Hillary, Lazio Trade Shots Over Slur Allegation

N E W   Y O R K, July 17, 2000 -- Calling it a “particularly offensive, false accusation,” first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton insisted again today that she did not use an anti-Semitic slur in 1974, as a new book alleges.

The Democratic candidate for New York’s open Senate seat also added another dimension to the controversy today, implying that the charges fit with campaign tactics being used by her Republican opponent, Rep. Rick Lazio.

“I’m going to run a campaign of issues, not insults,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters after a campaign event on Ellis Island this afternoon, adding, “You just have to look at my opponent’s fund-raising letters,” to find personal attacks on her coming from the Lazio campaign.

But Mrs. Clinton did not explicitly say that she agreed with her husband, who suggested that the Lazio campaign has been dishing such dirt on the first lady — something Lazio publicly repudiated this afternoon.

“It’s sort of a sad, disappointing fact of the campaign that the Clintons are never to blame,” said Lazio after a campaign event in Harlem. “It’s always somebody else’s fault, whenever they’ve done something wrong.”

In an interview with the New York Daily News published today, President Clinton said, “There was a New York Times story last week where Lazio’s people said if she can be made the issue, maybe we can squeak by … the only thing they have left is character assassination.”

Despite the first lady’s comments, Lazio hardly backed away from addressing the issue.

“You know, there have been three people that have made this, what I think is a serious allegation,” Lazio said. “Mrs. Clinton has denied that allegation. I don’t know who to believe. I don’t think New Yorkers know who to believe. And therein lies a good deal of the problem.… Trust and integrity and credibility are important issues in this campaign.”

Claims Comes from New Book

The flap stems from a forthcoming book that claims Mrs. Clinton called Paul Fray, the manager of Bill Clinton’s unsuccessful 1974 campaign for Congress, a “Jew bastard” during a heated election-night argument.

The book, State of a Union: Inside the Complex Marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton, by former National Enquirer reporter Jerry Oppenheimer, is due to hit bookstores Tuesday.

On Sunday, Mrs. Clinton said the book’s allegation was “absolutely false,” adding that she was “very angry” about the matter.

Addressing reporters outside her home in Chappaqua, Mrs. Clinton, her voice shaking at times, said the reported incident “could not and did not happen.”

Mrs. Clinton added that she has “never used ethnic, racial, anti-Semitic, bigoted, discriminatory, prejudiced accusations against anybody.”

She also produced a copy of a letter sent to her by Fray, dated July 1, 1997, in which Fray refers to interviews he has given and writes “I have wronged you,” adding, “At one time in my life I would say things without thinking, without factual foundation.”

When asked at Sunday’s press conference what her husband recalled about the incident, Mrs. Clinton said, “I’ve talked to the president. The president doesn’t remember the meeting.”

But in the Daily News interview, the president is quoted as saying, “I was there and [Hillary] never said it.”

The Daily News report also states that Fray has made conflicting claims about the matter, first saying that he told journalists about it through the years, and then saying that Oppenheimer was the first journalist with whom he has discussed the alleged incident.

Old Argument, New Detail

The argument — which supposedly took place between Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, Fray, and Fray’s wife Mary Lee — has been recounted previously in books about the Clintons, but none of the earlier reports have included allegations of anti-Semitic slurs.

In this new book, Oppenheimer claims that in addition to Paul and Mary Lee Fray, Neill McDonald, a campaign staffer in 1974 who overheard the argument, confirmed that Mrs. Clinton made the remark.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart reiterated the president’s denial urging a briefing today, and added that “the president has more experience than any living human being about how deep in the gutter some people will go” to level such accusations.

Jewish Vote Crucial

New York Democrats, including Sen. Charles Schumer, have defended the first lady against Fray’s claim.

“I’ve known Hillary Clinton for eight years, and she doesn’t have an anti-Semitic bone in her body,” said Schumer in a statement released Saturday.

The allegation has come as Mrs. Clinton has struggled to maintain the high level of support among the Jewish community usually held by New York Democrats.

Answering audience questions after a campaign speech last Thursday, Mrs. Clinton was again forced to explain why she did not immediately denounce inflammatory remarks made by Suha Arafat, the wife of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, while visiting the West Bank last fall.

Mrs. Arafat claimed that Israel had used toxic gas to poison Palestinian women and children. Mrs. Clinton has said repeatedly that she did not respond immediately in order to avoid causing an international incident.

Jewish voters make up from 10 to 15 percent of New York’s electorate.

ABCNEWS’ Eileen A. Murphy and Stephen Yesner contributed to this report.