Former President Bill Clinton told late-night talk show host Conan O’Brien this week that he struggled after leaving the White House with not hearing “Hail to the Chief” as he entered a room.
The 42nd commander in chief, making an appearance Wednesday night on Mr. O’Brien’s show to discuss the 25th anniversary of his election, contemporary politics and stories from his youth, started the interview by half-jokingly lamenting the disappearance of pomp and circumstance upon leaving the White House.
“What was the hardest thing to get used to on the first day that you were no longer president, as a civilian,” Mr. O’Brien asked. “That’s got to be a massive change. What was the hardest thing to get used to?”
“They don’t play a song when you walk in a room anymore,” Mr. Clinton said without hesitation. “It’s amazing, you know? For three to four weeks I was totally lost. I didn’t know where I was. Where’s ’Hail to the Chief’?”
The former president also discussed the 2016 presidential election, “people that make up stuff on the internet,” and “the dictator’s club.”
“[Dictators] want to abolish the line between fact and fiction and truth and lie, because they figure if you don’t know what’s true and you don’t think you can ever know, that pretty soon everybody will accept the fact that democracy is no longer possible,” Mr. Clinton said.
“Are you talking about foreign countries now, or here?” asked the host. “That chilled me to the bone for a second. I thought we were in [North] Korea.”
The former president paused for a moment of laughter before redirecting the conversation to the “effort to disenfranchise voters” and the need for immigration reform.
Mr. Clinton then urged citizens to get out and vote during midterm elections if they are not happy with the status quo.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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