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Clinton Compares Himself to Clarence Thomas
24 September, 1998
By Ben Anderson
CNS Staff Writer
(CNS) President Clinton reached back to the 1991 confirmation hearings of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to explain why he refused to give a "yes" or "no" answer in his video-taped testimony.
During the four hour and three minute testimony, Independent Counsel staff attorney Sol Wisenberg asked President Clinton, "If Monica Lewinsky has stated that her affidavit that she didn't have a sexual relationship with you is, in fact, a lie, I take it you disagree with that?"
Clinton then lead into his longstanding claim of what he believes is the definition of a sexual relationship. Eventually, though, he made reference to a scenario where both parties on two sides of a story each believe they are telling the truth.
Clinton said "I searched my own memory" when reflecting on the situation. "This reminds me, to some extent, of the hearings when Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill were both testifying under oath. Now, in some rational way, they could not have both been telling the truth, since they had directly different accounts of a shared set of facts."
President Clinton wasted little time even during his testimony to blame the independent counsel for his troubles. "Fortunately, or maybe you think unfortunately, there was no special prosecutor to try to go after one or the other of them, to take sides and try to prove one was a liar."
Syndicated commentator Armstrong Williams told CNS, "I find it hypocritical that he would invoke Justice Thomas' name. This is such a contradiction for the President to use this scenario since his wife gave Anita Hill the Professor of the Year Award shortly after he was elected President." |
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