Audio: Bill Clinton Privately Mocked Paula Jones as an Attention-Seeking Floozy

[Ubiquitous]

Clinton biographer struggled against 'horrible feelings that [the
Clintons] might have a hollow marriage'

Bill Clinton dismissed Paula Jones in the 1990s as a “floozy” and a
“nobody” who was only suing him for sexual harassment in order to
have her “moment in the sun,” according to an audio diary recorded
at the time by one of his closest confidantes.

Clinton’s friend and biographer, Taylor Branch, took notes on a
late-night conversation he had with the president on Oct. 2, 1997,
and immediately recorded them into an audio diary. The recordings
were recently obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

According to Branch’s diary, Clinton discussed the pending sexual
harassment lawsuit brought against him by former Arkansas government
employee Paula Jones, who claimed he unzipped his pants and asked
her to perform a sex act on him in a Little Rock hotel room in 1991.

“[Clinton] said they had now changed Paula Jones’s hair style, made
her look less like a floozy, and that she didn’t seem to have any
visible income but was always driving a new car,” said Branch, a
historian who drew from many of his diary entries to write his 2010
Clinton biography The Clinton Tapes.

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“[Clinton] said … these political lawyers are going to tell her that
there’s not much likelihood that she would get any money out of
this,” continued Branch. “That it’s just about [Jones] ‘being
somebody’ because, if she settles the case, she goes back to being
‘nobody,’ and the trial is going to be her moment in the sun.”

Clinton also said he believed the IRS had good reason to audit
Jones, although he said he did not order the agency to target her.
Jones was audited in 1997 during her lawsuit against Clinton, and
her supporters claim she was singled out for political reasons.

“[Clinton] said ‘I didn’t have anything to do with it, and I know
nobody around here had to do with her getting audited by the IRS.’
But, he said, ‘independently, it stands to some reason,’” recounted
Branch. “She doesn’t have any visible means of support and is always
traveling around and driving a new car, no job, so forth.”

Clinton’s allies at the time panned Jones in the media as “trailer
trash” who was looking for a payout.

A judge dismissed the lawsuit in 1998, saying Jones could not
demonstrate what damages were caused by Clinton’s alleged
harassment. After Jones appealed the dismissal, Clinton paid her a
settlement of $850,000 to drop the lawsuit.

But at the time of Clinton’s conversation with Branch, the president
told his friend that, “there is no way there’ll be a settlement,
because I’m not going to pay a dime. I would rather have the trial.”

And while Clinton publicly apologized for his affair with White
House intern Monica Lewinsky, he expressed little contrition at the
time during private conversation with his friend Branch.

“What contrition there was had to be coached out of him, because I
sure didn’t feel it tonight. I mean, there wasn’t even a glimmer of
‘I’m sorry, I let you down’—meaning me, not that I asked for it or
anything. ‘I see the hurt in people’s eyes who believed in me.’ I
didn’t sense any of that on a personal level,” recalled Branch in a
Sept. 30, 1998 recording after a conversation with Clinton at the
White House.

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“My overall impression tonight was that whereas [Clinton] said that
he had sinned and this was very difficult, and he needed to work on
his private relations, and so forth, I was amazed by how impersonal
he seemed to be dealing with it,” said Branch. “He had a number of
conversations about impeachment with people on the phone that I’ll
try to recount later, but it seemed like another interesting
political problem that he was going into from every angle.”

Clinton also said that his dalliance with Lewinsky “paled in
comparison” to the behavior of Republicans and the media.

“[Clinton] said several times, whatever he did, it, as he put it,
‘pales in comparison with what they’ve done to the country in the
process of pursuing [these allegations]’—that is, the press and the
Republicans,” said Branch.

The president took issue with the perjury charges against him,
arguing that the special prosecutor had gone after individuals who
refused to testify in order to avoid self-incrimination.

“[Clinton] said if you perjure for the home team, you’re in good
shape, but if you refuse to perjure for the home team, they’re going
to find some way to go after you, to charge you with perjury,” said
Branch. “This whole business was about perjury, he said.”

Although Clinton was indignant about the impeachment, he said his
wife was even angrier about it.

“[I asked], ‘How are you and Hillary? How have you come through this
personally?’” said Branch in a Dec. 29, 1998, recording.

“[Clinton’s] answer was not about the relationship. His answer was
‘Hillary was more upset about the impeachment than I was,’” Branch
added.

Branch recorded dozens of wide-ranging, late-night conversations
with Clinton for the president’s personal oral history project
during the 1990s and early 2000s. While Bill Clinton kept the sole
copies of the tapes, Branch would take notes on the discussions and
recall them into an audio diary. Branch later donated the recordings
to the University of North Carolina.

Branch acknowledged in his tapes that he was shocked when news of
the president’s affair with Lewinsky hit the media.

The historian said he had established “an incredible conviction of
the warmth of [Bill and Hillary Clinton’s] marriage, from first-hand
observation being around them.”

After the Lewinsky story broke, Branch said he struggled against
“horrible feelings that [the Clintons] might have a hollow marriage,
and that he might have hardened into nothing but a skirt-chaser.”

“At the same time, I really see no corrupt agenda that had taken
possession of [Bill Clinton],” said Branch. “He never acted like
somebody that was doing all this stuff with a 21-year-old, which was
really, as I put it, Woody Allen territory.”

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Branch also said it was “very upsetting” that Vernon Jordan, another
member of Clinton’s inner circle, was advising the president on the
Lewinsky matter.

“At any rate it’s very tawdry, very upsetting, to me, upsetting that
Vernon Jordan is the president’s defender,” said Branch. “Not
because I think [Jordan] would commit or encourage perjury, but
because I know he has an extremely recreational view of sex, and
would probably be diddling Monica Lewinsky with the president if he
could.”

In other conversations, Clinton seemed almost cavalier about the
Lewinsky scandal. According to Branch, the president burst out
laughing after the historian used the phrase “oral history” during
the height of the Lewinsky scandal.

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“I said ‘This is the 54th session of President Clinton’s oral
history.’ As soon as I said ‘oral history,’ he started laughing,”
recalled Branch in an April 6, 1998 recording. “And, um, it was kind
of awkward. So I looked at him, and said the date, and so forth. And
he was still kind of chuckling.”

“So I said, finally, ‘Well, I guess it’s awkward to say oral
history,’ but then didn’t say anything else about it,” said Branch.
“It was because of the whole Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. But I
thought it was interesting that he laughed about it, right from the
beginning.”

In recent days, the history of sexual allegations against Bill
Clinton has emerged as an issue in his wife Hillary Clinton’s
presidential campaign. After Hillary Clinton accused Republican
candidate Donald Trump of targeting women, Trump slammed her husband
as “one of the great woman abusers of all time.”

Bill Clinton has admitted to having affairs outside of his marriage,
including with Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers. He has been accused of
sexual harassment and misconduct by a number of women, including
Jones and former White House aide Kathleen Willey. At least one
woman, former nursing home worker Juanita Broaddrick, has said
Clinton raped her.

The former president appeared flustered when asked about Trump’s
comments by ABC News on Monday, as he stumped for his wife on the
campaign trail.

“Republicans have to decide … I’m trying to tell, and now the
Democrats in this country, they think Hillary would be the best
president. And I think there’s always attempts to take the election
away from the people, so I’m just gonna give it to them,” he said.

Bill Clinton’s office did not return a request for comment. Hillary
Clinton’s campaign did not return a request for comment.

--
Despite her long, long, long record of corruption, scandal, and
ineptitude, people will vote for her because "it's time for a woman
to be president." Well, it isn't time for a woman to be president.
It also isn't time for a man. It isn't "time" for any particular
race, ethnicity, or gender. It's time, instead, for an honest and
competent adult of any gender and any race and, at this point, any
species.