Jan 23, 2008 7:51 pm US/Eastern
Bill Clinton Slams Media, Obama Campaign
NEW YORK (CBS News) ―
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Bill Clinton voiced his frustration about complaints against his wife's campaign playing dirty on Jan. 23, 2008.
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Former President Bill Clinton made it clear he's had it with complaints that his wife's campaign is playing a dirty game of racial division, CBS News anchor Katie Couric reports.
"This is crazy. This rhetoric is getting a little carried away here," Clinton said.
"She did not play the race card, but they did," he said.
According to reports, a South Carolina Democratic official who supports Barack Obama claimed the Clintons were borrowing a page from the Republican playbook: injecting race into the campaign.
That, apparently, was too much.
"This, this is almost like once you accuse somebody of racism or bigotry or something, the facts become irrelevant," Clinton said.
He suggested the Obama campaign and accomplices in the news media were promoting the charge.
"They're feeding you this because this is what you want to cover; this is what you live for, but this hurts the people of South Carolina," he told a reporter. "What you care about is this and the Obama people know this, so they spin you up on this and you happily go along."
"The people don't care about this. They never ask about it," he said. "And you are determined to take this election away from them."
The former president, with a habit of grabbing headlines as if he's a candidate himself, was clearly not pleased, Couric reports.
"One more story. Shame on you," he said. "Shame on you."
The Obama campaign strongly denied it's trying to make issues out of race or gender and called the Clinton charges "a sideshow."
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