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Halperin Affirms Clinton Racism


RUSH: Well, Mr. Snerdley was just doing a little show prep for me during my last monologue segment. He was watching MSNBC and the program hosted by Andrea Mitchell (NBC News, Washington) and she had on as her guest Mark Halperin, one half of the author team that wrote this big book out there. Finally they got around to talking about Bill Clinton's comment to Ted Kennedy. (doing impression) "Hey, Ted, come on, man! (laughing) A few years ago this guy would be getting us coffee." So she asked Halperin, "Mark, was this really a racial comment or was he just talking about Obama's inexperience?" And Halperin came back and said oh, no, no, no! Not only was it a racist and racial remark, Andrea. After he made that comment to Kennedy, he then said to Kennedy (doing impression), "Ted, come on. Look, admit it. Let's be truthful here. The only reason you're endorsing the guy is because he's black, because of his race." It was clearly a racist comment. Now, this is Wednesday. This book has been out and about since last Friday. So they finally got to the real story. The Harry Reid stuff. I mean, what Harry Reid said, it's true: It's just illustrative of somebody's thinking.


RUSH: Here is the exchange between -- I want you to hear this -- Andrea Mitchell (NBC News, Washington) and Mark Halperin of TIME Magazine, the coauthor of Game Change. Here's the first of two bites that we have...

MITCHELL: I talked to people to whom Teddy Kennedy spoke about this, and because of the Harry Reid racial issue, a lot of people are interpreting -- inferring -- from what you wrote that Kennedy was fuming over Bill Clinton, that this was like the issue in South Carolina where Kennedy was taking offense and others were taking offense -- Jim Clyburn -- of some of the things that Bill Clinton said and attaching a racial motive to it. What did you think was the impact of that in reporting on this?

HALPERIN: It -- it was...

MITCHELL: Was it just that Obama was -- knew he was jumping r-rank. He was too inexperienced, would have been getting coffee like an intern, let's say; or was it a racial motivation as has been suggested in some of the reporting on your book?

RUSH: Okay. So here's Andrea Mitchell (NBC News, Washington) giving Mark Halperin a chance to establish here for the record that Bill Clinton doesn't have a racist bone in his body. "Of course, Andrea! It wasn't a racist comment, simply talking about a jump in rank. He had no business running. He was too young." Instead this is what Andrea heard...

HALPERIN: Bill Clinton confronted him and said: "Let's be honest about this. The only reason you're picking Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton -- someone you've known longer and who's done more for you -- is because of race. And that, again, inflamed Kennedy a little bit and made him more certain that the Clintons were too focused on race and not enough interested in trying to find the strongest nominee for the party.

RUSH: Well, they thought Hillary was the strongest nominee and that Kennedy was being blinded by race. So Halperin had a chance here to set... Well, would have been tough to deny this because he did report that Clinton did accuse Kennedy of only choosing Obama because of race. Yeah, but she's basically saying, "Please, tell us it's not true! I'm Andrea Mitchell (NBC News, Washington)! Please tell us it's not true." (laughing) Oh, on the contrary, Andrea! Pow, pow! Take this, Andrea! Sorry. I was depicting an assault. I take that back.


RUSH: Chicago, and Bob. Nice to have you here, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. I just got a quick explanation needed from you. You claim that Bill Clinton made a racist comment by saying that Kennedy was voting for Obama because he was black. But you said the exact same words about Colin Powell voting for Obama because he was black.

RUSH: That's right.

CALLER: So is your comment racist, too?

RUSH: Well, I didn't follow it up by saying that Obama is somebody that would get us coffee first.

CALLER: Right, but you specifically pointed out that second comment as being racist and you said the same thing.

RUSH: I was saying it about a black guy -- a "light-skinned" black guy "without a Negro dialect," but nevertheless, I'm still saying it about a black guy. You know, Clinton was talking about Ted Kennedy.

CALLER: Right.


CALLER: The motivation of a racist -- you know, if he's doing it just because of skin color -- it doesn't matter if you're saying it to a white guy or a black guy, right?

RUSH: Look, when I say that Colin Powell is voting for him because he is black I was talking about black unity. I was talking about Colin Powell. He had to. I wasn't saying Colin Powell is a racist. I was saying that Colin Powell is loyal to somebody, the first black presidential candidate. It was almost as though he had no choice. But the way he did it strategically was designed to hurt McCain. Clinton telling Ted Kennedy (doing impression) "Hey, man, you endorsed this guy simply because he's black." Come on! We all know that! Let's be truthful here. That's a whole different thing 'cause Clinton is accusing Kennedy. In the process, Clinton is exhibiting his own racism, which has been documented many times.



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