Webloggin » Condoleezza Rice - Bill Clinton’s Statements on Fox Interview are Flatly False

It appears that there is no love lost between Bill Clinton and Condoleezza Rice. Today’s New York Post has a Condoleezza Rice rebuttal article to the Bill Clinton - Chris Wallace interview that stops short of calling Bill Clinton a liar and instead inserts the phrase “flatly false”.

September 26, 2006 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday accused Bill Clinton of making “flatly false” claims that the Bush administration didn’t lift a finger to stop terrorism before the 9/11 attacks.

Rice hammered Clinton, who leveled his charges in a contentious weekend interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News Channel, for his claims that the Bush administration “did not try” to kill Osama bin Laden in the eight months they controlled the White House before the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The notion somehow for eight months the Bush administration sat there and didn’t do that is just flatly false - and I think the 9/11 commission understood that,” Rice said during a wide-ranging meeting with Post editors and reporters.

“What we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years,” Rice added.

Rice continued on to challenge Bill Clinton’s comprehensive anti-terror strategy.

“We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al Qaeda,” Rice responded during the hourlong session.

The behind the scenes activities behind the interview are described as contentious.

After Clinton got angry during the questioning, Wallace said Clinton aide Jay Carson tried to get his producer to stop the interview. Carson said he was concerned that time was running out and that little of the philanthropy efforts of the former president had been addressed.

Thankfully the interview continued although I don’t remember anything other than the tirade as Mr. Clinton waved his finger in the face of Chris Wallace.

Fox News Sunday