Here's my very own transcription of Clinton's interview with John Stewart on the Daily Show. This is part one of two. I thought this was such a good and important interview that I felt the need to transcribe it when I couldn't find a transcription online. This is part one of two.
Errors are entirely mine.
JS: Welcome back to the program, my guest tonight, a two term Democratic President, whose best-selling memoir is
My Life. Please welcome to the program President Bill Clinton.
Mr. President.
Have a seat sir. Thank you for coming. Nice to see you.
BC: I'm glad to see you.
JS: Thank you so much for coming on the program.
BC: I'm glad to be here, and I'm glad you did that riff on the military attack on Kerry too.
JS: That was a rough one, wasn't it?
BC: Yeah, but they did the same thing to McCain in 2000.
JS: Same Group, am I right?
BC: The same group.
JS: Nice kids.
BC: Yeah. In support of the same crowd, I might point out.
JS: Right--who had nothing to do with it.
BC: No. They also pointed out--they had a calling operation in South Carolina--the primary in 2000--talking about how John McCain had a black baby, and they didn't want the white voters to forget it.
JS: Right. They actually meant Strom Thurmond, they just had the wrong man.
BC: Actually McCain, he would have been perfect for this other little thing you did with the Democratic Party. Actually, McCain had adopted a child from Bangladesh, but it served the callers to call him black.
JS: Is it--you see--now I see the anger when you think about these tactics. For instance, I believe you may take a swing at me.
BC: No, I like you.
JS: Oh, that's very nice of you to say. Is it--has it gotten to the point--do you believe that politics has gotten so dirty, and so--that these types of attacks have become so prevalent that this is the reason that half of the country doesn't vote or this is the reason that we don't get, maybe the officials that we deserve.
BC: No, I think people do it because they think it works.
JS: That's it, simply strategy.
BC: Absolutely, and as soon as it doesn't work, they'll stop doing it. So Senator McCain, who I admire very much, made a big mistake not bashing the Bush campaign over the attacks on his service. They implied that he betrayed the country when he was a P.O.W. and he made a huge mistake in not bashing them for that calling operation saying he adopted a black baby. It was blatantly racist. And they'll do this stuff as long as they think it works. They're--
JS: Do the Democrats--
BC: --running this add against Kerry's military record because they think it's not good for them. I mean Kerry went to Vietnam and President Bush Vice President Cheney were big hawks were like me, we didn't go. All three of us could have gone, and we didn't, and Kerry did. So it's not good for them, and so they're trying to put a chink in his armor. But it's wrong, and if they really disapproved of it they would have said they disapproved of it.
There's a reason they didn't say they disapprove of it.
JS: They would allow to go.
BC: Yeah, they do that stuff. Look what they did to Max Cleland in Georgia. They--here Max Cleland left two legs and an arm in Vietnam, and in 2002 they ran ads against him. Again he was being opposed by a man, who like me and the President and the Vice President, did not go to Vietnam.
They ran ads comparing Max Cleland to Saddam Hussein, because he didn't vote for the Homeland Security Agency Bill exactly as the President had drafted it. And the treated him like a traitor. You know why he didn't vote for it?
Because the Bill removed all Civil Service protections from 170,000 federal employees, who had nothing to do with your security. So he said I didn't leave half my body in Vietnam to come home and strip 170,000 people of their job rites, just for a cheap election year issue.
But they beat him with it, and until we stop them, they'll keep doing it.
JS: Why is it to them. Cause it's hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that the Republicans will stoop to anything but the Democrats will not. Because I feel like I imagine both sides have their foibles. Why is it that the media or the Congress, or somebody doesn't have any oversite?
Why is it that a campaign commercial doesn't need to be as truthful as, say, a toothpaste commercial?
BC: Well to be fair--and since for about the last three elections, starting in '92, actually, the newspapers began to evaluate the truth and accuracy and fairness of the ads, and they do it more often. And this ad that you featured here (the swiftboat ad) has actually been subject to quite a bit of criticism, so we are getting better at it.
But when someone comes after you, you have to go back at them.
JS: Right. Are the Democrats as good at having--you know I watched alot of these 24 hour news channels. The Republicans seem really disciplined in terms of as soon as soon as Kerry announced Edwards, we all heard first and forthmost liberal senators in the senate--we heard way out of the mainstream--we heard all kinds of facts repeated in sort of a carpet bombing kindof a manner.
Not very much from the Democrats in defense.
BC: Well we're getting better at it. I think, you know, in '92 we were very good at it. And, and it worked, I mean, whenever they hit me, I hit em back. And whenever they came up with a charge I didn't think was true, I answered back. And that's what we have to do this time.
JS: Does it blow your mind--you know I look at it now, yesterday Haliburton basically said they committed fraud--fined $7.5 million from the SEC. Vice President was in charge of Haliburton at the time that this fraud was committed. Do you ever look at that and think, Travelgate, are you serious? Do you ever look at this and think, where's the outrage of seemingly much larger and much more crucial issues?
BC: Yeah, you know not only that but Haliburton got alot of no bid contracts in Iraq, paid for by money we appropriated from Iraqi oil. And for the war.
JS: Billion--Billions of dollars. They have an offshore subsidiary in the Kamen Islands that does business with Iran.
Why aren't--b-euh-Filegate, honestly? I mean does it drive you mad, or only me?
That drives me mad.
BC: Well I think we ought to be talking about it, if we keep it a secret the media will say, the mainstream media will say, well the Democrats aren't griping about it. We need to point it out, that's one of the things that I tried to do in my convention speech and I tried to do in this book. I said look, I don't hate them the way that they hated me and the way the kind of venom they put out against Kerry in this ad .
I think they believe certain things, and I believe certain things, and most Democrats do, and we have to say we believe in different things, that leads us to different tactics and also more importantly leads us to different policies, which will affect the lives of the American people, and we can't let them have the whole debate. So when they want to--I always took it as an opportunity when they attacked me.
I thought, that's a briar patch they can throw me in any day, because then I'll engage in the debate, and you're not being negative then. If all you're doing is responding to their attacks, then you're not being negative.
JS: Yeah it's like if they throw the first punch, lights out. Get the pool cue and go at them.
BC: That's my theory.
JS: I hear you, alright, you've been great. We'll be right back with more of President Bill Clinton.
