Misleading?
THE CORNER
Bill Clinton says that one of the questions Tim Russert asked Hillary at Tuesday night's debate was 'breathtakingly misleading.' Let's take a look at the question: RUSSERT: Senator Clinton, I'd like to follow up, because in terms of your experience as first lady, in order to give the American people an opportunity to make a judgment about your experience, would you allow the National Archives to release the documents about your communications with the president, the advice you gave? Because, as you well know, President Clinton has asked the National Archives not to do anything until 2012. And the follow-up: RUSSERT: But there was a letter written by President Clinton specifically asking that any communication between you and the president not be made available to the public until 2012. Would you lift that ban?
Clinton says the question was misleading because, 'She was incidental to the letter, it was done five years ago, it was a letter to speed up presidential releases, not to slow them down.' True, the letter (which you can read here) did urge the National Archives to speed up the release of some records from the Clinton administration, with several key exemptions that Clinton listed in the letter. Among them: ... communications directly between the President and the First Lady, and their families, unless routine in nature... That's exactly the passage Russert asked about, almost word for word. How is that misleading? |
