„I wanted it to be real… I didn’t want anybody able to say, ‚Oh, this is just made up bull,‘ you know?“<\/b>
\nCBS\u2013 A political thriller has to convincingly blend both fact and fiction, which is just what a certain debut novelist with plenty of White House experience says he has to offer. He and his writing partner are talking with Mo Rocca:
Here\u2019s something you might expect a former president to do: lead last weekend\u2019s hometown Memorial Day parade, in Chappaqua, N.Y. But Bill Clinton has just done something else you might not expect of an ex-president: \u201cTo me it was, first of all, exciting. And because I\u2019d never done it before I told everybody, \u2018I\u2019m an old dog, and this is a new trick.’\u201d
That new trick? Writing a political thriller, teaming up with author James Patterson.
Patterson has had a few bestsellers by now. Mr. Clinton joshed, \u201cYeah, if he keeps working at it, he\u2019s gonna amount to something!\u201d
Actually, Patterson is already the best-selling author in the world, with more than 300 million books sold.
Mr. Clinton said, \u201cI\u2019ve consumed literally thousands and thousands of thrillers, political novels, all this kind of stuff. You know, he\u2019s just good at it. But I wanted it to be real. I want people \u2013 I didn\u2019t want anybody able to say, \u2018Oh, this is just made up bull,\u2019 you know?\u201d
The result: \u201cThe President is Missing\u201d (Little, Brown), in which the president takes on an international terrorist plot, at times single-handedly.
In the audio book, actor Dennis Quaid is the voice of the president:
The president goes rogue, getting in the middle of a shootout at Nationals Park in Washington, and another shootout on the 14th Street Bridge.
\u201cThe worst possible attack on the United States happens in this book,\u201d Patterson told Rocca. \u201cAnd if it happened, this is the way it would happen. There\u2019s a traitor in the White House. If it happened, this is authentically how it would happen. If the president has grapefruit for breakfast in the residency, it would happen something like this!\u201d
Mr. Clinton explained, \u201cWe swapped these drafts back and forth. And I\u2019d read something, and I\u2019d say \u201cWell, I don\u2019t think this works, this wouldn\u2019t really happen. But we\u2019ve gotta make something happen and still keep it exciting.\u2019 And it\u2019s, like, how dumb is that, right?\u201d
The terrorists\u2019 weapon is a cyber-attack that could wipe out our entire country\u2019s internet, and with it the systems that control virtually everything \u2013 tantamount to an act of war.
Mr. Clinton and Patterson see their story as not just a pager-turner, but as a warning about dangers they say we only got a taste of during the 2016 election.
\u201cWe got a real serious problem with the cyber terrorism that could go way beyond fixing the elections,\u201d Mr. Clinton said. \u201cAnd those problems will happen faster if we allow our elections to continue to be tampered with by others.\u201d
Rocca asked, \u201cDo you think there was any tampering in 2016, with results?\u201d
Patterson said, \u201cYou look at our defense budget, and we\u2019ve got this much spent on \u2018Let\u2019s stop bombs,\u2019 and this much spent on \u2018Let\u2019s deal with cyber terrorism.\u201d And it should be the opposite.\u201d
\u201cRight, because you described the water supply, obviously, financial systems, all these things that are vulnerable, like hospital records.\u201d
\u201cYou think about it, I want Americans to be reading this book thinking, \u201cGod, let\u2019s see, I\u2019ve got a bank account, I\u2019ve got a savings account, I\u2019ve got a 401(k),\u201d Mr. Clinton said.
The book is written from the point of view of the president.
Rocca said, \u201cI think a lot of people are going to read this book and think, \u2018Oh, this is President Bill Clinton!’\u201d
\u201cWe didn\u2019t design it to be me,\u201d Mr. Clinton replied. \u201cBut he doesn\u2019t say things that I think are false. He says things that I think are true, true to himself, things he believes.\u201d
Still, you can be forgiven for mixing up the two presidents.
The book kicks off with the fictional President Jonathan Lincoln Duncan facing removal from office.
You\u2019d think impeachment would be the last thing William Jefferson Clinton would want to revisit when he reflects on his time in office.
Rocca asked, \u201cBecause the fictional president \u2013 and it comes up early in the book \u2013 is under threat of impeachment, how do you look back at your impeachment?\u201d
\u201cWell, I knew it wouldn\u2019t succeed,\u201d President Clinton said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a pleasant experience. But it was a fight that I was glad to undertake. They knew there was nothing impeachable. And so, we fought it to the end. And I\u2019m glad.\u201d
It\u2019s been 20 years since President Clinton was impeached, then acquitted by the Senate. But the repercussions reverberate to this day.
In this #MeToo age, some \u2013 including members of his own party, like New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand \u2013 have said Mr. Clinton should have stepped down because of the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Rocca asked, \u201cBut since we\u2019re talking about that period, what did you think six months ago when Senator Gillibrand said, \u2018He should have resigned\u2019?\u201d
\u201cWell, I just disagree with her,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, you have to really ignore what the context was. But you know, she\u2019s living in a different context. And she did it for different reasons. So, I just disagree with her.\u201d
As for the investigation led by Robert Mueller swirling around the current commander-in-chief, Rocca asked, \u201cDo you think that the press has been fair to President Trump?\u201d
\u201cI think they have tried by and large to cover this investigation based on the facts,\u201d Mr. Clinton said. \u201cI think if the roles were reversed \u2013 now, this is me just talking, but it\u2019s based on my experience! \u2013 I think if it were a Democratic president, and these facts were present, most people I know in Washington believe impeachment hearings would have begun already.\u201d
\u201cIf there were a Democrat in power right now?\u201d
\u201cYes. And most people I know believe that the press would have been that hard, or harder. But these are serious issues.\u201d
\u201cYou hear from Trump supporters who say, \u2018You know, the press slobbered all over President Obama, he could do no wrong. And now this guy can do no right. What gives, that there\u2019s a kind of whiplash?’\u201d
\u201cWell, they did treat him differently than other Democrats and Republicans,\u201d Mr. Clinton replied. \u201cThat was the political press.\u201d
Why? \u201cYou know, I don\u2019t know. They liked him, and they liked having the first African-American president. And he was a good president, I think. I don\u2019t agree with President Trump\u2019s assessment of his service.\u201d
Nor do the authors agree with the current president\u2019s rhetorical style.
Rocca said, \u201cPresident Trump \u2013 this is just factual \u2013 is fond of personal insults. I mean, he still refers to Mrs. Clinton as \u2018Crooked Hillary\u2019 in tweets.\u201d
Patterson said, \u201cIt\u2019s been effective for him. It\u2019s unbelievable that he became president. But he figured some things out. And I think most people do not like these tweets. They just wish it wouldn\u2019t go that way.\u201d
President Clinton said, \u201cI don\u2019t like all this. I couldn\u2019t be elected anything now \u2019cause I just don\u2019t like embarrassing people. My mother would have whipped me for five days in a row when I was a little boy if I spent all my time badmouthing people like this.\u201d
Mr. Clinton, of course, thought he was going to be the first-ever First Husband.
And he says he\u2019s reminded of 2016 and the divisions in the country whenever he goes for a walk: \u201cThere\u2019s a Trump supporter here in town that I walked past his house with my dogs. He had a \u2018Lock her up\u2019 poster in his front window. And I said to him, \u2018If you\u2019re gonna do that to my wife, you make sure the prisons are comfortable, \u2019cause you\u2019re gonna have a lot of company of your supporters in there!\u2019 And you know what he said? \u2018Obama and Hillary started the second Civil War.\u2019
\u201cSo, there\u2019s division. But underneath that, there\u2019s a core of fundamental decency that can be really skewed when people feel abused, left out, or looked down on.\u201d
Yes, their new book is a thriller about a chief executive who\u2019s practically a superhero. But the 42nd President of the United States believes they have something deeper to say about why the office matters.
\u201cI want people to see the presidency as a job, and a hard one, and it matters who gets it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt matters how they do it. Which I hope was the subtext of this. That is, I hope it\u2019s really exciting to people, but I hope when they put it down, they think, \u2018You know, we got a good kind of government here; we don\u2019t want to mess it up.\u201d
And in the words of the fictional President Duncan: \u201cMay God bless the United States of America, and all who call it home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Similarity rank: 16<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: 1.4<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

TW posts: 123<\/div>\n

TW reposts: 37<\/div>\n

TW likes: 97<\/div>\n

TW sentiment: 0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n