# Old tape Hillary Clinton interview tape emerges from 1974. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 17, 2014, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966 "2014-06-17T05:55:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/61 "2014-06-22T02:19:08Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > However, and to my second point, she was not, as she claimed in her 2003 book, “forced” to take this case (in the book she said a judge gave it to her and she could not refuse it). The uncovering of this tape puts the lie to that claim because in it she says she was doing it at the request of the prosecutor _as a favor to him_. Prosecutors in Arkansas in the 1970s got to appoint the defense counsel? ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/62 "2014-06-22T02:48:54Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > Prosecutors in Arkansas in the 1970s got to appoint the defense counsel? Did I say “appoint”? No I did not. I said he requested she take the case and she agreed to do so _as a favor_ to him. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/63 "2014-06-22T02:57:28Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > Did I say “appoint”? No I did not. I said he requested she take the case and she agreed to do so _as a favor_ to him. OK, that’s what you said. Who, precisely, appointed her as the defense counsel in that case? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/64 "2014-06-22T03:05:46Z")
To be fair, I’ve heard this type of defense was common in the 60’s and 70’s. Discrediting the woman claiming rape is no longer an acceptable defense. I’ve seen posters here get shredded for even suggesting it was the woman’s fault. I’m a little surprised Hillary used this tactic against a 12 year old kid, but it was a different time back then. > [@jackdavinci](#): > > After wading through twenty some odd pages of court documents I had to call a tl;dr. Can you either point directly to the specific document you are referring to, or else summarize it? > [@](#): > > The victim’s allegation that Clinton smeared her following her rape is based on a May 1975 court affidavit written by Clinton on behalf of Thomas Alfred Taylor, one of the two alleged attackers, whom Clinton agreed to defend after being asked by the prosecutor. Taylor had specifically requested a female attorney. > > “I have been informed that the complainant is emotionally unstable with a tendency to seek out older men and engage in fantasizing,” Clinton, then named Hillary D. Rodham, wrote in the affidavit. “I have also been informed that she has in the past made false accusations about persons, claiming they had attacked her body. Also that she exhibits an unusual stubbornness and temper when she does not get her way.” > > Clinton also wrote that a child psychologist told her that children in early adolescence “tend to exaggerate or romanticize sexual experiences,” especially when they come from “disorganized families, such as the complainant.” ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/65 "2014-06-22T03:12:07Z")
Anybody remember when George McGovern tried to make a comeback by running for the Democratic nomination in 1984, dragging along with him all the politics of the early 70s that might as well have been from another planet? That’s pretty much how Hillary will play out this time around, as a throwback to the 90s (almost before many of the youngest voters were born) and a has-been from a campaign eight years in the past. All the arguing back and forth about she did or didn’t do in Little Rock will just make her look all the more tiresome. _That’s_ what will do her in, if she does decide to run. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/66 "2014-06-22T03:30:12Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > OK, that’s what you said. Who, precisely, appointed her as the defense counsel in that case? What’s your problem? She wasn’t appointed, she voluntarily took that case. If that’s unclear to you, you have bigger problems than I can address in any reply I post here. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/67 "2014-06-22T04:04:14Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > What’s your problem? She wasn’t appointed, she voluntarily took that case. If that’s unclear to you, you have bigger problems than I can address in any reply I post here. Volunteering and being appointed are not mutually exclusive conditions. I’m a “volunteer” public defender/GAL in juvenile courts in two counties. “Volunteer” in the sense that the judges know I’m willing to take those cases, but there is still an order appointing me entered in each case. This order is very important, because I need it to get paid. Technically, I volunteer and get appointed in every case. Usually, I get a call from the Court Administrator whenever I’m needed. Sometimes the call comes from a prosecutor, from the Youth Services office, from the DHS people or rarely even from the Judge. Sometimes, I get some advance notice–say I’ll be needed next Tuesday. Sometimes, a situation arises in court, and I get a call asking me to come down ASAP. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/68 "2014-06-22T06:48:18Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Volunteering and being appointed are not mutually exclusive conditions. I’m a “volunteer” public defender/GAL in juvenile courts in two counties. “Volunteer” in the sense that the judges know I’m willing to take those cases, but there is still an order appointing me entered in each case. This order is very important, because I need it to get paid. Technically, I volunteer and get appointed in every case. > > Usually, I get a call from the Court Administrator whenever I’m needed. Sometimes the call comes from a prosecutor, from the Youth Services office, from the DHS people or rarely even from the Judge. > > Sometimes, I get some advance notice–say I’ll be needed next Tuesday. Sometimes, a situation arises in court, and I get a call asking me to come down ASAP. And absolutely none of that happened in this case. A judge didn’t “know” Clinton was “voluntarily” “willing” to take cases, so he assigned her this one. A prosecutor phoned her and asked her to do it as a favor to _him_, to which she agreed. If she _then_ needed a judge to “officially” assign her to the case to get paid, that is not even remotely the same as the claim made in her book that she was assigned this case by a judge and therefore _could not_ say no. _She could have said no to the prosecutor when he called her._ He’s not a judge and has no authority to assign cases to her. None. She agreed to it of her own volition when she did not have to. What’s so hard to understand about the chain of events here is beyond me. She lied. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/69 "2014-06-22T07:48:40Z")
The victim is now speaking up, and what she has to say is a lot more damning: > **[Exclusive: 'Hillary Clinton Took Me Through Hell,' Rape Victim Says](https://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-hillary-clinton-took-me-through-hell-rape-victim-says)** > > The woman at the center of the scandal over Hillary Clinton’s defense of an alleged child rapist speaks out in depth for the first time. In a long, emotional interview with The Daily Beast, she accused Clinton of intentionally lying about her in court documents, going to extraordinary lengths to discredit evidence of the rape, and later callously acknowledging and laughing about her attackers’ guilt on the recordings. “Hillary Clinton took me through Hell,” the victim said. The Daily Beast agreed to withhold her name out of concern for her privacy as a victim of sexual assault. The victim said if she saw Clinton today, she would call her out for what she sees as the hypocrisy of Clinton’s current campaign to fight for women’s rights compared to her actions regarding this rape case so long ago. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/70 "2014-06-22T19:55:43Z")
She’s gotta be on the Fox payroll already. We’ll be seeing more of her when it counts. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/71 "2014-06-22T20:38:09Z")
Way to wage that war on women. Let’s help Hillary smear the victim of child rape. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/72 "2014-06-22T21:22:24Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > To be fair, I’ve heard this type of defense was common in the 60’s and 70’s. Discrediting the woman claiming rape is no longer an acceptable defense. I’ve seen posters here get shredded for even suggesting it was the woman’s fault. Discrediting the victim is generally the heart of a rape defense, because there will only be two eyewitnesses. And the SDMB is hardly a court of law. All that has changed since the 1970s is _what evidence_ the court will admit to establish the victim’s conduct or character. > [@Shayna](#): > > What’s so hard to understand about the chain of events here is beyond me. > > She lied. What’s hard to understand is why you expect anyone to believe what you’re saying in the absence of any citations (except one out-of-context quote.) Having said that, it’s frankly irrelevant why she took the case. The defendant was entitled to a defense. Whether Clinton was forced to take the case or did so voluntarily, she was upholding a constitutional imperative. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/73 "2014-06-22T21:42:55Z")
Gee, if only we had some official process for deciding who to believe when there was an allegation of a crime… ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/74 "2014-06-22T23:01:36Z")
While we’re all here being Frank about our concern for the rape victim, and at the same time being equally concerned that this Important Breaking News dosen’t negatively impact the Honorable Mrs. Clinton’s political carreer, considering all of the other unproven allegations against her - IN TOTALITY- …maybe we should start the impeachment process now, [http://luckovich.blog.ajc.com/2014/05/13/514-luckovich-cartoon-working-ahead/](http://luckovich.blog.ajc.com/2014/05/13/514-luckovich-cartoon-working-ahead/) ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/75 "2014-06-23T02:37:02Z")
Nah. But what we can do is not accept the “War on women” charge from Democrats if she’s the nominee. Between her and her husband, it’s just not credible. There’s more to being woman-friendly than being pro-choice and pro-equal pay. Not all women will need an abortion and not all women work. But all women do face the threat of rape and sexual harassment and it would be nice if the country’s most powerful and famous woman would stand up for them in that regard rather than enabling it. And if she can’t do that because of who she married or her career needs, then she can at least not act holier than thou towards her GOP opponent on women’s issues. If she does, then it’s entirely acceptable to revisit her record in that regard. And that of her husband who she sticks by. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/76 "2014-06-23T05:12:23Z")
I am not a big fan of Hilary Clinton, but c’mon - something from _40 years ago_!? Unless the scandal involves her eating babies or bathing in the blood of adorable puppies, I can’t imagine this will have any effect on her political career. I repeat - 40 fucking years ago! Four decades. Before the Internet, cell phones, and even VC-fucking-Rs. People played 8-tracks back then. 8-tracks! “Star Wars” wouldn’t debut in theaters for another few years. Elvis was still alive. General Francisco Franco was still alive. Jimmy Hoffa wasn’t missing. The Edmund Fitzgerald had yet to sink. People who already hate her will use this as another reason to hate her. Everyone else will not be particularly swayed as to her current character by something that happened when disco was enjoyed un-ironically. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/77 "2014-06-23T05:31:37Z")
> [@BlackKnight](#): > > I am not a big fan of Hilary Clinton, but c’mon - something from _40 years ago_!? Unless the scandal involves her eating babies or bathing in the blood of adorable puppies, I can’t imagine this will have any effect on her political career. > > I repeat - 40 fucking years ago! Four decades. Before the Internet, cell phones, and even VC-fucking-Rs. People played 8-tracks back then. 8-tracks! “Star Wars” wouldn’t debut in theaters for another few years. Elvis was still alive. General Francisco Franco was still alive. Jimmy Hoffa wasn’t missing. The Edmund Fitzgerald had yet to sink. > > People who already hate her will use this as another reason to hate her. Everyone else will not be particularly swayed as to her current character by something that happened when disco was enjoyed un-ironically. To be fair - during the election wasn’t there something about college bullying that made headlines for a while? And then, of course, you have the sneaky moooslem faking his birth cert…😃 ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/78 "2014-06-23T05:50:32Z")
Getting out of Vietnam service has been a favorite to use against candidates, especially one GWB. And of course Bill Clinton. Saying, “But it was so long ago!” is usually a poor defense unless the candidate was a minor, or perhaps even a college student. It’s less credible a defense when the person in question was 27. Plus knowing Hillary, I bet she’s going to step deeper by refusing to apologize to her victim despite saying the case bothered her. Then there’s the fact that the “it was so long ago!” defense reminds us just how freakin’ old she is. There’s a good reason John McCain and Bob Dole and Ronald Reagan never tried that defense. You want to defuse the age issue, not try to claim that anything you did before you were 50 doesn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/79 "2014-06-23T06:05:07Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Classic rape blaming by a defense attorney. **Something a lawyer today wouldn’t dare attempt**. Shirley, you must be joking. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966/80 "2014-06-23T07:55:47Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Then there’s the fact that the “it was so long ago!” defense reminds us just how freakin’ old she is. There’s a good reason John McCain and Bob Dole and Ronald Reagan never tried that defense. You want to defuse the age issue, not try to claim that anything you did before you were 50 doesn’t count. I think it might also hit her in her weakest point as a candidate: her tendency to become angry and somtimes start defensively telling tall tales when challenged on her past actions; already seen in [“my views have evolved”](http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/06/12/awkward-audio-hillary-clinton-does-not-like-it-when-npr-host-presses-her-on-evolution-of-her-gay-marriage-views/) and [“we struggled to pay our multiple multimillion dollar mortgages”](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/06/10/hillary-clinton-clarifies-wealth-comments-says-she-fully-appreciates-middle-class-struggles/) and [“I remember landing under sniper fire in the Balkans.”](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/03/hillarys_balkan_adventures_par.html) Furthermore, most people could understand smoking a joint or going into the National Guard rather than run the risk of getting shot at; and these might be seen as “victimless” transgressions. But here we have a victim who says Hillary put her through hell, and I doubt most people could put themselves in Hillary’s 27-year old shoes and nod along and say, “I might have done the same.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tape-hillary-clinton-interview-tape-emerges-from-1974/690966.md?page=5)