3 of Cruz's alleged mistresses have been identified: Katrina Pierson, Sarah Isgur Flores, and Amanda Carpenter. https://t.co/GUF55Kli31—
Joel Luther (@joel_luther) March 25, 2016
(link)
3 of Cruz's alleged mistresses have been identified: Katrina Pierson, Sarah Isgur Flores, and Amanda Carpenter. https://t.co/GUF55Kli31—
Joel Luther (@joel_luther) March 25, 2016
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
by BEN SHAPIRO3 Feb 20161,747
On Wednesday, President Obama, who has become the executive branch equivalent of a professional Salon.com commenter troll, took his traveling roadshow of perverse failure to the Islamic Society of Baltimore.
There, he lectured Americans – as always – on our own intolerance, the glories of Islam, and how if we just gaze longingly into his eyes, our souls will be set free of the baser matter surrounding them.
First, a note: the Islamic Society of Baltimore has significant ties to terror supporters. Its former imam, Mohamed Adam el-Sheikh, presided over the mosque for 18 years and justified Palestinian suicide bombings in the pages of The Washington Post, as well as founding the radical Muslim Brotherhood-associated Muslim American Society.
Now, on to President Obama’s speech.
Obama began by stating that the ISB is as American as apple pie (minus the whole former imam who supported suicide bombing thing). He then said, “So the first thing I want to say is two words that Muslim Americans don’t hear often enough — and that is, thank you. Thank you for serving your community. Thank you for lifting up the lives of your neighbors, and for helping keep us strong and united as one American family. We are grateful for that.”
So, no bitter clinger talk for those who worship Allah. Got it.
Then he moved on to his real message: Americans who aren’t nice like President Obama are super duper mean to Muslims. Never mind the fact that, according to FBI statistics, 60.3 percent of all hate crimes based on religion target Jews, as opposed to 13.7 percent targeting Muslims. Muslims who must fear intolerant Americans, and must rely on President Obama’s great goodness to protect them from the slobbering, yabbering masses who would emerge en masse on the streets of the United States, armed with pitchforks and torches, to roust them from their homes and do them harm. Here’s Obama:
I know that in Muslim communities across our country, this is a time of concern and, frankly, a time of some fear. Like all Americans, you’re worried about the threat of terrorism. But on top of that, as Muslim Americans, you also have another concern — and that is your entire community so often is targeted or blamed for the violent acts of the very few.
Oh. Well, statistically, virtually all suicide bombings across the planet are conducted by Muslims. Hundreds of millions of Muslims hold extreme beliefs. In the United States, as Mark Krikorian wrote at National Review in December, “Muslims account for only about 1 percent of the U.S. population but account for about half of terrorist attacks since 9/11. That means Muslims in the United States are about 5,000 percent more likely to commit terrorist attacks than non-Muslims.”
But statistics are Islamophobic, so Obama merely ignored them. Instead, he focused on the “inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim Americans that has no place in our country,” lamenting “the threats and harassment of Muslim Americans have surged.” No statistics, just anecdotal evidence, followed. And then more scaremongering:
[Y]ou also could not help but be heartbroken to hear their worries and their anxieties. Some of them are parents, and they talked about how their children were asking, are we going to be forced out of the country, or, are we going to be rounded up? Why do people treat us like that? Conversations that you shouldn’t have to have with children — not in this country. Not at this moment. And that’s an anxiety echoed in letters I get from Muslim Americans around the country. I’ve had people write to me and say, I feel like I’m a second-class citizen… These are children just like mine.
So Obama’s adding to his fictional family of victims once again. First, there was Trayvon. Then there was his fictional son who got hurt playing football. Now he’s got fictional Muslim children. That family’s growing by leaps and bounds!
That wasn’t Obama’s only fiction here. Who, exactly, is talking about “rounding up” Muslims? Who is talking about forcing Muslims out of the country? What brand of verbal cow-vomit is this?
It was just Obama setting up the strawman for its ceremonial Islamic sacrificial burning, apparently. Obama called for Americans to “tackle this head on,” to be “honest and clear about it,” to “speak out.” He then began gibbering platitudes until someone had to tap him on the shoulder and remind him where he was:
Islam is rooted in a commitment to compassion and mercy and justice and charity….The world’s 1.6 billion Muslims are as diverse as humanity itself…. Here’s another fact: Islam has always been part of America… Jefferson and John Adams had their own copies of the Koran.
He did not quote what Jefferson and Adams once said about their dealings with Islamic pirates:
The ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.
Probably best for Obama to ignore that.
Ignore it he did, and instead called for changes to American media and culture to be nicer to Islam. He suggested that “our television shows should have some Muslim characters that are unrelated to national security.” Sounds great! Let’s start an #OscarsSoIslamophobic campaign, which will work fantastically well until Muslims around the world riot when somebody does an improper depiction of Mohammed.
After attempting unsuccessfully to carve off the Islamic State from Islam, Obama then set forth four points.
First: “We are all God’s children. We’re all born equal, with inherent dignity.” Obama could say that to the wide swaths of Muslims sanguine about the stabbing of Jewish children in Jerusalem and the shooting of Christian ones in Syria; instead, he chose to direct that at the inhabitants of the most tolerant nation in the history of humanity.
Second: “[W]e have to stay true to our core values, and that includes freedom of religion for all faiths… if we’re serious about freedom of religion – and I’m speaking now to my fellow Christians who remain the majority in this country – we have to understand an attack on one faith is an attack on all religions.” Well, not necessarily. An attack on the teachings of Satanism is not an attack on Christianity. An attack on the nature of Islam is not an attack on Judaism. Not all religions are the same, contrary to Obama’s presumably-treasured COEXIST bumper sticker. And it’s rather insulting directing his ire toward American Christians rather than the hundreds of millions of Muslims around the planet responsible for the vast majority of religious warfare, bloodshed, and targeted violence.
But Obama continued, “We have to be consistent in condemning hateful rhetoric and violence against everyone. And that includes against Muslims here in the United States of America.” “Hateful rhetoric” is not violence, although Obama would lump the two together. Doing that is a dangerous violation of free speech. But Obama doesn’t care about that – after all, the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam, remember?
Third: “[T]he suggestion is somehow that if I would simply say, these are all Islamic terrorists, then we would actually have solved the problem by now, apparently…. I refuse to give [ISIL] legitimacy. We must never give them that legitimacy. They’re not defending Islam.” It would, in fact, help for Obama to acknowledge our enemies and their ideology. Wishing their philosophy into the corn field won’t work; no serious Muslim takes Obama’s interpretation of Islam seriously, anymore than serious Jews take Obama’s interpretation of Judaism seriously. But Obama is too busy wishing, and lecturing Americans that the best way to thwart radical Islam is to “celebrate and lift up the success of Muslim Americans,” as though ISIS cares whether we have White House Ramadan dinners other than to think us weaklings and fools. That’s not a case against White House Ramadan dinners – it is a case that such dinners make no difference in the fight against radical Islam.
Fourth: “Muslims around the world have a responsibility to reject extremist ideologies that are trying to penetrate within Muslim communities.” Nice of Obama to get around to this one. But he promptly said that Muslims were doing enough, and put the responsibility on Americans to “amplify them more.” So actually, the Muslims are doing just fine, it’s the Islamophobic Westerners who are, as always, the problem.
Hilariously, Obama added this note:
[I]n the discussion I had before I came out, some people said, why is there always a burden on us? When a young man in Charleston shoots African Americans in a church, there’s not an expectation that every white person in America suddenly is explaining that they’re not racist.
LOL. Let me expand: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. President Obama and the entire media blamed the Confederate damn flag for Charleston, and then lectured us on the continuing racism of white Americans.
But back to Obama’s demagoguery:
We will — I will — do everything I can to lift up the multiplicity of Muslim voices that promote pluralism and peace….We can’t give in to profiling entire groups of people. There’s no one single profile of terrorists…. We are one American family. We will rise and fall together. It won’t always be easy. There will be times where our worst impulses are given voice. But I believe that ultimately, our best voices will win out. And that gives me confidence and faith in the future.
Obviously, Obama believes that the greatest threat to America is the cruel voices of those like Donald Trump, not the stealthy recruitment of Muslim radicals. He believes that Americans need his lectures, and Muslims just need reassurance that we care about them. He believes a lot of things that simply aren’t true.
And so more Americans will die.
Which means he will give us more speeches about Islamic peace and American intolerance.
Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News, Editor-in-Chief of DailyWire.com, and The New York Times bestselling author, most recently, of the book,The People vs. Barack Obama:The Criminal Case Against The Obama Administration (Threshold Editions, June 10, 2014). Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.
www.washingtonexaminer.com
Donald Trump kept hitting two of his favorite targets, Bill and Hillary Clinton, during a campaign event in Little Rock, Ark. on Wednesday night, arguing that they fled the state.
After riffing against Ted Cruz over his Iowa caucus win on Monday, Trump bashed the Clintons, telling 11,500 attendees that they bailed on the state after the former president took over the White House in 1993.
"By the way, I have to tell you this," Trump told the crowd, "Hillary and Bill left Arkansas — they left you folks. They left you. Whether you like it or not, they left you.
"I guarantee you, if she or he was here tonight, they wouldn't be having 12,000 people filling up this arena," Trump said as boos rained down from the crowd.
Arkansans will take to the polls on Super Tuesday as part of the so-called SEC primary. Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee also will vote on the same day.
Donald Trump says they did. inPolitics on LockerDome
COMMENTS
www.breitbart.com
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
by Mike Flynn28 Jan 20160
28 Jan, 201628 Jan, 2016 Bill Clinton’s poll ratings are in free-fall, and that surprise crash undermines the conventional wisdom that Hillary Clinton has a lock on the Democrat nomination.
A new CBS/New York Times poll shows that just 39 percent of American voters have a favorable opinion of Bill Clinton.
This is down from a 50 percent approval rating just a few months ago. In 2012, when Bill Clinton was campaigning aggressively for President Obama’s reelection, 66 percent of voters had a favorable opinion of Mr. Clinton.
Bill Clinton’s favorable rating today is actually lower than it was in 2008, when he last campaigned forcefully for Hillary as she was battling Barack Obama for the Democrat nomination. As that contest heated up, Mr. Clinton’s favorable rating sank to 46 percent.
A modest drop in Bill Clinton’s approval rating is to be expected as he reenters the political fray. As a former President, Clinton is normally viewed by voters as somewhat “above” politics, allowing them to hold more favorable views of the former politician.
Campaigning for one side in a political debate, even if that candidate is his wife, is naturally going to impact the opinions of those on the other side of that debate. The steep drop in Bill Clinton’s approval ratings, though, as he is only beginning to campaign for Hillary in the primary suggests something deeper is going on.
A few weeks ago, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump responded to criticism from Hillary Clinton by raising the issue of Bill Clinton’s sexual transgressions and the allegations of sexual assault against the former President.
In the wake of the controversy between Trump and Hillary Clinton, several women from Bill Clinton’s past emerged again from the media shadows to retell their stories of Mr. Clinton’s alleged sexual abuse.
The last time these allegations were raised at all in the media was back in 1998, during the height of the controversy surrounding Bill Clinton’s sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Tellingly, during this time, Mr. Clinton’s approval rating also sunk to 39 percent in the CBS poll.
While the resurfacing of the old allegations brings back memories of a dysfunctional Clinton White House for older voters, for a large portion of the electorate, these stories are largely new. Voters younger than 35 weren’t even old enough to vote when the Lewinsky story dominated political news.
Interestingly, young voters are a powerful force behind the dramatic rise of Hillary Clinton’s current rival,Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Sanders leads Hillary by 12 points among voters aged 18-34. In another poll, voters younger than 24 prefer Sanders over Hillary by a massive 42 points, 68-26.
It isn’t hard to imagine that these twin phenomenon — Bill Clinton’s plummeting approval ratings and Sanders’ surge among young voters — are related.
Before Trump, the conventional wisdom was that voters didn’t care about Clinton’s past sexual transgressions. These, the pundits assured us, were old news. For many voters, though, these allegations aren’t old news at all.
Even for those who do remember the old controversies, the kind of conduct allegedly committed by Bill Clinton is viewed much differently today than 20 years ago. This may be the clearest sign that the Clinton era is truly over.
COMMENTS
observer.com
People hold Hillary Clinton campaign signs during the King Day at the Dome rally at the S.C. State House at the S.C. State House January 18, 2016 in Columbia, S.C. (Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Two new polls released in the past week show women won’t be voting in droves for Hillary Clinton the way African-Americans voted in droves for President Obama.
First, a USA Today/Rock the Vote pollfound millennial women preferring Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to Ms. Clinton. Women between the ages of 18 and 34 preferred Mr. Sanders by a 19-point margin, with 50 percent choosing the senator and 31 percent choosing the former secretary of state.
On Tuesday, a Monmouth Universitynational poll found Ms. Clinton’s lead among women had taken a nose dive since December. Ms. Clinton currently leads Mr. Sanders by 19 points among all women, a smaller lead than what the same poll found at the end of 2015, when Ms. Clinton had a 45-point lead. That’s a huge drop in just one month.
If these polls are indicative of the direction Ms. Clinton’s support among women is heading, as voters tend to make their final decisions in the last month and days before an election (or primary), then Ms. Clinton has a problem.
Women don’t appear as though they will support Ms. Clinton the way African-Americans supported Mr. Obama. Part of that reason is due to a larger split of the demographic between Republicans and Democrats. Sure, more women vote for Democrats than Republicans, but the gap is much closer than with African-Americans.
In 2012, Mr. Obama won women by 12 points, or 56 percent to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s 44 percent. Black voters favored Mr. Obama at a much wider margin, with 93 percent voting for the president’s second term and just 6 percent voting for Mr. Romney.
Mr. Obama also didn’t pander to black voters. He didn’t bring up his race during every speech, every appearance or every debate. He didn’t constantly say he was running to be the first black president. Sure, his surrogates and a friendly media didn’t let voters forget that, but Mr. Obama himself didn’t. It’s one thing for supporters to point that out, but it’s another thing for the candidate to feel the need to remind them.
Does Ms. Clinton think we will forget she’s a woman? Or that we can’t tell? Does she think we have the attention span of a goldfish and must be reminded every few sentences? It’s insulting, condescending and makes one wonder if she’s sure of her own candidacy beyond her gender.
Ms. Clinton is also not as inspirational a candidate as Mr. Obama was. Beyond being the (at the time) potential first black president, Mr. Obama also seemed to have fresh, new ideas, and wasn’t seen as a Washington insider. Ms. Clinton, on the other hand, is seen as an entrenched politician who doesn’t have a bold new viewpoint.
This is important for millennials and was one of the reasons they came out to vote for then-Senator Obama. Millennials are following politics more, and are more dedicated to their opinions than any other generation. As a millennial myself (apologies for my generation, we’re not all terrible), I can’t meet another person in my age group who doesn’t have loud opinions about everything. Maybe it’s because I live on the East Coast, but seriously, young people won’t shut up about their politics.
Mr. Sanders is the candidate who is talking more like Mr. Obama in 2008. He’s calling out Wall Street, capitalism and cronyism. When Ms. Clinton talks about those things we laugh, because she receives large donations from Wall Street, including speaking fees and appears to love cronyism—just check out all of her friends she helped while at the State Department.
Her story is also not something that inspires a generation that is more focused on their career and more desiring of personal success. Mr. Obama had help throughout his career, of course, but it was still him getting the help because of his own merit or because of what he represented for political elites. Ms. Clinton, on the other hand, relied on her husband to get where she is today. She was hired to a top law firm in Arkansas and made partner after her husband became governor. She was elected to the senate with help from her husband’s donors and riding on the momentum of her husband’s popularity after leaving the White House. She ran for president because of all these things, which she only achieved because of whom she was married to.
Young women are averse to the idea that we need a man to succeed, yet that is what Ms. Clinton exemplifies. Sure, Ms. Clinton appeals to more extreme feminists just because of her gender, but the ideals she represents are decidedly not feminist.
There are of course some things working in Ms. Clinton’s favor for this election. She does better with older women than Mr. Sanders, and older voters tend to turn out. Mr. Obama was able to get young Americans to vote in record numbers, so if Mr. Sanders can’t replicate that, he’s toast. Ms. Clinton is also doing better with black and Hispanic voters than Mr. Sanders, so if they come out to vote, she’ll have a clear path to victory.
As with every election, it all comes down to who actually turns out and in what numbers. Ms. Clinton has many factors working in her favor, but if Mr. Sanders’s supporters are more energized to go to the polls, then Ms. Clinton will have a problem.
COMMENTS
Hillary Clinton torpedoed affair between Bill and campaign worker
www.dailymail.co.uk
Long before the 'bimbo eruptions' and Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton cheated on Hillary with university student Marla Crider Crider worked on Bill's first political campaign in 1974 and two fell hard for each otherIn an explosive interview, she told author Jerry Oppenheimer: 'Hillary was like a cat, marking her territory'Bill was crazy about Crider, but told her '[Hillary] gets me started, kicks my butt, and makes me do the things I've got to do'When Hillary learned of their affair things turned uglyCrider saw a letter Hillary wrote to Bill saying: 'I know all your little girls are around there…if that's what it is, you will outgrow this'Hillary and Bill had a 'secret pact' for their future that one day he, and later she, would be elected presidentSee more of the latest news on Bill and Hillary Clinton revelations
New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer, who recently published RFK Jr.: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream, investigated the Clintons in his book State of a Union: Inside the Complex Marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
She was a pretty 21-year-old political science major, and he was a 27-year-old law school graduate embarking on his first political campaign. They instantly fell for each other. But when the other woman in his life learned of their affair, things turned frighteningly ugly.
It may sound like the story line for a juicy TV miniseries, but it was real-life. The characters in the drama were a young Bill Clinton, his then longtime girlfriend, Hillary Rodham, and a college girl by the name of Marla Crider.
Before her death last year, Crider sat down for an explosive interview that revealed the perverse lengths Hillary would go to ensure that her political ambitions for herself and her husband-to-be would be realized.
The Clinton-Rodham-Crider triangle is important in the Clinton biography because it underscores and documents the first time Bill cheated on Hillary -- even before they were married, but seriously involved.
Driven and ambitious, Hillary did every catty thing to break up the relationship and keep Bill for herself, based not on love, as Marla Crider perceived it back then in 1974 Arkansas, but rather on a 'secret pact' that Bill and Hillary had forged for their future – that they'd work together as a disciplined team so that one day he, and hopefully later she, would be elected president.
Love triangle: Marla Crider was an Arkansas beauty queen who captured the heart of Bill Clinton even though he and Hillary was about to become engaged. The Clinton-Rodham-Crider triangle is important in the Clinton biography because it documents the first time Bill cheated on Hillary -- even before they were married
Charasmatic: Bill's charm won over many women as he launched his political career in 1974 after he graduated from the University of Arkansas Law School, running for the state's Third Congressional District seat against a popular Republican who had been in office seemingly forever
Long before the so-called Clinton 'bimbo eruptions,' long before the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, Bill Clinton had, behind Hillary's back, a serious affair with pretty Arkansas brunette Marla, who was working in his first political campaign.
GOP front runner Donald Trump has zeroed in on the Clintons' past marital scandals, asserting the former president's womanizing - in particular his affair with the one-time White House intern Lewinsky - is 'fair game' as the campaign enters its key months.
Declared Trump, 'You look at whether it's Monica Lewinsky or Paula Jones or many of them. That certainly will be fair game. Certainly if they play the woman's card with respect to me.'
When Trump learned that Bill is campaigning for Hillary, he exploded, tweeting that the former president and future possible 'First Husband' has 'demonstrated a penchant for sexism' – this after Hillary called Trump 'sexist' in response to his claim that she was 'schlonged' by Barrack Obama in her failed 2008 presidential race.
In a radio interview with broadcaster Aaron Klein, Monica Lewinsky confidant Linda Tripp revealed that Bill had flings with thousands of women, including another White House Staffer and, of course, Gennifer Flowers.
Bill has also had sexual assault charges leveled at him by Kathleen Willey and Paul Jones, who won an $850,000 lawsuit against him for sexual harassment.
Now the Clintons fear - and justifiably so - that Bill's relationship with Marla, along with the other women in his life, will be resurrected by Trump's campaign and used as fodder against Hillary in the race for the White House.
Slender, olive-skinned, green-eyed Marla Crider's relationship with Bill flew under the radar until it was revealed in my New York Times bestselling book, 'State of a Union: Inside the Complex Marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton,' published following Clinton's impeachment by the House of Representatives, and acquittal by the Senate.
Secrets: Hillary has stood by her cheating man since before they were married. Monica Lewinsky's confiante Linda Tripp has revealed that Bill had 'thousands' of women - and Hillary knew about them
A wing and a prayer: Hillary and Bill were a match made in political heaven and they had a 'secret pact' for their future that one day he, and later she, would be elected president
Rah rah: Crider was a cheerleader at Greenland High School in Arkansas. She went on to attend the University of Arkansas which is where she met Bill
A native of Bill Clinton's home state, Arkansas, Marla was a sharply intelligent college girl majoring in political science at the University of Arkansas when, in 1974, she joined charismatic, idealistic and seemingly unattached Bill Clinton's first political campaign.
The recent law school graduate was running for the state's Third Congressional District seat against a popular Republican who had been in office seemingly forever.
Everywhere Bill campaigned, there were women, groupies, drawn to him like ants to a picnic. Bill Clinton was a virtual babe magnet, and it was clear to his campaign manager, Paul Fray, and campaign office workers that he took advantage of the situation.
'They'd [women] write down their names, their phone numbers, their addresses on a napkin, whatever was handy, and hand it to him,' one campaign source recalled.
And while he was getting all that action, his girlfriend Hillary was hundreds of miles away in Washington, D.C. working for the Watergate Committee.
Marla Crider told Jerry Oppenheimer she considered Bill hers
But of all the Arkansas cuties who let Bill know they were available, he chose Marla Crider, with her intriguing looks and long dark hair.
The first time they met, she later recalled in interviews for my book, it was practically love at first sight. She was so impressed with him that, 'I told my mother that night, "Bill Clinton will someday be president." I just instinctively felt like the sky was the limit for him.'
A number of books about the Clintons before mine had mentioned a 'college girl' who was romantically involved with Clinton during his first campaign, and had to be hidden whenever Hillary showed up.
But no one had ever found her.
As she later noted to my researcher who tracked her down: 'In 25 years I've never talked about this.'
But she finally decided to open up.
She said she knew that Hillary Rodham, then working in Washington for the Watergate committee, was Bill's girlfriend, and had asked him 'point-blank if he were engaged to her yet.' Bill said no, noting, 'If she chose to come back, I would probably pursue the relationship. But we're not engaged.'
Marla said she believed him. She considered him hers.
But when she later asked him about Hillary she got quite a different response.
'You and Hillary, what's the deal? Are you in love with her?'
'Yeah, I am,' he responded. 'But I don't know if this is right. …I don't know if she can fit in here.'
'What is it about her?' Marla asked.
Bill's response surprised her.
'She gets me started, kicks my butt, and makes me do the things I've got to do.'
To Marla it sounded more like Bill was discussing a tough Marine Corps drill instructor rather than a woman with whom he claimed he was in love with.
'Are you going to build a marriage off of this?' Marla asked dubiously.
Hillary had become aware of the romance – presumably from intelligence gathered from people she knew in the campaign.
And she saw Marla as genuine threat to her future with Bill
Stumped: Bill is campaigning for his wife in the hope that he'll fulfill his promise to help her win the presidency as she had helped him. But Hillary is on the ropes as Bernie Sanders closes in
Vows: They looked so in love on their wedding day. But it was more business than pleasure. Bill told Marla: 'She gets me started, kicks my butt, and makes me do the things I've got to do'
Her claws were out and a number of a confrontations followed. Hillary made surprise visits to Bill's campaign headquarters, in one instance causing Bill to cancel an overnight trip with Marla.
That night at headquarters Marla was drinking a glass of wine.
Hillary, she recalled, 'Strolls up to me, takes the glass of wine out of my hand, says, 'Hmmm, wine' – takes a drink of it, gives it back to me and says, staring me down, "I'll have to get some of that."
'It was her way of letting me know – like a cat – marking its territory. Everybody in there just turned and looked, like what the hell was that all about? And Hillary just had this kind of half smirk on her face and she strolled off.'
It was her way of letting me know – like a cat – marking its territory.
Once when Marla and Bill were discussing his campaign schedule with a few others, Hillary, who had made another surprise visit from Washington, cut into the discussion, telling Marla that she and Bill were going on an overnight trip, 'And we can't seem to find any of his socks. I knew you would know where they are.'
Bill, embarrassed, went ballistic.'Would you two take this outside,' he yelled.
Marla recalled, 'He was red, that pulsating red.'
Marla found the overnight bag, found a pair of Bill's socks inside and briskly gave them to Hillary.
Responded Hillary with poisonous sweetness, 'Thanks – somehow I knew you'd know that.'
Bill later apologized to Marla for Hillary's behavior.
'Basically, he said, "This is my fault. I have allowed this to happen." It was apparent, he said, this was going to have to be dealt with.'
But Marla's relationship ignited more serious problems.
An anonymous telephone call to her mother – whether it was from Hillary, or possibly an agent of hers, or someone else – alerted her to the affair, and she was upset, fearful that her daughter, in her first serious relationship, would be hurt by Clinton.
'Doesn't he have another woman…You are being used,' Mrs. Crider told her daughter during a tearful confrontation.
Beyond other anonymous phone calls and hang-ups, Marla began to suspect she was being followed whenever she left Clinton's campaign headquarters.
Marla had become very aware of Hillary's wrath, and even a bit fearful.
Hillary and Bill Clinton attended Yale in the early 1970s. She was one of a handful of young researchers and interns who helped determine whether a school in Alabama discriminated against blacks
At one point, Bill sent her a note:
'I know there are things about us I should really be sorry about, but I'm not. I care about you. I am grateful that you have been here with me during this time.'
After Hillary found out about Marla, she tried to make Bill jealous.
Campaign manager Paul Fray recalled overhearing a telephone conversation between Hillary and Bill.
'She told him she'd gone out with some guy in Washington and slept with him. Billy broke down and told her, "Well, damn you, why are you doing me this way?" He was really torn up about it.'
She [Hillary] didn't know how to deal with Southerners. She would get furious if there was any frivolity. Furious – it was like have you forgotten what our goal is.They had a curious unbroken – and unspoken --bond.
Marla's relationship with Bill caused problems within her own family.
At one point her uncle, a county judge, confronted her at restaurant. 'He tore into her a** with both feet,' Fray recalled. 'He said, "You are going to stop this relationship…Everybody's talking about what kind of a sorry, no-account niece I've got, to be with this son of a bitch."'
Marla refused to listen. She was head over heels in love.
Hillary had been hopping in and out of Arkansas to be with Bill. But now, concerned about his relationship with Marla, she returned full time.
'There were few people she tolerated in that office,' Marla had never forgotten. 'She was very dictatorial. She literally came in and just turned everything around, changed everything.
'She didn't know how to deal with Southerners…She would get furious if there was any frivolity. Furious – it was like have you forgotten what our goal is.'
Another campaign aide remembered Hillary, 'kicking a**, and taking names'.
Bill had given Marla her own set of keys to his house and had asked her to pick up some papers he needed on one occasion when Hillary had apparently returned to Washington.
On Bill's desk in his room Marla spotted a letter signed by Hillary, unfolded and open to be read by anyone. Years later, remembering that moment, Marla believed that Hillary had 'carefully placed' it there, in what she believed was a Hillary 'orchestrated touch'
On Bill's desk in his room Marla spotted a letter signed by Hillary, unfolded and open to be read by anyone.
Years later, remembering that moment, Marla believed that Hillary had 'carefully placed' it there, in what she believed was a Hillary 'orchestrated touch.'
Marla recalled much of what Hillary had written in her Dear Bill missive, and most, if not all of it, was a shock to her.
Wrote Hillary: 'I still do not understand why you do the things you do to hurt me. You left me in tears and not knowing what our relationship was all about.
'I know all your little girls are around there…if that's what it is, you will outgrow this. They will not be with you when you need them.
'They are not the ones who can help you achieve your goals. If this is about your feelings for [Marla] this, too, shall pass. Let me remind you it always does.'
Reading the words, Marla believed that Hillary was saying that what Bill and Marla had together wasn't real, that he should listen to his head, not his heart.
Hillary continued, 'Remember what we talked about. Remember the goals we set for ourselves. You keep trying to stray away from the plans we've put together.
'Take some time, think about it, and call me when you're ready. Hillary.'
In November 2014, as 68-year-old Hillary Clinton was launching her second presidential bid, Marla Crider died at age 60 after a heroic 18-month battle against a form of breast cancer
Marla said she found the letter chilling, that Hillary's words seemed to have nothing to do with love, but rather about an ambitious secret pact for their future.
Realizing her relationship with Bill Clinton would go nowhere with Hillary in the picture – and the strange pact that they shared -- she decided to end it with him.
'It was very adult, very above board. He said, 'You need to take care of yourself. You just don't know how much you mean to me.'
Looking back years later to her relationship with the future president, she said, 'It was a period of time when he was not married, even though they had an understanding, she made that perfectly clear.
'I'm not so sure those weren't some of the first real feelings he'd had, but then we got the game plan enacted and we'd seen what's it been since then.
'So – how lonely has he been? How lonely has she been? Do they love each other? I think maybe the only way they know how. But I think for a short period of time, early on, maybe, he may have been willing to love in a different way.'
In November 2014, as 68-year-old Hillary Clinton was launching her secondpresidential bid, Marla Crider died at age 60 after a heroic 18-month battle against a form of breast cancer called invasive ductal carcinoma (stage 3).
Hundreds of people attended a memorial service for her in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Bill Clinton was not among them.