"Bitter" Clinton Defends RFK Remarks: Blames Obama Campaign for her own Tactless, Stupid, Un-Presidential Comments

From the NY Times
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

 
The Clinton campaign is in full push-back mode this morning, trying to “set the record straight” and contain the damage from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s comments Friday about Bobby Kennedy. The Daily News splashed a letter from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton across its front page on Sunday. Mrs. Clinton wrote a long letter to The Daily News in New York, which was printed in the news pages and in which Mrs. Clinton said her remarks were taken entirely out of context. And her aides said on Sunday that the campaign of Senator Barack Obama was partly responsible for fanning the flames. The Clinton campaign has been knocked back on its heels by the reaction to her comments, made Friday to the editorial board of the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., in which she said she did not understand why some people were trying to push her out of the presidential race because historically, other campaigns had gone on into June, and added: “You know my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right?” she said. “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”

The Internet is at full tilt with thousands of readers writing that they were shocked at her comments and others saying that they were misconstrued.

She wrote in her letter to the Daily News that she wanted to “set the record straight.”

“I pointed out, as I have before, that both my husband’s primary campaign, and Sen. Robert Kennedy’s, had continued into June,” she wrote. “Almost immediately, some took my comments entirely out of context and interpreted them to mean something completely different — and completely unthinkable.”

Also on Sunday, Howard Wolfson, Mrs. Clinton’s spokesman, said that both the media and the Obama campaign had been fanning the flames.

The Obama campaign had sent an e-mail on Friday to reporters saying the remarks had no place in a presidential campaign. It was relying on a faulty online report in the New York Post that said Mrs. Clinton was “making an odd comparison between the dead candidate and Barack Obama.” By immediately jumping into the story, within a matter of minutes, the Obama campaign fed suggestions that Mrs. Clinton had somehow made a link between Mr. Obama and Mr. Kennedy’s death.

“The Obama campaign did put out a statement almost immediately condemning the remarks,” Mr. Wolfson said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “It was unfortunate and unnecessary, and in my opinion, inflammatory, for the Obama campaign to attack Senator Clinton on Friday for these remarks, without obviously knowing the full facts or context.”
In addition, the Obama campaign sent the entire political press corps the transcript of a searing commentary about Mrs. Clinton by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC.

George Stephanopoulos, the host of ABC’s “This Week,” asked David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s top strategist, about the e-mail:

Mr. Stephanopoulos: You say you’re not trying to stir the issue up. But a member of your press staff yesterday was sending around to an entire press list _ I have the e-mail here _ Keith Olbermann’s searing commentary against Hillary Clinton. So that is stirring this up, isn’t it?”

Mr. Axelrod: “Well, Mr. Olbermann did his commentary and he had his opinion. But as far as we’re concerned.”

Mr. Stephanopoulos: “But your campaign was sending it around.”

Mr. Axelrod: “As far as we’re concerned, George, as far as we’re concerned, this issue is done. It was an unfortunate statement, as we said, as she’s acknowledged. She has apologized. The apology, you know, is accepted. Let’s move forward.”

(The “she” in this case is the staff person who sent the e-mail.

Mr. Axelrod: “There’s so many important things going on in this country right now, George, that people are interested in that we’re not going to spend days dwelling on this.”

In her letter to the Daily News, Mrs. Clinton wrote: “I want to set the record straight: I was making the simple point that given our history, the length of this year’s primary contest is nothing unusual.

“I realize that any reference to that traumatic moment for our nation can be deeply painful — particularly for members of the Kennedy family, who have been in my heart and prayers over this past week. And I expressed regret right away for any pain I caused.

“But I was deeply dismayed and disturbed that my comment would be construed in a way that flies in the face of everything I stand for — and everything I am fighting for in this election.”

She also notes that the editors of the newspaper issued a statement agreeing with her view — that she was speaking about the primary timeline, not the assassination. And she cites a statement from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Bobby’s son, who supports her, saying “it is a mistake for people to take offense.”

She goes on to “more fully answer” the question she was originally asked, about why she continues her campaign.