as I think anybody can legitimately say they know.
KAGAN: The future will tell on that.
Julia, I just want to ask you, as a woman, are you offended when she comes off with this thing of, when she talks about how she felt lied to about the whole Monica deal, that she almost seems naive about what her husband might have been up to?
REED: Well, I think that, you know, Hillary Clinton is a lot of things and one of them is intelligent. Obviously she knew something was going on. But in this interview, you know, she sort of coyly said she didn't believe Gennifer, she still didn't, you know, she still doesn't believe Paula Jones, she didn't believe Monica. Well, obviously, I mean she can't be that crazy. And so I, you know, I think that the interesting thing -- and the book is built up as like this great revelation, the hardest decision I've ever made in my life was to stay with my husband. But I think she made that decision about 25 years ago. And the rest of her life has been a series of compromises to, you know, about that.
But it got her here, so here we go. It might have been worth it.
KAGAN: The music is steering the interview.
Julia Reed, Jeff, thanks.
REED: Thank you.
KAGAN: Our time is short.
Appreciate it.
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 9, 2003 - 08:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Senator Hillary Clinton's tell all about her eight years in the White House is on sale right now. Last night, the former first lady kicked off a promotional blitz for her book, titled "Living History." During an interview with Barbara Walters, Senator Clinton described her feelings after her husband admitted to his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: It was lonely, very, very difficult. I wasn't talking to my husband. I didn't have anything to say to him. I was so disappointed and angry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: More now on the interview and Hillary Clinton's history.
From New Orleans, senior writer Julia Reed of "Vogue" magazine and with us right here, our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield.
Good morning to both of you.
JULIA REED, "VOGUE": Hi.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi.
KAGAN: Julia, I'm going to go ahead and start with you.
Why does Hillary Clinton need to do this for herself? What's the game plan for herself and what she plans for the country?
REED: Well, I would have written any book that somebody offered me $8 million for.
KAGAN: Yes, well, there's that.
REED: I think there's the money. I think that, you know, obviously this is a woman very interested in staying on the public stage and I, you know, I think she certainly does have plans to run for the presidency. I don't think it was a particularly catharsis or anything. I mean I've heard other people say well, she needed to, you know, sort of get this out for psychological reasons. I don't think she got very much out.
So I think it would have to be, you know, a pretty economic and political move. KAGAN: Right. Well, there might be eight million reasons, as you said. One reason out there might be a potential run for the presidency, even though she says she's not. Barbara Walters asked her that.
Let's listen to a little clip from that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I don't have any intentions or plans of running. I'm flattered that the question gets asked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Jeff, she almost says it with a giggle in her voice, oh, me run for president? But do you think that there's a bigger picture in writing a book like this?
GREENFIELD: Yes. The first one is that you get the rough stuff out of the way presumably five years before she might run. But, look, of the 100 senators, no more than 95 look in the mirror every day and say, "And I should be president," right? I mean that's the first thing. The second thing, we're saying that we can know something about, as opposed to will she/won't she/might she is she's a very polarizing figure, uniquely so. Not just because of her politics, but because of the whole history.
But it turns out that sometimes polarizing figures who you never think could win get elected. I mean in 1962 Richard Nixon stomped off the national stage with a biter press conference after losing a governorship. Everybody wrote him off. Six years later he was president.
A lot of us, me included, at one point thought Ronald Reagan was too much of a polarizing figure to be elected president and he won two landslides.
So, as the Marxists used to say, if objective conditions change, if by 2008 people are looking back on the Clinton years with nostalgia, if, not so impossible.
But -- so that's as much as I think anybody can legitimately say they know.
KAGAN: The future will tell on that.
Julia, I just want to ask you, as a woman, are you offended when she comes off with this thing of, when she talks about how she felt lied to about the whole Monica deal, that she almost seems naive about what her husband might have been up to?
REED: Well, I think that, you know, Hillary Clinton is a lot of things and one of them is intelligent. Obviously she knew something was going on. But in this interview, you know, she sort of coyly said she didn't believe Gennifer, she still didn't, you know, she still doesn't believe Paula Jones, she didn't believe Monica. Well, obviously, I mean she can't be that crazy. And so I, you know, I think that the interesting thing -- and the book is built up as like this great revelation, the hardest decision I've ever made in my life was to stay with my husband. But I think she made that decision about 25 years ago. And the rest of her life has been a series of compromises to, you know, about that.
But it got her here, so here we go. It might have been worth it.
KAGAN: The music is steering the interview.
Julia Reed, Jeff, thanks.
REED: Thank you.
KAGAN: Our time is short.
Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
