Bill Clinton backed down Friday after reviving his wife"s exaggerated account of her trip to Bosnia 12 years ago.
Hillary Clinton acknowledged late last month that she had misspoken when she said on more than one occasion that she had landed under sniper fire during a visit to Bosnia. The controversy surrounding the story had died down until the former president brought it back Thursday when he tried to defend his wife"s mistake.
Clinton accused the media of treating his wife like "she"d robbed a bank" for confusing the facts. But in retelling the story, the former president added his own inaccuracies to the account.
On Friday, Bill Clinton said he would no longer talk about the Bosnia trip.
"[Hillary Clinton] called me and said, "Look, I misstated it, you said I misstated it, but you don"t know it and you have to let me handle this because you don"t remember it either," " the former president said as he visited the scene of a campaign office that burned down in Terre Haute, Ind. "So I am going to let her answer."
Hillary Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said in a statement: "Senator Clinton appreciates her husband standing up for her, but this was her mistake and she takes responsibility for it."
The Democratic presidential hopeful had repeatedly described a harrowing scene in Tuzla, Bosnia, in which she and her daughter, Chelsea, had to run for cover as soon as they landed for a visit in 1996. But video footage from that day day showed a peaceful reception during which an 8-year-old girl greeted the smiling first lady.
Hillary Clinton has acknowledged she got the facts wrong in retelling the tale.
But her husband said Thursday, "There was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995."
"Did y"all see all that? Oh, they blew it up," the former president continued. "Let me just tell you. The president of Bosnia and Gen. Wesley Clark " who was there making peace where we"d lost three peacekeepers who had to ride on a dangerous mountain road because it was too dangerous to go the regular, safe way " both defended her because they pointed out that when her plane landed in Bosnia, she had to go up to the bulletproof part of the plane, in the front.
"Everybody else had to put their flak jackets underneath the seat in case they got shot at. And everywhere they went they were covered by Apache helicopters. So they just abbreviated the arrival ceremony.
"And I think she was the first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone. And you would have thought, you know, that she"d robbed a bank the way they all carried on about this," he said.
But Hillary Clinton didn"t make the sniper fire claim "one time late at night when she was exhausted." She told the story several times, including during prepared remarks on foreign policy delivered the morning of March 17.
It"s also not true that she "immediately apologized for it." Clinton has never apologized and only acknowledged that she "misspoke" a week after the March 17 speech, after the video of her peaceful tarmac reception emerged.
It"s also not true that she was the "first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone" " a claim Hillary Clinton has also made when talking about the trip. Pat Nixon traveled to Saigon during the Vietnam war, and Barbara Bush went to Saudi Arabia two months before the launching of Desert Storm. The trip also was not in 1995, but 1996.
Bill Clinton attempted to smooth things over Friday.
"The fundamental fact is she went there, everyone that flew around with her " had Apache helicopters guarding them and there was some risk, of course," he said. "And she did a good job, and she did a good job for the troops, but she is right. I wasn"t there. I don"t remember the facts right either," the former president said.
In pledging not to tackle the Bosnia story any more, he appeared to be hearkening back to advice he gave himself shortly after Super Tuesday in February, when he was taking heat for playing an aggressive role in the campaign.
"I think I can promote Hillary but not defend her because I was president," Clinton said in an interview with NBC affiliate WCSH-TV as he was campaigning in Portland, Maine. "I have to let her defend herself or have someone else defend her."
Clintons don't know when to shut-up
