BILL Clinton was reportedly driven “nuts” by Barack Obama in 2008, but was wary of Hillary’s ambition and was “used to it all being about him.”
Clinton’s former aide, Doug Band, made the comments in a Vanity Fair article that was published on Wednesday.
Band discussed with the outlet the dislike that his former boss had for his wife’s 2008 opponent, Obama.
“He dismantled everything we had done,” Band said, referencing Clinton’s behavior during the 2008 Democratic primary.
At the time, Democrats dubbed Clinton’s outbursts about Obama as “bizarre,” “ill-tempered” and “ill-founded.”
However, Band told the outlet that the comments were made because “Obama drove him nuts.”
Band went on to question whether Bill’s distaste for Obama was due to his lead over Hillary, or because Bill wasn’t sure he even wanted her to win in the first place.
“He was used to it being all about him, and if she won, it would be all about her. That’s not how he lived his life for the four decades leading up to that election,” he claimed.
“In her White House, he would be back under a microscope but without the benefit of being the one in charge.”
However, a Clinton spokesperson slammed the claims in a statement to Vanity fair.
“That’s ridiculous. President Clinton did more than 300 events on her behalf, and very much wanted her to win.”
Hillary’s team, however, told the outlet that Band was “an enabler” to Bill’s outbursts.
“The view was Band was an enabler of Bill’s behavior,” a Hillary adviser told me. It’s a critique that still grates. “The idea that anyone can control a person, especially a former president of the United States, is completely ridiculous,” Band said.
The article was published just days after Obama’s highly anticipated memoir A Promised Land was released, where he described a bitter clash with Clinton’s wife after one of her top campaign officials tried to portray him as a former drug dealer, a publishing source revealed.
Obama admitted in a 1995 book, Dreams From My Father, that before entering politics, he tried marijuana and cocaine, adding that he didn’t try heroin because he disliked the pusher who tried to sell it to him.
But he complains in his new 751-page book that Hillary’s New Hampshire co-chair, Billy Shaheen, was out of order when he went further and falsely told the media he had dealt drugs too.
“Obama describes how Hillary apologized to him for the comment when they bumped into each other as they waited for their campaign planes to take off from a Washington airport,” the source said.
“But then she became agitated and started attacking him, claiming Obama’s campaign team was engaging in ‘unfair’ attacks and ‘underhanded tactics’.”
Shaheen resigned after making the drug dealer comments.
