Journalist defends article slamming Bill Clinton
June 2, 2008
by Alex Mooney


(CNN) -- The Vanity Fair journalist who infuriated the Clinton campaign over the weekend with an explosive article that questions former President Bill Clinton's business dealings and behavior since leaving the White House strongly defended his reporting Monday.
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Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Friday in Mitchell, South Dakota.

Todd Purdum, the national editor of Vanity Fair, stood by his article's most controversial assertions in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, including charges that aides to the former president believe his 2004 heart surgery fundamentally altered the 61-year-old's state of mind.

Purdum, a former White House reporter for the New York Times and the husband of former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Meyers, also defended his claim that some aides grew concerned with rumors Bill Clinton had been "seeing a lot of women on the road."

The lengthy article hits newsstands later this week, though Vanity Fair has posted a copy on its Web site. The Web posting prompted a blistering response from Clinton campaign spokesman Jay Carson Sunday night, who called the piece "journalism of personal destruction at its worst." Video Watch CNN's Wolf Blitzer interview Purdum »

"A tawdry, anonymous quote-filled attack piece, published in this month's Vanity Fair magazine regarding former President Bill Clinton repeats many past attacks on him, ignores much prior positive coverage, includes numerous errors, and ultimately breaks no new ground," he added.
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The article, titled 'The Comeback Id,' is nearly 10,000 words long and examines Clinton's years since leaving the White House. Purdum paints Clinton as a man who has made millions in the last eight years while constantly globe-trotting on luxury jets with wealthy and controversial business associates, including California supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle and Hollywood producer Steven Bing. Purdum reports aides to the former president called his associations with these men "radioactive," and questioned the damage it is doing to his legacy.

"Among the not-so-small cadre of Clinton friends and former aides, concern about the company the boss keeps is persistent, palpable and pained," Purdum writes. "No former president of the United States has ever traveled with such a fast crowd, and most 61-year-old American men of Clinton's generation don't, either."
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In its most hard-hitting passages, the article also quotes aides who believe Clinton's heart surgery in 2004 left the former president in an altered state of mind -- one marked by constant anger and rage.

"There's an anger in him that I find surprising," one anonymous senior aide to the former president told Purdum. "There seems to be an abiding anger in him, and not just the summer thunderstorms of old. He has been called into question repeatedly by top staff. The fact is, you can only weigh in so often on this stuff. It's just a huge force of nature."

The Clinton campaign hit back at those charges, saying that theory is "false and is flatly rejected by President Clinton's doctors who say he is in excellent shape and point to his vigorous schedule as evidence of his exceptional recovery."

Purdum said he is not insinuating that Clinton's state of mind has indeed been altered, but noted that some aides raised the issue with him.

"These are people who worked for him for a long time, who knew him before the surgery and have dealt with him since. It's somewhat speculative obviously," Purdum said. "This is one of things they raised with me. I didn't go raising them."

Purdum added he himself believes there's evidence the former president is acting in a different manner.

"I think there's a good deal of evidence that he is quite a bit angrier than he used to be," he said. "He's clearly very angry at the media, and he's very angry at the way he sees Sen. Clinton's campaign has been treated."

In another of the article's more explosive passages, Purdum asserts several aides grew concerned over a year ago amid reports of inappropriate behavior by the former president while he was traveling. One aide unsuccessfully attempted to confront Clinton on that matter, believing he was "apparently seeing a lot of women on the road."

Purdum again insisted he was not insinuating that Clinton had been involved in inappropriate relationships, but rather reporting what aides had become concerned with.

"I'm very careful to say that there is no clear-cut evidence that President Clinton has done anything improper," he said. "What I am careful to say, and what is the truth, is that this former senior aide was concerned enough that prominent Democrats around the country were complaining about hearing reports of this in their own backyard that he felt President Clinton should be made aware of it, and should know that it was out there in the slipstream ... and that it could have an effect in the campaign season."

In his sharp critique of the article, Clinton's spokesman also criticized Purdum for not giving enough attention to the former president's charitable works through his foundation since leaving the White House. Carson noted the foundation has more than 800 staff members across the world who focus on expanding access to HIV/AIDS treatment, global poverty and environmental issues.

"Most revealing is one simple fact: President Clinton has helped save the lives of more than 1,300,000 people in his post-presidency, and Vanity Fair couldn't find the time to talk to even one of them for comment."
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Purdum said he acknowledged those deeds, but that they were not relevant to the article.

"Asking why I don't focus on that is a little bit like asking why the musical 'South Pacific' doesn't have a song about the Normandy invasion," he said. "It's just a different topic."

Bill Clinton sorry for 'scumbag' remarks, spokesman says
June 3, 2008
by CNN's Alex Mooney


(CNN) -- Hillary Clinton's campaign has apologized for "inappropriate" language used by her husband in response to what it called an "outrageously unfair" article about the former president.
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Bill and Hillary Clinton campaign in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Monday.

The article, by Vanity Fair magazine's national editor Todd Purdum, suggested that Bill Clinton's personality had changed since his 2004 heart bypass surgery and said that there were reports of Clinton "seeing a lot of women on the road."

Purdum quoted four anonymous former Clinton aides saying that another of his former assistants had conducted "what one of these aides called an intervention" about the reports of philandering.

A writer for the Huffington Post, Mayhill Fowler, asked Clinton on Monday what he thought "about that hatchet job somebody did on you in Vanity Fair," according to a recording of the exchange posted on the Huffington Post's Web site. Video Listen to Clinton call the reporter a "scumbag" »

"[He's] sleazy," Clinton responded. "He's a really dishonest reporter."

Clinton said he had not read the article but that he was told that "there's five or six just blatant lies in there. But he's a real slimy guy." Video Watch Larry King panel debate Bill Clinton's response »

Calling Purdum a "scumbag," Clinton said "he's one of the guys that propagated all those lies about Whitewater for Kenneth Starr. He's just a dishonest guy -- can't help it."
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Purdum "didn't use a single name, he didn't cite a single source in all those things he said," said the former president, who added that the article was "part of the national media's attempt to nail Hillary for [Barack] Obama."

He said readers should be wary of news accounts that rely on unnamed sources.

"Anytime you read a story that slimes a public figure with anonymous quotes, it ought to make the bells go off in your head," he said.

Late Monday, Jay Carson, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton's campaign, said that "President Clinton was understandably upset about an outrageously unfair article, but the language today was inappropriate and he wishes he had not used it."

Purdum, a former New York Times reporter who covered the Clinton White House and is now married to former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers, defended his article on CNN's "The Situation Room" Monday.

He told CNN's Wolf Blitzer he was "very careful to say there is no clear-cut evidence that President Clinton has done anything improper." Video Watch CNN's Wolf Blitzer interview Purdum »

"I reject the notion that I'm making an insinuation," Purdum said. "But I'm very comfortable quoting the people I quote because I know who they are, and I know that they are very senior people who have known President Clinton for a very long time and work for him at very high levels."

In his article, Purdum quotes a Johns Hopkins cardiologist -- who was not involved in Clinton's health care -- who says that the former president's bypass surgery could have affected his mood, perhaps even causing depression.
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And on CNN, Purdum quoted "some people who work for him" saying that Clinton "seems to be angry all the time."

Purdum added he himself believes there's evidence the former president is acting in a different manner.

"I think there's a good deal of evidence that he is quite a bit angrier than he used to be," he said. "He's clearly very angry at the media, and he's very angry at the way he sees Sen. Clinton's campaign has been treated."

"I don't suggest that anyone can say -- except perhaps his own doctors over time -- with certainty that [the surgery] has affected President Clinton," he said. "But again, this article involves reporting with a whole bunch of people who have worked for Bill Clinton over many years. And this is one of the things they raised with me. I didn't go raising this."

Clinton's office issued a rebuttal of Purdum's article that decried his use of "one doctor who has never examined President Clinton."

"This theory is false and is flatly rejected by President Clinton's doctors who say he is in excellent shape and point to his vigorous schedule as evidence of his exceptional recovery," the rebuttal said. Video Watch analyst James Carville's take on the article »

The lengthy article hits newsstands later this week, though Vanity Fair has already posted a copy on its Web site. The posting prompted a blistering response from Carson, who called the piece "journalism of personal destruction at its worst."
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"A tawdry, anonymous quote-filled attack piece, published in this month's Vanity Fair magazine regarding former President Bill Clinton repeats many past attacks on him, ignores much prior positive coverage, includes numerous errors, and ultimately breaks no new ground," he said.

Purdum last year wrote an article about efforts by Sen. John McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee for president, to draw in the party's more conservative voters.