Hillary’s Terror
She’s been a victim, too.

By NR Staff
October 3, 2001 5:40 p.m.

n the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, several critics have remarked that Bill Clinton has spent a lot of time discussing events in terms of himself — a trait that Clinton has displayed throughout his political career. Now, however, the former president has been outdone by his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the latest issue of The New Yorker, Mrs. Clinton says that she has come face-to-face with the kind of "unreasoning anger" that appears to have motivated the terrorists who crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Her statements are contained in an article by Nicholas Lemann, based on an interview Lemann conducted with Mrs. Clinton on September 25. "We talked about possible responses to the attack," Lemann writes, "and then I asked her how she thought people would react to knowing that they are on the receiving end of a murderous anger." "Oh, I am well aware that it is out there," Sen. Clinton responded:

One of the most difficult experiences that I personally had in the White House was during the health-care debate, being the object of extraordinary rage. I remember being in Seattle. I was there to make a speech about health care. This was probably August of '94. Radio talk-show hosts had urged their listeners to come out and yell and scream and carry on and prevent people from hearing me speak. There were threats that were coming in, and certain people didn't want me to speak, and they started taking weapons off people, and arresting people. I've had firsthand looks at this unreasoning anger and hatred that is focussed on an individual you don't know, a cause that you despise — whatever motivates people."