Wash. Post again misreports Bill Clinton's Swift Boat comments

After two previous Washington Post articles falsely reported that former President Bill Clinton had criticized Democratic presidential candidates for engaging in "swift-boat"-style attacks on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) during an October 30 debate, a November 29 article by Post staff writers Glenn Kessler and Anne E. Kornblut again failed to accurately report President Clinton's statements, which he made during a November 5 speech. In the article, Kessler and Kornblut wrote:

After the Democratic debate in Philadelphia last month, the former president insinuated that his wife's Democratic rivals were mounting attacks on her akin to the "Swift boat" campaign Republicans launched against Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) during the 2004 race -- an explosive charge that prompted some of Hillary Clinton's rivals to lash out more aggressively than ever.

As Media Matters for America has noted, President Clinton did not criticize Democratic presidential candidates for swift-boating his wife. In his November 5 speech, he warned against allowing elections to be decided by "trivial matters," and then discussed "snide comments" and "dishonest claims" about former Vice President Al Gore, as well as ads attacking former Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign that targeted Kerry. Later, President Clinton criticized the format of co-moderator Tim Russert's debate question about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's (D) proposal to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, saying it would "let the Republicans run an ad saying, 'All the Democrats are against the rule of law.' " At no point in the speech did Clinton accuse Democrats of swift-boating his wife; rather, he condemned Republican attacks on Democrats and the role the media play in contributing to such attacks.

In a November 8 report, Washington Post staff writer Dan Balz advanced the false claim that "the former president compared the attacks on his wife by Democratic opponents Obama, former senator John Edwards (N.C.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.) to the television commercials aired against Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in the 2004 presidential race and to GOP ads targeting then-Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) in 2002."

Similarly, in a November 14 article, staff writer Michael D. Shear wrote, "With less than two months until voting begins, the Democratic front-runner [Hillary Clinton] has become a target for rivals in her own party as well, prompting her husband, the former president, to accuse them of 'Swift boat'-style piling-on during the latest debate."

From Clinton's speech:

PRESIDENT CLINTON: [T]he point I'm here to make to you is whoever you're for, this is a really big election. We saw what happened the last seven years when we made decisions in elections based on trivial matters. When we listened to people make snide comments about whether Vice President Gore was too stiff. When they made dishonest claims about the things that he said that he'd done in his life. When that scandalous Swift boat ad was run against Senator Kerry.

When there was an ad that defeated Max Cleland in Georgia -- a man that left half his body in Vietnam. And a guy that had several deferments ran an ad with Max Cleland's picture with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, because he dared to vote against the president's version of the Homeland Security bill.

[...]

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Why am I saying this?

Because, I had the feeling, at the end of that last debate, we were about to get into cutesy land again. "Ya'll raise your hand if you're for illegal immigrants getting driver's licenses." So, we'll then let the Republicans run an ad saying, "All the Democrats are against the rule of law."

I don't -- look, I think it's fine to discuss immigration. We should. Illegal immigration needs to be discussed, and it's fine for Hillary and all these other guys to be asked about Governor Spitzer's plan -- but not in 30 seconds, yes, no, raise your hand. This is a complicated issue. This is a complicated issue.

So, do I hope you'll vote for my wife? You bet I do. It'd be good for America and good for the world. But, more than that, I came here to tell you today: Don't you dare let them take this election away from you. This belongs to you and to your children -- and to the future of America.

Don't be diverted. Don't be divided. Our best days are still ahead, claim them. Thank you.

As Media Matters has noted, several other media outlets have made false claims about what Clinton said. By contrast, a November 7 New York Times article reported: "Jay Carson, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton's campaign, said Mr. Clinton had not been referring to Democratic candidates' criticisms of his wife but to Republicans' criticism of her debate performance."

From the November 29 Washington Post article:

Although Bill Clinton is still viewed as a political asset, particularly in the hotly contested Democratic primaries, he has also repeatedly made remarks that have put him out of step with his wife's message and irritated Clinton campaign aides who have been forced to address them.

After the Democratic debate in Philadelphia last month, the former president insinuated that his wife's Democratic rivals were mounting attacks on her akin to the "Swift boat" campaign Republicans launched against Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) during the 2004 race -- an explosive charge that prompted some of Hillary Clinton's rivals to lash out more aggressively than ever.

The following week, Clinton strayed off-message again, continuing to reinforce the theme that other candidates were piling on his wife after her strategists had decided to drop the issue. In a speech on Nov. 12, Clinton complained about the "boys" in the campaign "getting tough" on his wife. It was then that Clinton campaign aides began quietly distancing themselves from the former president, saying his comments were not part of their coordinated effort.