OPINION:
Hillary Clinton said over the weekend that the FBI reopening her email server investigation 11 days before the presidential election was “unprecedented” and “deeply troubling.”
Yet the Clintons had no qualms in 1992 — when Bill Clinton was running for the Oval Office — when a GOP official was indicted four days from the general election, in what many saw as an effort to sway the presidential contest.
A special prosecutor raised new charges against Caspar W. Weinberger, who served as Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan, about the Iran-Contra probe. The charges appeared to contradict statements made by George H.W. Bush — who was running for re-election at the time — prompting Mr. Clinton to claim he was running against a “culture of corruption.”
“Newly disclosed notes on a White House meeting in January 1986 contradict President Bush’s assertion that he was unaware at the time that arms sold to Iran were part of an arms-for-hostages deal,” The New York Times reported Oct. 31, 1992.
“Mr. Weinberger’s notes say that at a meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 7, 1986, Mr. Bush, who was then Vice President, favored an effort to secure the release of American hostages by selling American antitank missiles to Iran. Iran was believed to have influence over groups holding the hostages in Lebanon. ’VP Favored’ Deal,” The Times reported.
Mr. Clinton, at the time, “seized” on the revelations.
“Mr. Clinton seized on today’s disclosure to challenge Mr. Bush’s ’trust and character and judgment,’ ” The Times wrote in 1992.
“Secretary Weinberger’s note clearly shows that President Bush has not been telling the truth when he says he was out of the loop,” Mr. Clinton said at a news conference in Pittsburgh, before the election, The Times reported. “It demonstrates that President Bush knew and approved of President Reagan’s secret deal to swap arms for hostages.”
The indictment was later thrown out and many Republicans blame it for Mr. Bush’s loss that year.
“Does anyone remember Hillary/Bill criticizing the independent prosecutor for re-indicting Cap Weinberger 4 days before Bill’s ’92 election??” former White House press secretary Ari Fleisher tweeted on Sunday, pointing out the Clinton’s hypocrisy.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.