Must have been referring to this:
The president is here in Los Angeles and he gets a haircut from Christophe on early '93, May, isn't it?
Yeah. May.
It's May. And the press finds out about it. Did you know you had a PR disaster in the making?
No. I didn't even--again, I mean, God, I sound like a complete idiot, all the things that I didn't see coming. But, you know, the president was here in Los Angeles, Christophe had cut his hair a few times during the campaign. He was friends through Harry and Linda Thomason--delightful guy, really nice person. Of course, he'd be happy to cut the president's hair. So, he jumps on the plane, the plane is sitting on the tarmac. And he gets his hair cut - he's really kind of jolly. You know, he's had a good trip to L.A. He loves California, he's out here.
And for like maybe the second time of his entire presidency, he decides to take a trip back to visit the press, sitting in the press cabin on Air Force One, which he never does. So he goes back there and--after he says, hello, five minutes, you know, wasn't it great to be here in California?--he leaves. I believe it was John King who was then with the AP, he said, "Did he just get his hair cut?" And, you know, what am I going to say? I said, "Yeah, he did." "And, was that the guy we saw going down the back stairs of the plane, the long hair, that guy that used to be around the campaign sometimes?" "Yeah."
So, you know, he's like "This is funny, oh, this is great." Well, then I think, John puts something on the AP that said Clinton had gotten his hair cut. Well, somehow, somebody called the FAA or something. Some unnamed source at the FAA said, "Yeah, delayed aircraft"--which became a delayed aircraft all over the country, which never was really true. And so, did I think I had a big problem? The president got his hair cut on Air Force One. What's the problem with that?
Okay. It's not a great idea maybe to have this sort of high priced Beverly Hills coiffure. You know, we just won a populist campaign, not a great idea. But it's not the end of the world. I mean who cares? But it was--why is this populist president getting his hair cut by this fancy guy--
For $200.
As if the president paid $200 for his haircut. But yes, he charges $200 a haircut and probably more. You know, he is my friend, Christophe, so I defend him, but then when it was married to this notion that air traffic was delayed and here was this, you know, populist "putting-people-first" president, you know, just basking in the perks of his new power sitting on the runway, you know, air travelers be damned. This is the story that kind of got out there and by the time I realized that this was a serious problem, it was off to the races. And that thing dominated, the news for at least three days.
I think it led ABC's broadcast on sort of day two. Because it becomes such a symbolic thing. You know, and you have to be careful of these things that become metaphors. I think George Bush not knowing how a grocery store scanner worked, which people absolutely [say] not true, but that became a metaphor for an out-of-touch president and Bill Clinton sitting on Air Force One getting his hair cut while people around the country cooled their heels and waited for him, became a metaphor for a populist president who had gotten drunk with the perks of his own power and was sort of not sensitive to what people wanted.
And, you know, what? It took him years to overcome that because when I left the White House and for years I would travel around and go, "How many of you know the president got his hair cut on Air Force One?" Every person in the audience would always raise their hand. And how many people know that it's really not true, the way the story was reported? And ... I think perceptions of him have changed so much he's finally gotten past that. But it took years for people to get past that. |
