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Bill Clinton Fights Back Against Brutal Vanity Fair Article
by FOXNews.com
Sunday, June 1, 2008

The Office of President Bill Clinton responded with fury Sunday to a Vanity Fair article that attacks the former president and suggests he is out of control personally and consumed by “cavernous narcissism.”

The article, which hits newsstands next week, was distributed to the media and online in advance of its publication. The author, Todd Purdum, has covered Clinton for 16 years. He is married to former Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers.

“A tawdry, anonymous quote-filled attack piece, published in this month’s Vanity Fair magazine regarding former President Bill Clinton repeats many past attacks on him, ignores much prior positive coverage, includes numerous errors, and ultimately breaks no new ground. It is, in short, journalism of personal destruction at its worst,” reads a statement from the office of the president.

“Though (Purdum) researched the piece for several months, his first contact with President Clinton’s office was several weeks before he closed the story. Most revealing is one simple fact: President Clinton has helped save the lives of 1,300,000 people in his post-presidency, and Vanity Fair couldn’t find time to talk to even one of them for comment,” the statement continues, along with several pages of argument refuting the article’s main points.

Purdum suggests that in the years since Clinton left the White House $12 million in debt, he has been caught up in a world of rich friends, adoring fans and borrowed jets. The article quotes one former aide calling Clinton’s current associates like billionaire Ron Burkle and movie producer Stephen Bing “radioactive.”

The aide says Clinton’s associates are compounding worries that the 61-year-old former president is running with a fast crowd

One source close to Clinton even suggested he has never been the same since quadruple bypass surgery in 2004.

“There’s an anger in him that I find surprising. There seems to be an abiding anger in him, and not just the summer thunderstorms of old. He has been called into question repeatedly by top staff,” a former aide to both Bill and Hillary Clinton told Purdum.

More devastating is Purdum’s claim that about 18 months ago, a former Clinton aide tried an intervention with the former president because he was hearing so many complaints about inappropriate behavior. According to the article, the aide believed “Clinton was apparently seeing a lot of women on the road.”

Purdum wrote that the aide was rebuffed by advisers close to Clinton, never got to speak directly with him, and the attempted intervention was not well received by either Clinton.

The article also includes questions about the millions Bill Clinton has made since leaving office and notes the troubles for Hillary Clinton’s campaign attributed to him.
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