Most conservatives who lived through the Clinton years would not want to stomach all 253 minutes of the new "Hillary" documentary streaming on Hulu, a platform now owned and controlled by Disney. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was asked if he would do an interview for it, and apparently, he told the filmmakers he would "rather stick needles in (his) eye than do the interview."
I sat through all of it. There's only one Republican in this thing -- former Sen. Bill Frist -- and he was quoted as saying that it "was easy to demonize her."
Gingrich knew instinctively that the film would not be an objective take in any way. This is Hillary Clinton's take ... for hours and hours. She dominates the entire spectacle. It's a 253-minute therapy session, and she still fails to come to grips with the fact that she narrowly lost in 2016.
Anyone who recalls the positive Rodham Robot coverage of 1992 will just see yet another stale rerun. This spin is exactly the same Clinton campaign claptrap from 1992, with the same childhood and college pals, and the same gush about how brilliant and promising she always was. It's like a 28-year-old microwaved Hot Pocket. No one needs to consume that. It was a gummy, cheesy, oily mixture the first time.
The tone was set from the beginning, when Clinton is asked from off camera, "Do you feel frustrated that you've been in public life for 30 years, yet people feel that they don't know who you are, that you seem inauthentic?" She replies: "I do! I feel like what -- what -- what is this about?" She acts perpetually amazed that people believe the "myth" that she's cold and calculating.
Aides are seen expressing frustration at focus groups results that show people didn't like how Clinton decided to stay with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, after he lied for months about having sex with an intern inside the White House. Also shown was a clip of the 1992 "60 Minutes" interview in which the Clintons fiercely denied there was an "arrangement." It has looked like an arrangement ever since then. Most people do not buy that Hillary never figured out Bill had cheated on her again.
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The documentary is stuffed with adoring campaign aides and supportive "mainstream" reporters, especially New York Times correspondent Amy Chozick, who sounds exactly like one of the campaign staffers. NBC's Andrea Mitchell laments that Clinton "looked like a trapped animal" during the Lewinsky affair.
Every Clinton scandal is dismissed, if it's even mentioned. Whitewater was "ridiculous." Filegate and Travelgate are mentioned once in passing. The $100,000 she made in cattle futures in Little Rock, Arkansas, is never mentioned, even though the filmmakers show the 1994 press conference she put on to "explain" it. Benghazi? There was "nothing there." There was no time for The Clinton Foundation or Uranium One. Her private email server? Why bother?
Paula Jones was a story "nobody wanted to touch"; it was "icky." Juanita Broaddrick's allegations of rape against Bill Clinton? Never mentioned. A picture of then-candidate Donald Trump's press conference with Jones, Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey in 2016 was shown, but their names were not mentioned. It was simply referenced as "Trump pulled his stunt."
At the end of four hours of whining and victimhood, Hillary Clinton's last words are: "I have no regrets. I am a very grateful person." That's also false. Clinton sat for 35 hours of interviews, so there was even more venting than what's been unloaded here.
Why this epic rehash? Let's guess that Clinton thinks she should be running for reelection right now, and she wants all eyes back on her. Just like her nemesis former President Richard Nixon, she's always seeking to rehabilitate her image. Just like Nixon, she never will.
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org.
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