Former US President Bill Clinton made an insensitive racial remark about Barack Obama while his wife battled him for the Democratic nomination vote, it was claimed today.
Bill Clinton, whose wife Hillary battled Barack Obama in the 2008 primary campaign, is said to have remarked of the current president: “A few years ago, this guy would have been carrying our bags.”
He allegedly made the insensitive remark to Senator Ted Kennedy in 2008, while trying to convince him to endorse Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, according to the New Yorker.
Writer Ryan Lizza said he heard about the comment from NBC newsman Tim Russert, who died in 2008.
Four years ago Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had clashed following Hillary’s failed bid for Presidency, which she lost to Obama.
Although Bill Clinton is said to have since given his backing to the current U.S. President, his remark is the latest in a series of apparent outbursts against Barack Obama.
The ill-advised comment follows claims of another remark attributed to Bill Clinton in 2010, where he is said to have commented: “A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.”
The ex-President is quoted as having made the other remark in the book Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.
The latest revelation comes just days before Bill Clinton is due to give a speech to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC on Wednesday night.
Further book claims last year said that Bill Clinton had previously branded Barack Obama “incompetent” and an “amateur”.
Bill Clinton is said to have torn into Barack Obama and branded him “incompetent” and that he “did not know how to be President”.
Bill Clinton added that Barack Obama “does not know how the world works”, according to an article in the Sunday Post by Edward Klein, author of The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House.
He even urged Hillary Clinton to quit her job as U.S. Secretary of State and challenge him for the Democratic ticket as she knew how to do a better job of it. Bill Clinton’s team denied the remarks, branding Edward Klein as a well known liar.
Bill Clinton is yet to issue comment in response to the latest reported remarks.
The rocky relationship between the 42nd President and the current President has been closely scrutinized since the aggressive primaries in 2008, where Hillary Clinton was running for President.
During that contest, Bill Clinton made headlines for calling the premise of Barack Obama’s campaign, his opposition to the Iraq War, “the biggest fair tail I’ve ever seen”.
But despite their often tense relationship, the President buried the hatchet with charismatic Bill Clinton earlier this year by asking him to be a leading star of his re-election campaign.
Barack Obama’s team will likely be keeping a close eye on Bill Clinton as he takes to the North Carolina stage this week, praying that he causes no further cracks in the party for the Republicans to seize on.
Bill Clinton, 66, said in July that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s business career was “sterling” and criticized the Obama campaign’s attacks on Romney’s background at the private equity firm Bain Capital.
He caused headaches for the Obama administration again when he said he favored the extension of all of George W. Bush’s tax cuts. Barack Obama has campaigned on repealing the cuts for the richest Americans.
