Sorry, it was CNN Crossfire on the Bush Abortion Story:
WARD: And on Friday on Crossfire, you got Bob Novak to finally recognize you and you talked about a subject that you say you have evidence about concerning Governor Bush, correct?
FLYNT: Yes, that’s correct.
WARD: We’ll get into the substance of that in just a moment. You said what you said and then the program ended. And as of now, is there any evidence on the CNN website that you said anything on their program?
FLYNT: No, it was removed, and even after I made the remarks on the program, I could hear in my ear piece someone screaming there is nothing I can do about it, we’re live. They were in a panic because I had said what I said.
WARD: Are you surprised that a news organization would delete your remarks?
FLYNT: No, I’m not surprised because I’ve talked to the leading mainstream media people all over the country about this story, just wanting to get it out. If I had to sum up a consensus, it is that they don’t want to be accused of sabotaging the election going into the homestretch which is the most wimpiest excuse I ever heard a journalist ever make.
WARD: Well, it’s one thing maybe not to report it, but it seems to me it’s a whole different thing that once it’s gotten out onto your air that you then go back onto your web site and every other way and delete it so that no –
FLYNT: I did a KROC radio station in Los Angeles, Kevin and Bean Show. When that show finished, within twenty minutes—it’s Infinity Broadcasting, which is owned by CBS—
WARD: Which also runs Howard Stern –
FLYNT: Within twenty minutes, they had the station manager and the two DJ’s on a conference call saying that no tape of that interview is to be released and that no transcripts are to be made available, so you know they’re scared to death of this story.
WARD: Are they doing this because they think there is a legal reason? You are an expert-- for want of a better term—- on the legalities of what you can say on the air, what you can publish etcetera. Are they concerned about some legal exposure that they have?
FLYNT: No. I see no concern there, because they asked George W. Bush the question about his use of cocaine without any evidence at all, and he sidestepped the issue. Of course, he admitted he’s been a drunk for twenty years and so that coupled with the additional information that we have, you know, would just be devastating to him.
WARD: Well, Let’s talk about the information that you have.
FLYNT: Well, we’ve been doing an investigation for a little over eight months to the effect that an abortion took place in 1970 in Houston, Texas. He was working for his father’s campaign when he was running for the senate against Lloyd Bentsen, and a fellow by the name of Robert Chandler was the campaign manager. He got a girl pregnant during this period of time, and she had an abortion. We’ve been able to locate the doctor who preformed the procedure (unintelligible) hospital in Houston. Not only that but we have the affidavits from four of her friends stating that they knew about the affair, the pregnancy and the subsequent abortion. The only thing we could not have which we needed to break the story was the girl to come out, and she would not come out. Whether she was afraid or whether she was paid off, I don’t really want to speculate, because I don’t know what the actual reason was. But when I started taking this to the mainstream media, I said you don’t have to break the story, just ask the question, you know. You asked the cocaine question, so just ask if he’s ever facilitated an abortion or paid for an abortion or if he was the father of a child. Just give him the chance to admit or deny it. No one would touch it.
WARD: As of now, the woman who you know denies that she had the abortion?
FLYNT: No, no, no. She doesn’t deny that. We know she had the abortion. We know she was Bush’s girlfriend at the time. This was in the 1970’s, he would have been in his twenties at the time. But she does not want to come out. The last conversation my investigators had with her, she said I don’t have anything bad to say about George W. And they said, well, how about when he did not come to visit you in the hospital when you had the abortion, didn’t that upset you? So she got very upset and irate because I took that line of questioning, and said, you know, I am not going to talk to you anymore about this issue.
WARD: But when your investigators talked to this woman, did she ever say to them that you guys are wrong, I never had the abortion.
FLYNT: No. No.
WARD: And in these affidavits, I assume you have copies of the affidavits, you have affidavits from four of her friends saying that they know she had the abortion?
FLYNT: Yes, and we have this guy, Robert Chandler, who I said was George Bush’s campaign manager at the time, his girlfriend is one of our key sources on this story who actually accompanied the girl who had the abortion to the hospital.
WARD: Were abortions legal in Texas at this time?
FLYNT: No, that was before Roe versus Wade and that makes it a crime. And that’s the reason why I felt the story was important, because I felt the media should ask him: Is abortion okay for you and your family but not the rest of America? I felt the issue of it being a crime should be brought up as well.
WARD: What do you say, Mr. Flynt, to the news sources we contacted today who told us to be very wary of you because you have yet to produce any evidence of this, that this is, at least they seem to be saying, that this is fantasy and that we will get ourselves into hot water if we interview you because they don’t believe you’ve produced the goods.
FLYNT: Look, they said the same thing during the impeachment hearings before we brought down Livingston and exposed Barr. They’re always going, you know, to say this. I am not telling you I got a story that I could go with tomorrow, but I’m telling you I’ve got a story that questions should be asked about.
WARD: When you say we investigated this, who is we?
FLYNT: I have three investigators—
WARD: Okay--
FLYNT: Who have been in Texas for the last eight months.
WARD: It is said in the Bob Livingston case that you had an awful lot on him that you just agreed not to publish or to make public. Is that an accurate statement?
FLYNT: Yes. His wife phoned me after he had resigned and told me about the pain that this had caused their marriage and asked me if I would not make the details available of the investigation, and I agreed not to because I figured, you know, what’s the point, he’s resigned, so it really would serve no further purpose.
WARD: What did you go on Crossfire to talk about? What did they invite you on to talk about?
FLYNT: (Laughter) They invited me on there to talk with Donna Rice about internet censorship. I was just really frustrated with not being able to get the mainstream media interested in this story. I figured if I got an opening or an opportunity, you know, I would talk about it.
WARD: And you obviously stirred up a lot of reaction by doing that.
FLYNT: I talked with the BBC in London today and they’re familiar with it and so is The London Times. They said that they are not under the same constraints that we are in the U.S. and they are considering going with the story. That would be great if they did because I think it would possibly feed over into the mainstream American press.
WARD: Have you talked to CNN about the deletion of things? Has anybody on your staff talked to them and asked them what that’s all about?
FLYNT: I’m used to this. I told you, and I’ll repeat it. The mainstream media is scared to death of this story. They won’t even check out the facts that I already have much less ask Bush the question. I don’t think they want the presidency to be determined, you know, on this issue.
WARD: Do you think that, in fact, if they were to go with this and ask Bush about it and it came from you etcetera, don’t you think there is a possibility this could hurt Gore, it gives Bush a reason to be indignant. In fact I got a quote from Bush, Matt Drudge allegedly put your charge, according to the Drudge Report, Bush responded to Larry Flynt’s charge that he was involved in an abortion in the 70’s by having a senior Bush source say that quote CNN standards have hit a new low if that is even possible. It appears that the liberal media is becoming desperate as Election Day nears. Neither Bush nor anyone on the campaign team, however, was reported as disagreeing with Flynt’s charges.
Does this give Bush a chance to get up on his high horse and really make Gore look like he’s being desperate?
FLYNT: If you’ll notice, he didn’t deny it, though, which I felt was pretty interesting about that report. I think this is, you know, a very explosive issue and that you could very well see it materialize before the election.
WARD: We just had a call from a woman who says she’s so mad that you and I are talking about this that she’s made up her mind to vote for Bush instead of Gore.
FLYNT: (Laughter) Well, you wonder about the rationale of people like that who are, concerned about Gore’s credibility but would turn the tables for Bush’s involvement. I think there’s a lot of people that would be concerned about it, especially members of the Christian right, you know. He’s their poster boy. I’d think they would be very much concerned about it.
WARD: We had a question from someone who called in saying in your story, is there any proof that Bush knew about it? Couldn’t she have gotten an abortion on her own without his knowing?
FLYNT: You know, I honestly cannot attest to that, but how can you possibly conceive that it would happen in that manner, that a girl would be pregnant and the guy’s boss she’s pregnant with would arrange for an abortion and he would not know anything about it because Junior was working for his father’s campaign at the time, you know, and Chandler was his boss.
WARD: Have your investigators asked either his boss’s girlfriend at the time or any of the other four, have you asked whether or not they knew whether George W. Bush knew about this or not?
FLYNT: They have no direct knowledge that he knew about it, but they knew the women that we interviewed that lived in the complex all admitted that they had been told by this girl who was pregnant and that George Bush was the father. |
