Dan Rather: 'Bill Clinton Is an Honest Man'
Back to the Government-Media Complex Page
With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
Tuesday May 15, 2001; 10:12 p.m. EDT"CBS Evening News" anchor Dan Rather said Tuesday night that he believes ex-President Bill Clinton, who admitted in January that he lied under oath in the Paula Jones case, "is an honest man."
The multi-million dollar newsman also admitted he didn't know much about Juanita Broaddrick's rape charge against Clinton and said he didn't give her story much coverage because he thought it was part of a Republican plot to bring Clinton down.
Rather made the revealing assertions to Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly during an appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor" to promote his book "An American Dream."
O'REILLY: I want to ask you flat out. Do you think President Clinton's an honest man?
RATHER: Yes, I think he's an honest man.
O'REILLY: Do you? Really?
RATHER: I do, I do.
O'REILLY: Even though he lied to Jim Lehrer's face about the Lewinsky....
RATHER: Who among us has not lied about something?
O'REILLY: Well, I didn't lie to anybody's face on national television. I don't think you have.
RATHER: I don't think I ever have. At least I hope I never have.
O'REILLY: No. How can you say he's an honest guy then?
RATHER: Well, cause I think he is. I think at core he's an honest person. I know that you have a different view. I know that you consider it sort of astonishing that anybody would say so. But I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things.
O'Reilly then asked the CBS anchorman why his network carried seven reports on mere rumors that President Bush had once used cocaine, but when Arkansas businesswoman Juanita Broaddrick came forward to accuse Clinton of rape, it merited just two mentions on the "CBS Evening News."
O'REILLY: There was also a Juanita Broaddrick allegation from her, which had some credibility because Chris Shays, the congressman investigated and said, Look....
RATHER: I barely remember that case but I do remember it.
O'REILLY: You know Juanita Broaddrick?
RATHER: Yes, yeah.
O'REILLY: OK, that was mentioned twice on the CBS News. Twice. All right? Not on, ever on your....
RATHER: What's your point? I don't quite grasp the point here.
O'REILLY: Well you got Bush, you got seven Bush unsubstantiated mentions and two Juanita Broaddricks.
RATHER: None of those mentions with Bush, I'm willing to say, one - I don't remember any on the "CBS Evening News" with Dan Rather.
O'REILLY: Scheiffer did it. I guess he was in for you.
RATHER: OK. I'll take your word for that. But I would say this: If you take those in context, nobody on the "CBS Evening News," I never gave any real credence to any of these allegations about George Bush and still don't for the reasons you mentioned. There's no documented evidence anywhere. No credible person....
O'REILLY: So you did not want to run it on your show.
RATHER: I did not want to run it on....
O'REILLY: What about the Juanita Broaddrick thing?
RATHER: Juanita Broaddrick, to be perfectly honest, I don't remember all the details of Juanita Broaddrick. But I will say that - and you can castigate me if you like. When the charge has something to do with somebody's private sex life, I would prefer not to run any of it. Now I would quite agree that critical mass (was) reached during the Clinton years in which it was unavoidable because it became a case of, OK, this affected his performance in office. Now I don't remember enough about the Juanita Broaddrick situation...
O'REILLY: Well, it was a rape charge was basically what it was. What we got onto was Chris Shays, who you respect, right? He interviewed the rape counselor who dealt with Juanita Broaddrick. And he told us on this broadcast that he believed the story.
RATHER: Just stop right there - let's see. What you've got is, you have the Republicans trying to bring down Bill Clinton.
O'REILLY: Did you believe that was true?
RATHER: Believe it's true? Absolutely I believe it's true.
O'REILLY: So you believe it was organized?
RATHER: The same way the Democrats tried to bring down any number of Republicans. That's the way politics are played. Sure, I think it was an organized campaign. And, unfortunately for Bill Clinton and the country, some of it turned out to be true.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: