Former President Bill Clinton has addressed a bizarre claim his staff deliberately tore the letter ‘W’ from White House keyboards to hinder his successor, President George W Bush - and admitted that the long-running allegation might be true.
Writing in his new memoir, Citizen – My Life After The White House, Clinton, 78, recalls how a media ‘feeding frenzy’ marred the handover to Bush in 2001 amid claims departing staff had vandalized the West Wing.
At the time, it was said that filing cabinets were glued shut, obscene messages left on answering machines and pornographic pictures placed on office printers.
The presidential entourage was accused of smashing up crockery on Airforce One. Bill and Hillary Clinton themselves were in the frame for pilfering bedroom furniture.
But nothing caught the public imagination like the claim that official keyboards were systematically disfigured to remove the letter ‘W’ - the middle initial of the incoming president and the name by which he was often known.
‘There are dozens, if not hundreds of keyboards with these missing keys,’ a White House source said at the time. ‘In some cases, the “W” keys have been taped on top of the doorways, which are 12 feet tall. In other cases, they were glued on with Superglue, right way up or upside down.’
Today, recalling the furor, Clinton writes: ‘The first to hit were stories that, as we moved out of the White House, I had taken two large bedside tables from the master bedroom;
‘That the “W” key had been removed from typewriters and computers in the West Wing;
‘And that, on my flight to New York on the former Air Force One after President George W Bush’s inauguration, our passengers destroyed government plates and other utensils.’
Former President Bill Clinton has addressed a bizarre claim his staff deliberately tore the letter ‘W’ from White House keyboards to hinder his successor, President George W Bush
The presidential entourage was also accused of smashing up crockery on Airforce One. Bill and Hillary Clinton themselves were in the frame for pilfering bedroom furniture
Denying two of these suggestions outright, Clinton states: ‘The White House staff asked me to take the tables saying they didn’t want to keep or store them.
‘And no one on Airforce One destroyed government merchandise.’
When it comes to the vandalized keyboards, however, the former president seems less certain.
‘I didn’t know about the alleged removal of the “W” keys, but the whole thing bothered me because I had made it clear that I wanted a smooth, cooperative transition and we had done exactly that,’ he writes.
Were keyboards defaced?
‘Within a few days some people finally went on the record to say that either no damage had occurred or that the allegations of “W” mischief were greatly exaggerated,’ he concludes, an open-ended remark that most will take as an admission that the claims were in fact true.
A year-long investigation by the General Accounting Committee later found Clinton’s staff had caused about $15000-worth of ‘damage, theft, vandalism and pranks’ although there were no prosecutions.
Clintons new memoir was published in November
Back then, a spokesman for Clinton responded that the White House had been left ‘in good shape’ with no more damage than might be expected from such a major change of occupancy.
Clintons comments on the keyboard controversy come amid a slew of bombshell admissions to surface in his new memoir.
Among them were remarks about his relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Clinton has long faced questions about his associate with Epstein, who took his own life in 2009 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors.
In his book he admits to flying on Epsteins private jet, the Lolita Express, in 2002 and 2003 but dismisses allegations he ever visited the disgraced financiers private island, Little Saint James, in the US Virgin Islands.
Clinton claims Epstein had offered the plane in support of his foundation and that they spoke about economics and politics.
He writes: The bottom line is, even though it allowed me to visit the work of my foundation, traveling on Epstein’s plane was not worth the years of questioning afterward. I wish I had never met him.
Clinton adds: I had always thought Epstein was odd but had no inkling of the crimes he was committing.
He hurt a lot of people, but I knew nothing about it, and by the time he was first arrested in 2005, I had stopped contact with him. I’ve never visited his island.
The former president also opened up about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1998 when it emerged he had lied about a sexual relationship with the then 22-year-old intern.
In his book he recalled an NBC Today Show interview in 2018 where he was asked if he had ever apologized to Lewinsky.
A year-long investigation by the General Accounting Committee later found Clinton’s staff had caused about $15000-worth of ‘damage, theft, vandalism and pranks’ although there were no prosecutions
Clinton claims in his memoir that Epstein, seen here with associate Ghislaine Maxwell, had offered the plane in support of his foundation
A photograph showing former White House intern Monica Lewinsky meeting President Bill Clinton at a White House function submitted as evidence in documents by the Starr investigation and released by the House Judicary committee September 21, 1998
Clinton writes: I said, "No, I felt terrible then."
"Did you ever apologize to her?" I said that I had apologized to her and everybody else I wronged. I was caught off guard by what came next.
"But you didnt apologize to her, at least according to folks that weve talked to."
"I fought to contain my frustration as I replied that while Id never talked to her directly, I did say publicly on more than [one] occasion I was sorry."
The 42nd president went on to admit the interview was not my finest hour.