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Chris Wallace (b. October 12, 1947) is an American journalist, currently the host of Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. Wallace has been with Fox News since 2003.
Bill Clinton interview controvesy (September 2006)
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In September of 2006, Wallace interviewed former President Bill Clinton. The interview aired on Sunday September 24, 2006 on "Fox News Sunday". Before the interview, it was agreed that Wallace would ask Clinton about the Clinton Global Initiative along with some other relevant political topics for a total of fifteen minutes.
During the interview, Clinton accused Wallace of performing a "right-wing hit job". Wallace had asked Clinton a question regarding the steps his administration took during his presidency to eliminate the threats from Osama bin Laden. Wallace, apparently quoting e-mails from viewers, asked the former US President: "Why didn't you do more to put bin Laden and Al Qaeda out of business when you were president?". Clinton responded passionately, defending his strategy in this regard and his actions as a President. However, he was visibly agitated and angry that Wallace had asked the question. Clinton remarked "So you did Fox's bidding on this show. You did your nice little conservative hit job on me, I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of? ... And you've got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever. But I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it".
Even as Wallace repeatedly tried to move the discussion back to the Clinton Global Initiative, Clinton continued to talk about efforts he took to fight terrorism during his presidency in order to correct what he termed a "serious disinformation campaign."
Later, Wallace commented regarding this incident saying "All I did was ask him a question, and I think it was a legitimate news question. I was surprised that he would conjure up that this was a hit job".
External links
- FOX News biography
- September 2006 interview with Bill Clinton on youtube.com
- Transcript of Clinton interview
- Son of '60 Minutes' icon makes his own mark at Fox News
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During his interview on Fox News, Bill Clinton asked Chris Wallace how many times Wallace asked a Bush administration official, “Why did you fire Dick Clarke?” By all accounts, Clarke was one of the people most concerned about al-Qaeda in any administration. Shortly after taking office, the Bush administration demoted Clarke, eliminated his staff and removed him from the Principals meeting.
Since 2001, Wallace has interview the top national security officials from the Bush administration — Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Hadley — 42 times. According to a Lexis-Nexis database search, he never asked any of them why Clarke was demoted.
The one time he brought up Clarke’s name with a Bush administration official — during a March 28, 2004 interview with Rumsfeld — he repeatedly attempted to smear Clarke as political motivated and untrustworthy. Some excerpts:
WALLACE: I think a lot of people in Washington are trying to figure out, to understand Richard Clarke, to make sense of what he has said and of apparent contradictions in his story — is he telling the truth, or is he pushing an agenda.
WALLACE: Let’s switch, if we can, to a different aspect of this. There is a move now by congressional Republican leaders to declassify Clarke’s testimony before one of their panels in 2002 to see whether or not it contradicts what he is telling the commission and what he writes in his book now. As I understand it, the Pentagon has to approve any such declassification. Do you think it’s a good idea?
WALLACE: Do you worry at all that, whether it’s the debate over Dick Clarke’s credibility, his charges, whether it’s the fact that we’re in the political season, that the important work you say the commission could do is going to get caught up in partisanship?
After Clinton brought up the issue, Wallace claimed “we asked” and shot back “Do you ever watch Fox News Sunday, Sir?“
The USS Cole was bombed on October 12, 2000. As Clinton noted in his interview with Fox, “The CIA and the FBI refused to certify that Bin Laden was responsible” until early 2001 which foreclosed the possibility of a full response during his administration.
The Bush administration, on the other hand, had 8 months prior to 9/11/01 to respond to the USS bombing and did nothing.
In an interview to air Sunday, Fox News Host Chris Wallace asked Bill Clinton why he didn’t respond to the USS Cole. Clinton said it was a “legitimate question” but challenged Wallace: “I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked why didn’t you do anything about the Cole.” First, Wallace responded, “we asked.” When pressed further by Clinton, Wallace demurred: “I — with Iraq and Afghanistan there’s plenty of stuff to ask.”
Neither Chris Wallace, nor his predecessor, Tony Snow ever asked anyone in the Bush administration why they failed to respond to the bombing of the USS Cole, according to a Lexis-Nexis database search. Wallace and Snow have had plenty of opportunities:
– Vice President Dick Cheney has been on Fox News Sunday 6 times.
– Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been on Fox News Sunday 9 times.
– Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been on Fox News Sunday 23 times.
– National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley has been on Fox News Sunday 4 times.
For the record, this was Bill Clinton’s first solo appearance on Fox News Sunday.
One of the most poignant moments of President Clinton’s interview with Fox News was when he called out Chris Wallace for giving the right a free pass on terrorism. An excerpt:
WALLACE: I asked a question. You don’t think that’s a legitimate question?
CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked: Why didn’t you do anything about the Cole? I want to know how many you asked: Why did you fire Dick Clarke? I want to know…
WALLACE: We asked…Do you ever watch Fox News Sunday sir?
CLINTON: I don’t believe you ask them that.
WALLACE: We ask plenty of questions of…
CLINTON: You didn’t ask that did you? Tell the truth.
WALLACE: About the USS Cole?
CLINTON: Tell the truth.
WALLACE: I…with Iraq and Afghanistan there’s plenty of stuff to ask.
Chris Wallace interviewed then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on April 18, 2004, just days after she testified before the 9/11 Commission. Wallace didn’t ask her about the USS Cole or the decision to demote Richard Clarke. He also didn’t ask Rice about the notorious August 6 Presidential Daily Brief entitled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike U.S.”
Instead Wallace perpetuated a smear against 9/11 Commissioner and former Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, falsely claiming she was responsible for creating a “wall” between the F.B.I. and the CIA:
WALLACE: When commission member Jaime Gorelick was questioning you about that, did you know that when she was the deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, that she had issued an order that, in fact, helped build the so-called wall even higher?
RICE: I did not know that, Chris. I did know, of course, that she’d been deputy attorney general. I did know that there were responsibilities there for issues concerning counterterrorism, but no, I did not know.
This smear was rebutted by 9/11 Commission member Slade Gorton (R) who called the charge “ridiculous.” Gordon wrote the Washington Times, “She had nothing to do with any ‘wall’ between law enforcement and our intelligence agencies.”
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