“The Trump-era special counsel who scoured the Russia investigation for wrongdoing gathered evidence that undermines a theory pushed by some Republicans that Hillary Clinton’s campaign conspired to frame Donald Trump for colluding with Moscow in the 2016 election,” the New York Times reports.
“The information, a 29-page annex to the special counsel’s 2023 report, reveals that a foundational document for that theory was most likely stitched together by Russian spies.”
“The biggest name in Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday book back in 2003 was a past president rather than a future one,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was keen for Bill Clinton and other boldface names to submit letters for the special gift, according to people involved in putting it together.”
“In the end, she was successful.“
Alex Cooper — the most popular female podcaster in the world — sat down with Monica Lewinsky on her “Call Her Daddy” podcast for an hourlong conversation about her affair with then-President Bill Clinton, CNN reports.
“President Bill Clinton was so enraged by the treatment of his wife, Hillary, during her failed presidential bid that he couldn’t sleep for two years, he now admits – or stop complaining about the shock defeat,” the Daily Mail reports.
“Writing in his new memoir, an emotional Clinton issues an apology to all those who found him hard going in the years following the 2016 contest, won by Donald Trump, which he describes as ‘the darkest election possible in the United States.’”
Former President Bill Clinton says in his new book that he wishes he “had never met” Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sexual offender, the Washington Examiner reports.
“I thought your mother was the cat’s meow. She would flirt with me in the most innocent ways.”
— Bill Clinton eulogizing Ethel Kennedy.
Jonathan Martin: “It’s time to take the big dog off the porch and let him run. Bill Clinton should return to the campaign trail this fall and do what he does best: articulate to Americans why they should vote for Democrats.”
“It’s what Clinton plans to do in his remarks Wednesday night, same as he has at every Democratic convention for over three decades. And it’s how he could best help the party going into November.”
“Running what’s effectively a snap election with a ticket that, between them, has competed in a single, Covid-shaped national campaign, the party has an incentive to summon every possible asset to fend off Donald Trump.”
“As buoyant as so many at the convention are about their sudden change of fate after a summer from hell, it’s not hard to detect an underlying measure of concern about whether the moment can last. It’s not quite fatalism, but, as at the end of the late-night parties here, there’s a creeping sense that the alarm bell is going to go off in a couple of hours.”
“And few Democrats know that it’s not just joy that cometh in the morning than those who have been on the ballot.”
Former President Bill Clinton will be out Nov. 19 — two weeks after the election — with a new memoir, Citizen, about his personal and political life after Jan. 20, 2001, Axios reports.
Reuters: “Air Force One with President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton aboard was on its final approach to Manila on Nov. 23, 1996, when their U.S. Secret Service detail received alarming intelligence: an explosive device had been planted on the motorcade route into the Philippines capital.”
Former Bill Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart once referred to Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman as “one of the most ruthless killers in the world,” the Washington Beacon reports.
“That could prove awkward for the Democratic operative, who this week registered as a foreign agent of a sovereign wealth fund controlled by the Saudi leader.”
Will Marshall: “Is it really necessary to debate progressives again over Bill Clinton’s legacy?”
“Hundreds of sealed court filings pertaining to the late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein are set to be made public this week, and several prominent names — including Britain’s Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton — are expected to appear in the documents,” ABC News reports.
Hillary Clinton reacted to Donald Trump’s federal indictment by making a pitch for her “But Her Emails” merchandise.
“The Justice Department kept open the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s family foundation for nearly all of President Donald J. Trump’s administration, with prosecutors closing the case without charges just days before he left office,” the New York Times reports.
“Newly released documents and interviews with former department officials show that the investigation stretched long past when F.B.I. agents and prosecutors knew it was a dead end. The conclusion of the case, which centered on the Clinton Foundation’s dealings with foreign donors when Mrs. Clinton served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, has not previously been reported.”
New York Times: “This evening a private club on East 66th Street will continue a tradition dating to the 1870s with a black-tie dinner.”
“The honoree will be Hillary Clinton, who lost the presidency to Trump in 2016.”
“The timing is a coincidence, said John Sussek III, the president of the Lotos Club. The date was chosen around the beginning of the year, long before the grand jury hearing the case against Trump voted on the indictment that brought Trump to Manhattan from Mar-a-Lago, his resort in Florida.”
Andrew Sullivan: “I used to hate Bill Clinton’s State of the Union speeches. He’d usually arrive inexcusably late; proceed to hug everyone within touching distance; then blather on for well over an hour about every policy minutia the DC wonk class obsesses over. One year, he was still talking an hour and a half in. Then he’d stay forever afterwards, incapable of saying goodbye, absorbing every milliliter of love he could drain from the crowd, and generally looking like he was having the time of his life.”
“I was bored silly. But you know what? People loved those speeches. They loved the laundry list of post-big-government specifics, and they loved the way Clinton effortlessly stole most of the right’s policies, while appearing to be far saner and happier than any of them. And as I absorbed Biden’s SOTU this week, it was Bill Clinton who came to mind, the last Democrat who merrily triangulated his way to a landslide re-election.”
The offices of former Presidents Obama and Clinton say they turned over all classified materials to the National Archives at the end of their presidencies, The Hill reports.
Monica Lewinksy writes in Vanity Fair: “My name became public 25 years ago this week. What have I observed and learned in the quarter century since? Oh, plenty.”
Her most important lesson: “I don’t know how to say this other than to be direct and insufferably corny: You can survive the unimaginable.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.