ABC News' Sarah Amos and Eloise Harper Report: After a trip to Puerto Rico and two days entirely off the campaign trail, former President Bill Clinton eagerly discussed myriad topics with the crowd that awaited him in Boonville, Ind., and what he said of a trip his wife made to Bosnia in 1996 seemed a bit misleading.
"I am so glad to be here. And I'm glad that Indiana is gonna have a say in who the nominee of the Democratic Party is and the next president of the United States," began Clinton, adding, "but I don't want much to talk about politics today. I want to take a few moments to say, first, I am grateful to be here. I love coming to places that don't normally see presidents, don't normally see presidential campaigns. The backbone, and the heartbeat of America -- places like Boonville."
Clinton then spent and hour going over a series of subjects that argued why Hillary would be the best choice for the Democratic Party. While the majority of his speech was heavy on policy and ideas, Clinton did find occasion to wander off topic a few times.
One such subject that caused the former president to meander was his wife's disputed account of her trip to Bosnia as first lady. It is a subject that has gotten plenty of media attention, but has been kept out of President's Clinton's speeches. Today, as Clinton explained Hillary's dedication to taking care of U.S. veterans, he told the crowd how amused the whole controversy made him.
"A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me," he said. "But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995. Did y'all see all that. Oh, they blew it up. Let me just tell you. The president of Bosnia and Gen. Wesley Clark -- who was there making peace where we'd lost three peacekeepers who had to ride on a dangerous mountain road because it was too dangerous to go the regular, safe way -- both defended her because they pointed out that when her plane landed in Bosnia, she had to go up to the bulletproof part of the plane, in the front. Everybody else had to put their flack jackets underneath the seat in case they got shot at. And everywhere they went they were covered by Apache helicopters. So they just abbreviated the arrival ceremony. Now I say that because, what really has mattered is that even then she was interested in our troops. And I think she was the first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone. And you woulda thought, you know, that she'd robbed a bank the way they carried on about this. And some of them when they're 60 they'll forget something when they're tired at 11:00 at night, too."
Sen. Clinton did not apologize, like Mr. Clinton asserted, she simply indicated that she mispoke when describing the Bosnia incident.
While the former president may have been amused by the whole incident, his telling of the course of events wasn't quite accurate. Hillary Clinton actually made the comments numerous times, including at an event in Iowa on Dec. 29, amd an event on Feb. 29 and one time -- bright and early in the morning -- on March 17.
Sen. Clinton wasn't as quick with her apology as President Clinton may remember either. In fact, it took a week for her to eventually correct herself, first talking to the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board on March 24 and again apologizing the next day in Greensboro, N.C.
Clinton also spoke about the economic problems in America, Clinton bringing up his family's own finances, which have recently been the subject of much media attention.
"Now, because we went back to big deficits, every single day of the year we have to borrow money to cover millionaire's tax cuts," he said, pausing. "And I love saying this, because my family was the poorest family to move into the White House in 100 years. So I left the White House and made a lot of money. And the other day we released our tax returns. And I got criticized. I think the Wall Street Journal, they said, 'That guy must be hiding something. He paid 50 percent more taxes than most people with that kind of money do. So they asked me, I said, I told the accountant resolve that in favor of the government. I don't think the millionaires should get tax cuts when we had soldiers in the field and middle class people needed help and we had education and health needs."
As Clinton wrapped up his speech he asked the crowd not to get carried up in everything that can surround these campaigns, citing an ad Sen. Obama has running in Pennsylvania about not taking contributions from oil companies.
"Y'all seen this television ad on, where Hillary's opponent says I don't take money from oil companies? You seen that?" Clinton asked the crowd.
"Well, that's a good thing, but guess what? No living person who's ever run for office has done that. It's been illegal to take political contributions from oil companies for 100 years. It's almost like saying, you know, 'Vote for me, I brush my teeth every morning,' or, 'Vote for me, I never robbed a bank,' or, you know. I say that, because this is not about advertisements. This is about real life. This is a great country with limitless possibilities and profound challenges. And the young people of this country deserve the best president. That's the issue. The best president."
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