Transcripts For CSPAN2 Washington Journal 20140901 : vimarsa

The website clayrisen. Com. Edward klein appeared on cspan washington journal to discuss his latest book blood feud. In the book mr. Klein says the hatred and distrust between the clintons and obamas runs deep and each side tries to gain political advantage over the other whenever possible. This is about 45 minutes. Our next guest joins us from new york and he is the author of a new book taking a look at relationships train the clintons and obamas. Its a blood feud the title. Edward klein running from new york. Welcome. Guest thank you for having me. Host why did you turn your attention to these two families . Guest the media spent a great deal of time writing and talking about the feud that exists in the Republican Party between the tea party and the establishment wings of the party but spent virtually no time at all on the feud that is going on between the two democratic families obama and clinton. And that feud is going to affect who gets the democratic nomination and maybe who is even in the white house in 2016. So, i thought it was an end to the story that deserved a book. Mr. Klein what is the feud over . Guest its over many different things. First of all it is a personal feud between the clintons and obamas over the kind of words that they hurled at each other during the 2008 president ial primary in which the obamas called bill clinton a racist and hillary called obama a fairy tale but they never really forgot those slurs but even more important there is an ideological battle between the left wing of the party that is represented by barack obama and the more centrist Center Left Wing of the party that represented by the obamas so this is a battle not only over personal slight revenge but also over ideology. And you say that president obama is more left of center and then president clinton more center in its approach and those two kind of expose themselves as they came to the forefront not only over his wife and her future but also about the support of president clinton would ultimately give to the reelection campaign. Guest thats right. As we know in 2012 president clinton made a rising speech for barack obama at the Democratic National convention and the media played that while we are now united. That was part of the deal bill clinton and barack obama struck during the game in which bill said he would support obama in return for the support in 2016. Was a political arrangement that fell apart after the election when barack obama changed his mind and decided that he was going to keep his options open in 2016 and he hasnt backed Hillary Clinton and her march towards the nomination. Host part of that meeting that you spoke about talks about president clintons view of the meeting and one of the quotes of the book is partial from the book saying that clinton said i hated that man more than any man ive ever met but the important thing to keep in mind is that the decision to invite me out for a game of golf is a sign of weakness since any deal we might strike might immediately placed obama in my debt. Can you add some context to this . Disco bill thought by backing obama and giving a speech that speech at the convention in august of 2012 he had placed barack obama and his in his debt. Thats what happens in politics. Its generally one hand watches the other. The problem is bill clinton watched obamas hand but when it came time, obama would make them ideal. And according to my sources who were in the room with bill clinton when he got the news, he placed his face in his hands and shook his head and he was so upset that Hillary Clinton thought he was going to have a heart attack over this what he considered to be the deal. Host thereve been questions about your sources especially more salacious parts of the books but attributed it to people with no name specifically. What do you make of the claims and why not bring more people to the forefront as people that give you the sources and give you the names . Guest that is a very legitimate question that has been asked of bob woodward whose books in all Anonymous Sources again change authors and the other fellow whose name escapes me for the moment, all the sources are anonymous. Thank you very much. They are sources when you report on current political battles its hard to get people on the record because they dont want to lose their access to the people in power. So ive developed over the course of many years during the books ive written on Hillary Clinton and barack obama the last book i wrote was called the amateur barack obama in the white house i have a rolodex of the sources ive come to depend on whos proven to be absolutely accurate again and again and again and these people will talk to me for a variety of reasons not the least of which they like to see themselves as important important endquotes to cover, but none of them will go on the record and understandably so. Host edward klein to talk about the book blood feud and takes a look at the tension between the clintons and obamas. Also about kennedy entered other topics. Heres your chance to do so. 202 5853880, republicans 202 5853881, an and independent 202 5853882. Twitter at cspan wj and if you want to send a question for email it is journal abstracts cspan. Org. Mr. Klein you talked about the promises made before the election and what was kept afterwards but you also bring in Valerie Jarrett the president s adviser. What is her role in all of this . Guest i say in blood feud Valerie Jarrett is the single most important behind the scenes adviser in the white house since Harry Hopkins more than 70 years ago in the Franklin Roosevelt administration. Hopkins was a friend of both Franklin Roosevelt and eleanor. Valerie jarrett is best friends with both Michelle Obama and barack obama and she lives in the white house. By that i mean she literally has a suite of rooms that she occupied permanently in the white house. She has the secret service detail. She eats with the president at the first lady every night that they are in the white house. She goes on vacations with them. She goes to whatever meeting she wants to attend. And she carries the president s message to the cabinet ministers and other people in the administration. There has been no one since Harry Hopkins way back in the 40s and has this kind of power. Host and you write saying she watched over him and made him feel safe. She was the special charge. She focused on him and devoted to the life to him and gave the kind of unconditional love that he never received from his mother who frequently abandoned him as a child. Guest thereve been several biographies and a lot of speculation about the fact that his mother wasnt around a lot. She traveled a great deal loss with her grandparents. When she was around, she felt a great need to win over her love according to many books by showing what a great man he would become. The way that he has a similar relationship with both his wife who he really wants to please and Valerie Jarrett who is a kind of substitute mother figure. Host first call is from kathy in montgomery texas on the republican line. You are on with edward klein. Good morning. Caller yes. Good morning. Im so happy that you wrote this book and i have a comment area the clintons are so fake and this is what they do they went overboard thinking that barack obama would would save at the end of today like bill clinton did when he made that ridiculous speech and this is what he got for dealing with the devil. Thank you. That is an interesting question. You know, its interesting that bill clinton has been taking some soundings in various states across the United States with Democratic Party chairman building a support team for hillary in 2016 and he has told his friends and associates that when he speaks to the party chairman, the democrats, he learns not to be Obama Administration and the political people in the administration have been there as well and that they are looking for what bill clinton calls the phone of obama who will come out of nowhere and challenge hillary for the 2016 democratic nomination. So, in bill clintons is there is no greater obstacle getting the nomination then barack obama host sean independent line. Caller ideally the great economy of the 90s was in spite of bill clinton but not because of him. Remember she signed off on nafta and approving of china being the most favored nation status 20 years ago then he signed off on the repeal of the act that causes a great recession. We now have to set the stage for china and other countries in the manufacturing jobs to the economy now as a result of bill clinton. Hopefully the democrats will get some incredible like joe biden to run and certainly not hillary. Thank you. Guest thank you for that question. It is interesting that bill clinton be the single most popular politician in america is not in the if not in the entire world right now. There seems to be a collective amnesia about what the Clinton Presidency was like. We did balance the budget and he just sat during the clinton years we did do reform of welfare. But that was in conjunction with a Republican Congress which in many ways forced his hand. What we seem to have forgotten is that during the clinton administration, your right about the glasssteagall act which allowed the banks to do their own trading and which ultimately resulted in the collapse of the economy in 2008 post even in my estimation a more important failure and that is that during the clinton years nothing seriously was done about the rise of al qaeda and the islamic terrorism that now is shaking the world to its foundation. So it is interesting that bill is popular wherever he goes but no one seems to remember anything from monaco to terrorism. Host you say hes popular with one person he wasnt popular with his Valerie Jarrett. Why is this . Esko thats an excellent question because the blood feud between the two families, the obamas and bill clintons hands as i said before an ideological personal dimension and one of that is that when they are with their friends and associates and political advisers that they dont believe that, and im saying this is what they said they dont see obama that the clintons stand for any principles. They look down upon them as opportunists. On the other hand, the clintons for their part look on the obama team is a bench of amateurs and inexperienced people who seem to fumble of the great issues of the time because they dont know how to govern. So there are so many reasons why these two songs. Besides dont get along. Host debbie on the democratic line. Caller cspan you are getting to be Something Like fox news. He cant even say president obama. The country is so divided. Its ridiculous every time and you have more people speaking for different things. I watch cspan everyday and im a 75yearold retired and its ridiculous. Why dont you direct a question or comment directly to the guest . Guest we just got through talking about the Supreme Court and now hes coming out with more negative stuff. In this country that we are living in host anything you would like to respond to . Guest i had a little bit of trouble hearing her. The connection wasnt very clear but i think what i am hearing is that what about all of this negativity . Why is there so much negativity in the country and is my book the blood feud between clinton and obama adding fire to the negativity. And i would say to the caller i am just as patriotic as you are. I feel that youre right this country is divided and thats what we need is to pick a leader in the white house and congress that knows what they are doing. The most recent poll that just came out today think president obama is the worst president in 70 years. A lot of people think this is based on racism but because hes africanamerican, people dont respect him. I dont happen to share that view. I think that the opposition to barack obama by so many people is plummeting poll ratings to do with what i consider to be the scentless inexperienced fumbling administration that doesnt seem to be able to get its act together. Host mr. Klein klein somebody on twitter says if there is a feud between the clintons and obamas, bayshore highgate well. Guest be used to hide it well. Thats true. Im not so sure they are still hiding it so well because only recently, bill clinton cannot publicly and said that obamacare was a flawed law. That is a big statement from bill clinton and a huge blow to president obama. That a former democratic president would say that it needs to be revised. On her part, hillary has come out publicly and said that despite white house claims that the irs scandal is an invented scandal, but its really not a scandal at all and she thinks it is the scandal and that it should be looked into she almost came out and said she thought this should be a special prosecutor. These are statements by the clintons that indicate they are beginning to put space between themselves and the Obama Administration as they get closer to the time hillary is going to renounce if she is running for president. Caller hello mr. Klein. It seems to me that mr. President obama even though she was having trouble with the clintons he also doesnt care for mr. Bush either. So if you want to put this in some kind of a realm, two president s that were sitting president s in the house now and besides thats when they were in the happened to have it very good because they were at a stage where electronics were coming up. I would like to respond and say that if you get to the matters he won the presidency in 2008 by his opposition to george w. Bush and the iraq war. That was his key platform. Now he blames bush again and again and again for the problem he has inherited. Barack obama in my view and the view of the clintons has caused many of his own problems. Hillary clinton urged barack obama to get involved in syria earlier in that war not with the Ground Troops but with the support of the opposition to the regime. We wouldnt be seeing the spread of radical islam from serious in to iraq that we are seeing today. Than the Obama Administration tried to make a good relation with black america can and weve seen how that worked out. Of blaming the past is no excuse and of the clintons feel very strongly that as bill clinton once put it and i use this as the title of my macs to book barack obama as an amateur. Thats the title of the last book in the kennedys as well. Edward klein is the guest from new york and the title of the current work dot obamas versus the clintons. Alabama goahead. Caller hello. Can you hear me . Guest yes, go ahead. Caller if he was incompetent he wouldnt be the president. If he wasnt he wouldnt have been there. So you were saying are saying he is incompetent at what you are doing you have to view, not the president. Guest im going to let other people decide and confident or not. Ive been a journalist ive written 12 books both of which have been on the bestseller list i used to be the editorinchief of the New York Times magazine and before that, i was the Foreign Editor of newsweek so i had a long history of achievement and i feel that my books have again and again proven to be true. As far as the president is concerned about the only person who is saying that this is an incompetent administration. This seems to be spreading among the Political Class even liberal democrats have been critical of the administration giving you one example where barack obama threatened that if the president of serious cross a red line that obama drew and used chemical weapons that the United States would take military action that would threat from the president of the United States to back down on that after the weapons were used not for credibility for himself at credibility for the stature of the United States throughout the entire world to be at host text from georgia, democrats line. Caller yes thanks to cspan. Theres been a law to send since ive been on the phone that i think they just want to make money for his book. Its tough to try to make money on his book but i think that hes trying to. They are talking about the red wine and some of those things going up and hillary hasnt even decided to even run yet. We dont know what obama is going to do for supporting hillary. Guest i hope you have an opportunity to read my book, blood feud, clintons versus the obamas. Because this book documents chapter after chapter because the family fights that fight that is going on in the Democratic Party between the two great families. And it isnt only either to many of my sources in many of the sources and other publications who have documented this growing feud. And i think as we go beyond the 2014 Midterm Elections and start getting really involved in the president ial campaign which will happen after november youll see the widening rift between the two wings of the Party Represented by obama in the left hand of a clintons on the centerleft. Host roger says were selecting hillary as the secretary state a confession and keeping your enemies closer . Guest yes, it was. That is exactly correct. The appointment of Hillary Clinton as the secretary of state was opposed by Valerie Jarrett and Michelle Obama on the ground that it would bring the clintons into the white house and complicate obamas ability to get his policies through. But in fact, in obamas point of view and the other political advisers, bringing hillary in a way forced bill clinton to silence cannot be an active opponent of the obama was. So so for instance bill clinton literally signed an agreement with the Obama Administration that if hillary were appointed as the secretary of state, he wouldnt make any speeches in Foreign Countries for which by the way he used to get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars as we know now. Or say anything in major policy speeches that was not first vetted and cleared by the white house. So, by bringing hillary and as a twitter person said, he kept his enemies close and kept them quiet. Host mr. Klein of the wall street journal has a story this morning taking a look at both bill and hillarys ability to raise cash from corporate sources. What exactly are they looking for as far as the deal that was made in 2012 . Guest i think at this point theyve practically given up on getting the obamas active support for summary in 2016. Theyve been creating a parallel Democratic Party administration separate from the Democratic National committee which is controlled by the white house. Bill has been actively involved in this and putting together policy books. Hes been bringing major donors and political figures down to iraq where he has his clinton library. Hes been spending all of his time putting together the campaign that hillary is going to run. In fact, he has turned over most of the daytoday running and policy decisions of the Clinton Foundation to his daughter who is now in charge while bill is spending his time on hillarys campaign. Host what about the Obama Campaign database, names, donations, what has happened to that . Guest that is a very good question because part of the deal that i mentioned during the golf game at Andrews Air Force base in which bill thought he had a deal with obama part of the deal is in addition to the supporters that he would turn over that whole database and allow bill of the Democratic National committee all ofhi wch obama has since reneged on. Host jamie is on the independent line. Go ahead. Host jamie is on the independent line. Go ahead. Caller my name is amy host go ahead. Caller i am going back a bit. Its very hard for somebody on the west coast apparently to get in and they arent very kind with the phone numbers. But i want to know what your guest thinks about the current Supreme Court and particularly about its decisions in hobby lobby host i dont what that is the topic we are engaged in this morning. You are welcome to continue but we want to see if they want to comment on your book but if you want to comment, go ahead. Its true i will give a brief comment and say that the coverage of the Supreme Courts decision and reaction from the Obama White House in my view overlooked the fact that the Supreme Court did not say that the smaller corporations didnt have to give any contraceptive health care. It was just some contraceptive Health Care Including the day after those which some people think is an abortion pill. But as far as the contraceptives its still covered. They are very inexpensive as well. And i dont think that this Supreme Court decision was that radical although i certainly think that the Obama Administration is seeing it as a big body blow to obamacare. Host democratic line. Go ahead. Caller hello. Good morning. Can you hear me . Caller how are you. I just want to comment on it until he you are a professional author and i just think that when you write you sound pro republican and that is your choice. But if you look at the administration. Its always been a government and its always been what it is, politics as usual. But as president obama was elected was a relentless pursuit for imperfection and thats okay but to portray him as being what he is, less than a president i think that is an insult to the nation and america, wake up. We are showing our hypocrisy. Guest i would like to comment on that, and i think it is a very sensitive issue. Among the Africanamerican Community in the United States as i understand from my interviews, there is a deep feeling that this president is being unfairly attacked because of his grace. Im on rights but is not as common although a number of liberals agree with that point of view. I dont comment on that in my book because i dont think im qualified to do so. I comment in my book blood feud about the actual policies carried out by this administration about the conflict between bill clinton who by the way is a great friend of the Africanamerican Community and so his criticisms of obama i think is very hard to say its based because he himself jokes that he was the first black president and others called him the first black president because he did so much good for africanamericans in this country. So this feud is racial based between the obamas and clintons. I have a couple of questions and then a comment and a suggestion for the next book. If hes talking from africanamericans perspective and you look at both president s past and present my question first of all as are you republican republican democrat or independent . Guest im a registered independent. Caller you are a registered independent. Then my next question would be what prompted you to write this book and as a lot of callers have and as you you are prompting me to make this phone call is because you are not qualified and i can understand that but then what do the do they share with you about the accomplishment that the president has . Guest i would like to comment on that if i it if i may. Host go ahead, sir. Go ahead mr. Klein. Guest okay. I made many trips chicago where barack obama began his political career and where the Africanamerican Community was the First Community that got behind him in a strong way raised money for him and watched him in his political career and ive interviewed many members in chicago almost without exception they are disappointed with barack obama because once he got into the white house, they never heard from him again. They made phone calls, they wrote letters, they sent emails. They said, you know, here we were with a cause first day people who were there at the beginning of the career and who without whom he couldnt have risen to great heights that he had and he has forgotten them. But ive also interviewed jews who raise a lot of money for barack obama. Christians who are liberal and are very pro obama and they almost say without exception they love this man and youre happy to be behind him but he has shown no gratitude towards them or even made an effort to bring them closer to the white house to show his gratitude and this feeling is also common among members of congress. Democrats and republicans alike. He doesnt get to know them. This isnt me just reporting this. This is many journalists both in the Mainstream Media by the liberal media and the conservative media. Host james from delaware. He wore on. Go ahead. Caller yes i want to ask the guest question but first i want to address what he just said about the africanamerican view of obama. They thought he was doing more for the community than he did because he faced the comment that no one imagined he would. He faced opposition that no one even knew he would so even if we appear to look towards an African American community that would be called different names. But thats what i wanted to ask the guest is he said earlier that there was a poll that said obama is the first present and he agreed to that does he have any idea what the last administration was . Did Rupert Murdoch by the station . Because every day you have a pervasive political hacks coming on criticizing the democrats in the administration. Why dont you tell us. Host that isnt the case but go ahead with your thoughts. Disco maybe you can summarize for me. Guest host he was saying the particular criticisms of the president by congress and others with particular relations in congress. Thats with congress. Thats my gathering but go ahead. Caller guest the clintons feel as ive described in this book that obama hasnt shown the political talent to even try to work with his this congress. For instance, lets remember that when bill clinton was president , he had a republican revolution on his hands, and that Newt Gingrich came in and essentially said the president was irrelevant almost. He came very close to saying that. And what did bill clinton do . Bil clinton rather than dig in and say i am just going to do what i want to do irrespective of the congress, he triangulated as they call it keep out Common Ground with the Republican Congress to do many very important things that weve already mentioned, balance the budget, reform welfare, send 100,000 new Police Officers on the streets of American Cities and on and on and on and so there so there was a political calculation on bill clinton that he could work even with a opposition. This hasnt happened during the Obama Administration. There is virtually no communication between him and the republicans. Im not suggesting for a second the republicans havent been very critical of him. They have. But i interviewed Vernon Jordan and africanamerican who was on the record in my book by the way and has been a major figure in the Democratic Party for many years and he said yes theyve made it difficult for this president , but when you argue with a resident who are expected to lead and this leadership has been misleading. Vernon jordans wife is a relative of Valerie Jarrett. Host nasa to chooses, hello. Caller how are you doing. First of all, the republicans are the ones that put us into this mess. But congress isnt worth both of these terms. And i would like you to come back on after the Midterm Election say he was going to be running because the republicans are going down the tubes, trust me i would have fought back after the Midterm Election and i would like you to come back and listen to my comments. Guest i would like Nothing Better than to come back to cspan and if they invite me, i will be here and i will be delighted to talk to you after the Midterm Elections. Host this is about president ial advisers that goes to some of the topics of the book. Do you view you bb the advisers of president obama and clinton came from the same exclusive think tank pool . Guest no i dont. I think that president clintons advisors came from what was called a Democratic Leadership Council which was a centerleft group that tried to bring the Democratic Party away from its radical base to more of the centrist position. The Obama Administration has been by and large run in its policy decisions by political people. Im talking about David Axelrod who helped him get elected and im talking about Valerie Gerrit. I will give you a concrete example of this. In my book i had discussed a needing that took place between bill and Hillary Clinton and caroline kennedy. At her apartment on park avenue in new york. Caroline kennedy was about to take up the post as ambassador to tokyo in japan and she watched advice from hillary, the former secretary of state about what she should expect. Hillary told her according to the sources that she spoke to later dont be surprised if your marching orders as ambassador comes not from the state department but from Valerie Gerrit in the white house who is essentially a political advisor and not a policy person. I think that says volumes about how this administration has been run. They workedt how together as a couple, particularly in the political sense. How guest that would take us a long time. Would say as quickly as i can say this, that the clintons have a marriage that is somewhat similar to the marriage of franklin and eleanor roosevelt. It is essentially a working relationship. They have gone their separate ways in many ways. They do not live together often. But they are colleagues and collaborators on policy as eleanor and franklin were. On the other side, the obama side, we have a first lady in Michelle Obama who is best friends with valerie