{"id":18531,"date":"2024-11-23T18:50:28","date_gmt":"2024-11-23T18:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18531"},"modified":"2024-11-23T18:50:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T18:50:28","slug":"bill-clinton-breaks-silence-on-claims-his-staff-removed-all-the-ws-from-keyboards-in-shocking-act-of-sabotage-before-leaving-white-house-to-be-replaced-by-george-w-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18531","title":{"rendered":"Bill Clinton breaks silence on claims his staff removed all the Ws from keyboards in shocking act of sabotage before leaving White House to be replaced by George W Bush"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former President Bill Clinton<\/a> has addressed a bizarre claim his staff deliberately tore the letter \u2018W\u2019 from White House<\/a> keyboards to hinder his successor, President George W Bush – and admitted that the long-running allegation might be true.<\/p>\n

Writing in his new memoir, Citizen \u2013 My Life After The White House, Clinton, 78,\u00a0 recalls<\/a>\u00a0how a media \u2018feeding frenzy\u2019 marred the handover to Bush in 2001 amid claims departing staff had vandalized the West Wing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time, it was said that filing cabinets were glued shut, obscene messages left on answering machines and pornographic pictures placed on office printers.<\/p>\n

The presidential entourage was accused of smashing up crockery on Airforce One. Bill and Hillary Clinton<\/a> themselves were in the frame for pilfering bedroom furniture.<\/p>\n

But nothing caught the public imagination like the claim that official keyboards were systematically disfigured to remove the letter \u2018W\u2019 – the middle initial of the incoming president and the name by which he was often known.<\/p>\n

\u2018There are dozens, if not hundreds of keyboards with these missing keys,\u2019 a White House source said at the time. \u2018In some cases, the \u201cW\u201d keys have been taped on top of the doorways, which are 12 feet tall. In other cases, they were glued on with Superglue, right way up or upside down.\u2019<\/p>\n

Today, recalling the furor, Clinton writes: \u2018The first to hit were stories that, as we moved out of the White House, I had taken two large bedside tables from the master bedroom;<\/p>\n

\u2018That the \u201cW\u201d key had been removed from typewriters and computers in the West Wing;<\/p>\n

\u2018And that, on my flight to New York on the former Air Force One after President George W Bush\u2019s inauguration, our passengers destroyed government plates and other utensils.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\"Former <\/div>\n

Former President Bill Clinton has addressed a bizarre claim his staff deliberately tore the letter \u2018W\u2019 from White House keyboards to hinder his successor, President George W Bush<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"The <\/div>\n

The presidential entourage was also accused of smashing up crockery on Airforce One. Bill and Hillary Clinton themselves were in the frame for pilfering bedroom furniture<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Denying two of these suggestions outright, Clinton states: \u2018The White House staff asked me to take the tables saying they didn\u2019t want to keep or store them.<\/p>\n

\u2018And no one on Airforce One destroyed government merchandise.\u2019<\/p>\n

When it comes to the vandalized keyboards, however, the former president seems less certain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018I didn\u2019t know about the alleged removal of the \u201cW\u201d keys, but the whole thing bothered me because I had made it clear that I wanted a smooth, cooperative transition and we had done exactly that,\u2019 he writes.<\/p>\n

Were keyboards defaced?<\/p>\n

\u2018Within a few days some people finally went on the record to say that either no damage had occurred or that the allegations of \u201cW\u201d mischief were greatly exaggerated,\u2019 he concludes, an open-ended remark that most will take as an admission that the claims were in fact true.<\/p>\n

A year-long investigation by the General Accounting Committee later found Clinton\u2019s staff had caused about $15000-worth of \u2018damage, theft, vandalism and pranks\u2019 although there were no prosecutions.<\/p>\n

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\"Clinton's <\/div>\n

Clinton’s new memoir was published in November<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Back then, a spokesman for Clinton responded that the White House had been left \u2018in good shape\u2019 with no more damage than might be expected from such a major change of occupancy.<\/p>\n

Clinton’s comments on the keyboard controversy come amid a slew of bombshell admissions to surface in his new memoir.<\/p>\n

Among them were remarks about his relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Clinton has long faced questions about his associate with Epstein, who took his own life in 2009 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his book he\u00a0admits to flying on Epstein’s private jet<\/a>, the Lolita Express, in 2002 and 2003 but dismisses allegations he ever visited the disgraced financier’s private island, Little Saint James, in the US Virgin Islands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clinton claims Epstein had offered the plane in support of his foundation and that they spoke about economics and politics.<\/p>\n

He writes: ‘The bottom line is, even though it allowed me to visit the work of my foundation, traveling on Epstein\u2019s plane was not worth the years of questioning afterward. I wish I had never met him.’<\/p>\n

Clinton adds: ‘I had always thought Epstein was odd but had no inkling of the crimes he was committing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘He hurt a lot of people, but I knew nothing about it, and by the time he was first arrested in 2005, I had stopped contact with him. I\u2019ve never visited his island.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

The former president also opened up about his affair<\/a> with Monica Lewinsky<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives<\/a> in 1998 when it emerged he had lied about a sexual relationship with the then 22-year-old intern.<\/p>\n

In his book he recalled an NBC ‘Today Show’ interview in 2018 where he was asked if he had ever apologized to Lewinsky.<\/p>\n

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\"A <\/div>\n

A year-long investigation by the General Accounting Committee later found Clinton\u2019s staff had caused about $15000-worth of \u2018damage, theft, vandalism and pranks\u2019 although there were no prosecutions<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Clinton <\/div>\n

Clinton claims in his memoir that Epstein, seen here with associate Ghislaine Maxwell, had offered the plane in support of his foundation\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A <\/div>\n

A photograph showing former White House intern Monica Lewinsky meeting President Bill Clinton at a White House function submitted as evidence in documents by the Starr investigation and released by the House Judicary committee September 21, 1998<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Clinton writes: ‘I said, “No, I felt terrible then.”‘<\/p>\n

‘”Did you ever apologize to her?” I said that I had apologized to her and everybody else I wronged. I was caught off guard by what came next.<\/p>\n

‘”But you didn’t apologize to her, at least according to folks that we’ve talked to.”<\/p>\n

“I fought to contain my frustration as I replied that while I’d never talked to her directly, I did say publicly on more than [one] occasion I was sorry.”‘<\/p>\n

The 42nd president went on to admit the interview ‘was not my finest hour’.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Source: <\/em> politics.einnews.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former President Bill Clinton has addressed a bizarre claim his staff deliberately tore the letter \u2018W\u2019 from White House keyboards to hinder his successor, President George W Bush – and admitted that the long-running allegation might be true. Writing in his new memoir, Citizen \u2013 My Life After The White House, Clinton, 78,\u00a0 recalls\u00a0how a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}