Historian: Clinton Said Lewinsky Affair Came When He 'Just Cracked' [video 2 minutes, 18 seconds]
There are fascinating details throughout today's cover story in USA TODAY -- "Secret Interviews Add Insight To Clinton Presidency".
Historian Taylor Branch conducted "79 oral history interviews" with his friend, then-president Bill Clinton, while Clinton was in the White House. Branch has pulled together a book, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With The President. As USA TODAY's Susan Page writes of her interviews with Branch about the book:
"The portrait that emerges from the 707-page tome is a president who reveled in policy and delighted in politics but "always thought he was trapped in the personal issues," Branch says. The description of Clinton's goals and thinking is more candid and more complex than in Clinton's 2004 memoir, My Life."
The personal issue that many people will want to hear about, of course, is Clinton's relationship with then-intern Monica Lewinsky. USA TODAY's Page says that Clinton was reluctant to discuss it with Branch, but "once lamented that it occurred when he felt sorry for himself and that he 'just cracked' under the pressure of personal and political setback.
USA TODAY has posted a series of videos showing Branch discussing the book, including this clip concerning the Lewinsky affair:
Read entire article at NPR
Historian Taylor Branch conducted "79 oral history interviews" with his friend, then-president Bill Clinton, while Clinton was in the White House. Branch has pulled together a book, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With The President. As USA TODAY's Susan Page writes of her interviews with Branch about the book:
"The portrait that emerges from the 707-page tome is a president who reveled in policy and delighted in politics but "always thought he was trapped in the personal issues," Branch says. The description of Clinton's goals and thinking is more candid and more complex than in Clinton's 2004 memoir, My Life."
The personal issue that many people will want to hear about, of course, is Clinton's relationship with then-intern Monica Lewinsky. USA TODAY's Page says that Clinton was reluctant to discuss it with Branch, but "once lamented that it occurred when he felt sorry for himself and that he 'just cracked' under the pressure of personal and political setback.
USA TODAY has posted a series of videos showing Branch discussing the book, including this clip concerning the Lewinsky affair: