Hillary Tells Bill To Back Off On Bosnia Comments

From CBS News’ Ryan Corsaro:



Hillary Clinton is telling her husband to back off from making comments about her trip to Bosnia after he blundered several facts when defending the trip yesterday.

“Hillary called me and said ‘I misstated it, you misstated it.’" President Clinton said. “She’s right, I wasn’t there, I don’t remember the facts either.”
He said ultimately his wife told him, “you weren’t there, let me handle it,” to which Clinton says he replied, “yes, ma’am.”

At an event in Boonville, Ind., yesterday, the former president said that the media “blew up” the story of Clinton’s visit to Bosnia in 1996. He claimed his wife made the comments that she avoided sniper fire and canceled a welcoming ceremony - which were later disproved by CBS News video of the event – were comments she made late at night while sleep deprived and that she had apologized.

In fact, she made the statements around 9 a.m. in a prepared speech on March 17th, and later repeated them at a press conference that followed. She claimed to have “misspoke,” but never actually apologized for the comments.

Asked if he was going to bring up the event while campaigning in the future, Mr. Clinton said he would not. “But I think I talk about at every stage what she did for the troops,” he added.

Clinton went on to say his wife had a real record for supporting troops in combat and veterans of war.

President Clinton was visiting the site of the Clinton headquarters in Terre Haute, which burned down in a fire yesterday. Two workers at the campaign office escaped without injury.

When asked if it was a bad sign, Clinton said, “No, I think it might be a good omen. We’re rising from the ashes like a phoenix.”