Democratic political professionals worry that former President Bill Clinton is “out of control” and “destroying his wife’s campaign” after he reportedly slapped a heckler at a rally in Ohio and got into a shouting match with another.
Party insiders tell Capitol Hill Blue that the former President’s hair-trigger temper is surfacing more and more as he campaigns for his wife and his actions are “detrimental to the party and the Senator.”
“We’re looking at a man out of control,” says one Clinton adviser. “He won’t stay on message and too often seems like a madman on stage. He has to be stopped or removed from the campaign.”
Sources say an angry and abusive Clinton routinely chews out campaign staffers and even members of his Secret Service detail.
Reports The Associated Press:
A Barack Obama supporter claims former President Bill Clinton slapped his face after he repeatedly heckled him during a speech in Ohio.
Robert Holeman made the allegation after he chanted Obama’s name as Clinton campaigned for his wife at a rally in Canton yesterday.
As soon as Clinton finished speaking, the Canton native darted to the ropeline to give Clinton a piece of his mind.
“This is the last hurrah. After March 4, Hillary Clinton will be out of the race for good, and Obama will take the commanding lead,” he said.
“She should back him with her delegates immediately. That’s what Im asking them to do,” Holeman heckled.
Holeman told MSNBC news that Clinton was “irate” and jabbed his finger at him. “I think he even hit me in the face with his hand,” he said. “He did give me a little pop.”
Clinton could be seen pointing at Holeman, but it was unclear whether there was any physical contact.
In Steubenville, Clinton got angry at another hecker. Reports The National Journal:
A frustrated Bill Clinton angrily raised his voice in response to heckling from pro-life protestors at a rally (in Steubenville tonight.
When protestors first held up signs reading “Abortion Kills Children,” the former president responded calmly, outlining his wife’s past policies to help children and mothers. But when interrupted a second time by a more vocal heckler, Clinton shouted in response and stabbed his finger at the protestor.
“I gave you the answer. We disagree with you,” he said impatiently. “You wanna criminalize women and their doctors, and we disagree.”
“If you were really pro-life, you would want to put every doctor and every mother as an accessory to murder in prison,” he continued, as the crowd applauded its support. “And you won’t say you wanna do that because you know that you wouldn’t have a lick of political support.”
“This is not your rally,” he concluded, still agitated. “I heard you. That’s another thing you need is a president, somebody who will stick up for individual rights and not be pushed around, and she won’t.”
45 thoughts on “Did an out-of-control Bill Clinton slap protester?”
I am amazed Mr. Holeman didn’t end up on the receiving end of a pop to the beak for real. Also amazed that he didn’t end up with a few SS knees in his back while being cuffed. Mr. Holeman can dish it out but whines away when Bill Clinton showed uncommon restraint.
The pro life hecklers couldn’t have been handled better by Bill. He made me proud.
The demonization process of the Clintons is an outrage. If a man was handling their campaign in this manner, they would probably be called one tough SOB. Hillary just gets called a bitch. America can’t handle a female candidate anymore than a male ethnic candidate and that remains to be seen come the General election. That is sad. For a man who exited the White House with the fanfare and admiration that he did, it is confounding to see the hatred being touted and selectively spewed by some segments of the media.
Seal:
If you had bothered to read the “complete” thread prior to your diatribe, you could have saved yourself such a long winded and misguided response.
Doug modified the original CHB headlines that “stated” Bill Clinton had slapped a heckler. Doug edited both the wording and added a question mark to clarify the head-line later on in the morning.
Before you go off and start calling for “censorship and banishment” from the kingdon of CHB you should read and reflect, not just react.
Doug,
Someone who passes judgement on others as harshly as you do really needs to be extra scrupulous. I am not buying that your previous headline was a result of not having enough coffee. Please!! It comes under the dog ate my home work category. All of which reduces your credibility.
Bill has behaved erratically recently, turning beet-red and blowing up at people, jabbing Chris Wallace in the knee during an interview a few months ago.
He IS out of control.
That’s another reason not to vote for Hillary…she needs to stay at home and take care of her husband who may very well be devolving into some sort of mental illness!!
GO OBAMA!!
When I opened the CHB site today I saw a headline that asked a question: Did Bill Clinton slap a protester. The headline was followed by a report of what several people had to say about Clinton, primarily that he was out of control and a detriment to Hillary’s campaign. Nowhere did I see the author’s personal opinion of anything. It was simply a news report.
However, one poster took the position that the author had launched a personal attack on the Clintons and that he was guilty of irresponsile journalism and the issue erupted with that poster launching a heated attack upon the author.
Considering the what the author had reported was essentially the same as the mainstream press it could hardly be considered a personal attack by the author. Obviously, it was simply something the person did not like to see. That leads me top believe that he/she must be a Clinton supporter because the article was such that Obama supporters would like it and Clinton supporters would not. The longer the raving went on, the more apparent it became that this was the case.
The person who attacked Mr. Thompson was way out of line and absolutely wrong with all of his/her allegations. If you don’t like something in the news, you don’t attack the reporter. What good would that do? He is not responsible for what is or is not news. But what makes your actions so reprehensible is that you launched a personal attack upon the author himself. As I recall, personal attacks are not allowed at CHB. Very few sites do allow them. At the very least, you should be warned and placed on probation.
Your anger should be directed at those in the report that made all the statements you do not like. There is where you should challenge the validity any “slapping” that may or may not have occured. No one at CHB can help you with that.
Most of the CHB posters who will state a preference in this campaign favor Obama at this stage of the campaign. If you prefer Clinton, you are welcome to argue on her behalf as some of them do. But you cannot personally attack those who do not agree with you. If you do, you will only add to the convition so many have that Hillary and Bill clinton should not be elected president.
Yep, and all the MSM networks have removed the story and allegations, even including Faux News, who are reporting the verbal exchange but are not mentioning any physical contact.
CHB, are you ready to demostrate you professionalism and retract your headline?
CHB is often a pretty good read, but you guys recently seem to keep leaning towards yellow journalism.
Clinton clearly didn’t slap anyone, just watch the video on YouTube. It was crowded, so I suppose the guy thinks he can get away with his BS story, but obviously he forgot that almost everything shows up online these days. That someone is trying to get in the news should be old hat to you guys, but instead you jump on this with huge headlines (question mark or not) that will be remembered far longer than Clinton’s actual words or deeds. In fact, using Clinton’s words when upbraiding CNN for creating false controversy on an otherwise slow day: “Shame on you”.
No sense in trying to form positive change when you can get more press with false negative reporting. What happened to your “advocacy group” anyway? I think we all know.
Bob
Blacksburg, VA
Hello,
I was in Canton yesterday, about 15 yards from this “event” as it was occurring, watching it happen.
At no time did ex-President Clinton hit the heckler.
Repeat:
At no time did ex-President Clinton hit the heckler.
Signing out,
Hecklers aren’t everywhere…
Republicons and pseudo libertarians, cordon off their hecklers in “free speech zones” about two blocks and 600 cops away from their politicians. You know just like the 1st Amendment intended.
Hey, at least Bill Clinton can handle a heckler or two, knowing he is going to take an ink barrel lynching from a few punks behind a keyboard.
What hate? What rancor? What misinformation? What anti-feminism views? We raised a question based on a report from a mainstream news service and information from concerned sources within the Clinton campaign.
We leave the hate to partisan web sites. Our rule here is that “if your mother says she loves you, confirm it with a second source.”
Sherry, I’m not “for” anybody. We just call ’em as we see ’em. My feelings about the Democratic field were best summed up in a column last year when I wrote:
And don’t interpret that to mean I felt good about any of the Republicans. In that same column, I wrote:
I wrote last week that I think Obama is a better candidate than Clinton. I stand by that assessment.
Bingo!
Sorry for the delay in answering but I had to get over the laughing spell from the ludicrous claim that our columnist are, as you put it, “right wing repugly trolls.” I doubt that Hal, Phil or Rob — all normally accused of left wing leanings — would agree. I doubt that the Bush camp would think of me or any of them as members of their right wing cabal.
We practice the age old motto of Finley Peter Dunne: It is the role of journalists to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” CHB has always existed to place the glare of scrutiny on all sides of the political scrutiny: Always has, always will. The fact that both sides stay pissed off at us tells me we are doing our job.
The original headline was supposed to be a question but I guess I wrote it before my third cup of coffee in the morning (never a good thing). I added the question mark and then added a couple of other words to make sure it was phrased as a question.
And when I wrote that I stand by the headline, I was referring to the headline as corrected.
As for the “mainstream” press, MSNBC devoted most of their morning news to the issue and it was on their newscast a few minutes ago. CNN ran and reran the video clip more than a dozen times between 8 a.m. and noon.
And you really don’t get more “mainstream” than the Associated Press.
Clinton, the man, IS out of control. But I think he has become a frustrated old man. No one needs him now but his wife. Heckler’s are wherever there is a political rally these days and Mr. Bill is seeing something he never thought he would see …. the possibility of their loosing. Sociopath’s don’t like being disagreed with. I don’t usually do this, but here’s an excellent article:
https://www.sott.net/articles/show/125061-The+Psychopath's+Truth
And, would there have been so many comments to this article if the above title was not so enticing?
Your comment policy contains the clause “We do not allow our comments section to become propaganda platforms for candidates, causes or political parties and will remove any attempts at such activity”. Yet you publish crap like this article.
Let me suggest that your group of commenters include right wing repugly trolls who spread their malicious crap about the Clintons. This garbage should have no place on your blog, nor should you be publishing crap like this article to promote their activities. I suppose you do it to gain traffic, but I believe your efforts are dishonest.
Here’s a concept for which I would like to see some discussion. Note that I am not attacking Obama nor delving into the smarm swirling around his supposed involvement with Rezbo (sp) in Chicago and elsewhere. What I am questioning is this: assuming Obama’s being chosen as the Democratic presidential nominee, what happens when the bush department of justice indicts him two weeks before the presidential election. Right wing pundits have signaled their like of Obama. Can this be part of wingnut strategy? Shouldn’t we have a thorough investigation of Obama’s involvement, and government manipulation of the process of investigation, simply to protect against piece of shit wingnut efforts?
Sandra the answer to your question is no, I don’t think that everyone believes in God, nor do I expect them to. I do not however insult them. Personal choices and the freedom to believe as you want are our rights. If you have ever read anything I have written you should know that I have no problem with anyones race, religion or lack of it, sexual preference or their politics. I don’t advocate anyone else think as I do…I will speak out however when I see injustice,I know a law is or has been broken, against a crooked goverment or politician. Though it is legal,I will never think insults make a point. I cannot say that I have never insulted this President or (his henchmen) but I am sure I have not made any points by doing so, to those few who still have faith & trust in him.
Though I support Obama over Hillary, I like the idea that a politician would talk back to hecklers. If the hecklers cant take it then they shouldnt be dishing it out.
On second thought….lol. They edited the title. May as well drop the article, because no one in the mainstream press is taking it seriously. And given their hatred of the Clintons, this should tell you something.
Judy, I take abuse every day of my life because I am an Atheist. I was on the Board of Directors of a wonderful organization and when one of the other members read my web site, I was no longer allowed on the board. I was their marketing manager and did a very good job for 4 years. I get this crap even years ago when I was on Reader Rant.
Judy, do you believe that everyone believes in God? There are over 55 million of us who do not! We are the fastest growing group of Americans since the days of when we were still a colony. Read Richard Dawkins and learn something about the rest of the people.
O good grief.
It’s ok if you are for Obama. I forgive you.
It’s one thing to say Clinton dressed down a heckler. Quite another to suggest he was punched.
All this bad press may get you Obama as the nominee. However, by the time the Rove machine is done with him, he’s toast.
I don’t care whether people like Bill Clinton, I just hate the rhetoric Obama inspires against him.
Some day you will wake and smell the coffee. all to late, I fear
I don’t believe for one minute Bill slapped anyone..if he had, he would have been arrested faster than anyone on this planet! As for the Clintons being mean and ugly people? Yes, I have heard they have tempers, but I have also read that every president has had temper issues, and the worst is said to be GWB and its all over the media that McCain has a doozy of a temper. Again, I don’t believe this guy was hit by anyone but it seems to me that people are out see if he will…that would cinch the deal of Clinton having an out of control temper. You cannot insult people and expect them to say calm.
And Sandra, I have always shown you respect, but the other day when you said “a group of apes could have written the 10 commandments” and referred to God as “skydaddy” you insulted millions of believers and their God. That was insulting and not in any way necessary to make your point.
I am extremely disappointed lately in the hate & misinformation spewed in Capitol Hill Blue about the Clintons, esp. the anti-feminism views on Hillary. I would ask that my name be taken off the mailing list, but I still want to see whatever else is published.
Your rancor is not justified.
Do you really want this guy in the Whitehouse who couldn’t keep his pants zipped up? Then the white trash moved to N.Y. Jeeze give me a break. America needs better than this. Nuff said.
A high level of frustration, I’m sure. This is probably due to the inescapable conclusion that the wheels are coming off of the Clinton White House Express.
In all of his long political career, Bill Clinton has been able to avoid physical confrontation with opponents. An affable person who would have made a superb used-car salesman, Clinton’s unctuous manner has generally been an asset and has been a formidable tool in his success as the “Comeback Kid” and as the paramount fund-raiser for the Democratic party.
But this is not what the Clinton’s envisaged for this stage of the campaign. By now, the supposedly pro forma caucuses and primaries were to have validated Hillary Clinton’s presumption that the nomination was already hers, and she would doubtlessly be working on the short list of VP selectees – perhaps even planning Inauguration Day functions – rather than trying to keep from sinking.
Instead of advanced planning for the festivities, Clinton finds her campaign in a life-or-death fight with an upstart senator whose claim to fame is a rousing speech at the 2004 convention. She has suffered eight straight loses in primaries and caucuses, prominent endorsements going to her opponent, and – worst of all – money is beginning to evaporate.
Her campaign has also suffered the interference of Bill Clinton, who clumsily played a race card and had the thing blow up in his face. Now, she has the problem that her spouse appears to be unable to control his temper – something that cannot be spun as anything other than a problem.
Hillary Clinton had enough problems without Bill dropping this particular turd into the campaign punch-bowl.
Most sincerely,
T. J. Flapsaddle
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