Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
White House Reaction to the Willey
Allegations
March 17, 1998
TED KOPPEL
Arthur Miller�s play, �The Crucible,� focused on the
infectious power of false accusations. Ostensibly the
play was about some girls and young women in the
town of Salem at the end of the 17th century. All of them
believed or claimed to believe that they had been
possessed by witches. A lot of innocent men and
women were executed before the hysteria burned itself
out. Miller wrote that play at a time when America was
going through a similar kind of hysteria -- the antic witch
hunts of Joseph McCarthy in the Senate and the House
Committee On Un - American Activities on the other
side of Capitol Hill.
Such bouts of hysteria are always easier to identify and
criticize in hindsight than at the time. No one at the
White House has drawn the analogy yet, but if the
President is telling the truth about Paula Jones and
Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky and Kathleen
Willey and several other women whose names are less
well known at the moment, then something has
compelled all of these women, who would seem to
have little else in common, to spin a web of malicious
and damaging lies about Mr Clinton.
Our latest ABC News poll, conducted just this evening,
and we�ll have more on that later, shows respondents
evenly divided on the latest allegations by Kathleen
Willey that the President forced himself on her in the
Oval Office in 1993. Those allegations, our poll
indicates, have the potential, however, to be far more
damaging to Mr Clinton than anything that has
happened to date.
As Nightline correspondent Chris Bury now reports,
the White House reaction to the Willey allegations has
itself undergone a seismic change.
CHRIS BURY, ABC NEWS (VO) Bill Clinton first
paid attention to Kathleen Willey, then a campaign
volunteer, on the tarmac of the Richmond, Virginia,
airport in October, 1992. Mr Clinton is seen asking Don
Beyer, then Virginia�s lieutenant governor, for her
name. He replies, Willey, Kathy Willey.
KATHLEEN WILLEY He sent someone over to get
my telephone number.
CHRIS BURY (VO) And that, according to Willey�s
interview on �60 Minutes,� is where this story begins.
Soon, Willey signs up as a volunteer in the East Wing
of the White House. What happens in November, 1993
when she asks for a paying job in a private Oval Office
meeting is of course now a significant legal and
political problem for the President.
KATHLEEN WILLEY He touched my breast with
his hand.
CHRIS BURY (on camera) The story Kathleen
Willey told on television and before the grand jury,
which the President denies, so worries the Clinton
White House that it has now launched a counterattack
to undermine her credibility before the public. Perhaps
the most striking thing about this latest White House
public relations effort is how it evolved. Last summer,
when �Newsweek� magazine broke the story of Willey�s
allegations, Bob Bennett, the President�s lawyer, said
Mr Clinton has, �no specific recollection of meeting
Willey in the Oval Office�. The White House refused to
answer any questions.
1ST REPORTER Mike, can you address the
allegations that deal with Kathleen Willey and whether
or not she was harassed by the President?
MIKE MCCURRY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS
SECRETARY No.
CHRIS BURY (VO) The President�s spokesman
would not even acknowledge whether Willey worked at
the White House and he questioned the news
judgments of those reporters who dared to ask.
2ND REPORTER That statement identifies her as
an employee of the White House. Is she a paid
employee?
MIKE MCCURRY I�m not answering questions on
this matter. I think that editorial judgments need to be
made about whether this is something that news
organizations want to pursue and if so, they should
contact Mr Bennett.
2ND REPORTER It�s a valid question, though, to
ask whether she was a paid White House employee.
MIKE MCCURRY I�m not�I�ll see if there�s a way to
answer that question. I�m not going to assist news
organizations in pursuing that story.
SAM DONALDSON, ABC NEWS The strategy was
stonewall, is stonewall and, unless some outside force
makes them change it, will be stonewall. I mean, say as
little as possible, speak only when you have to, dodge
and weave, but don�t come out with any information.
KAREN TUMULTY, TIME MAGAZINE Basically,
we were just discouraged from writing the story and I
think actually they were pretty successful in keeping
these allegations down to sort of a low noise level.
MARK KNOLLER, CBS NEWS The White House
tried as hard as it could to try and put that Willey
allegation aside at first by not talking about it and by
saying they had no information about it, as I recall, and
it�s in stark contrast to the way the White House
responded after Willey�s appearance on �60 Minutes.�
CHRIS BURY (VO) The morning after Willey�s �60
Minutes� interview, the White House suddenly had all
kinds of information to offer about her.
ANN LEWIS She came to see me several times.
She called me several times. It was always about how
positive she felt about the President.
CHRIS BURY (VO) Communications director Ann
Lewis challenged Willey�s credibility. Mr Clinton�s
lawyer suggested she was really after a big money
book deal and the President, who in July had no
specific recollection of an Oval Office meeting with
Willey, yesterday remembered it well.
PRES BILL CLINTON And I have a very clear
memory of the meeting and I told the truth.
CHRIS BURY (VO) Not only did the President�s
memory improve, the White House released a stack of
personal letters in which Willey asked President Clinton
for jobs, called herself his number one fan and signed
�Fondly, Kathleen.� EJ Dionne, a columnist for �The
Washington Post,� says those letters are open to
interpretation.
EJ DIONNE, THE WASHINGTON POST The
President�s supporters say that when you look at those
letters they�re very warm letters and they do not sound
like the letters written by a person who was offended by
something the President had done to her. Supporters
of Ms Willey say that women who have been subject to
harassment may nonetheless want to maintain good
relations with a powerful man who could be helpful to
them in important ways and they don�t want to burn their
bridges. That�s what they said about Anita Hill.
CHRIS BURY (VO) Exactly the argument Clinton
aide Ann Lewis once made on behalf of Anita Hill.
ANN LEWIS (From 1991) We know what it can be
like to work for a boss who insults you, who degrades
you and yet you feel you have to go on working, you
have to go on being friendly.
SAM DONALDSON Why not put out the
correspondence between the President and Monica
Lewinsky?
CHRIS BURY (VO) At the White House today,
spokesman Mike McCurry struggled to explain why the
White House still refuses to release letters from Monica
Lewinsky when it is so eagerly publicizing
correspondence from Kathleen Willey.
MIKE MCCURRY I�m just saying that there was
enormous interest in her and there seemed to be utility
in providing information that helped the American
people have a broader context in which to understand
this story. On other occasions you yell at us when we
don�t make such information available. In this case we
were able to make it available.
SAM DONALDSON And what happened I think is
very clear. These letters serve the President�s purpose.
Lewinsky�s letters might not and, therefore, we�re not
going to see those.
MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
What this signals is that when the White House needs
to defend itself, it�s going to defend itself. And when
they feel they have more to gain by shutting up, they�re
going to shut up and not release information. It�s kind of
like why does the chicken cross the road? I mean, they
feel threatened right now by the Willey story. They had
to move quickly to do some damage control, some
rapid response.
CHRIS BURY (on camera) The White House
change of heart speaks volumes about its concern with
Kathleen Willey�s story and the latest public opinion
polls suggest why. President Clinton�s job approval
figures remain nearly as strong as ever, but Bill
Clinton�s personal ratings are at an all�time low and
the political dynamics are changing in sudden but
important ways. Today, an editorial in �The New York
Times� questioned the President�s character, another
in �The Washington Post� said �Ms Willey�s story adds
to the critical mass of allegations the President now
faces�. And one of Mr Clinton�s strongest
constituencies is clearly having second thoughts.
PATRICIA IRELAND, NATIONAL
ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN Unlike other women
whose stories have come forward, this is a reluctant
witness.
--
Two rules in life:
1. Don't tell people everything you know.
2.
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