Rosie O'Donnell Recounts Teary Clinton Call; Accuses Republicans of Cheating in '04

October 19th, 2006 4:58 PM

Viewers of Thursday’s edition of ‘The View’ were granted another glimpse into the liberal world view of co-host Rosie O’Donnell. Today, O’Donnell recounted her teary phone conversation with former President Bill Clinton, in which he apologized for the Monica Lewinsky affair. Later in the program, during an interview with Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, O’Donnell slammed John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for President, for conceding the 2004 election before all the votes were counted and accused the Republicans of "cheating" by tinkering with the voting machines.

During the "Hot Topics" segment of the show, the ‘View’ women were discussing congressional sex scandals, which led Rosie to recount her phone call with the former president:

O’Donnell: "And I said to him, you know, to tell you the truth, sir, you broke my heart. I said, you know, I loved you like my mom loved Kennedy and, you know, I had faith in you, one of the few men I had real faith and hope in."

Rosie’s full tale of her presidential phone call behind the cut:

O’Donnell: "...I was very upset, like a lot of people were, at the height of the, ‘I did not ever have sex with that woman’ and I believed him and then I remember on my show saying every day that until Bill Clinton personally called and apologized, I was not going to forgive him. Because honestly, it sort of broke my heart a little bit...So anyway, I was performing at the Mohegan Sun and it was the grand opening and Bill Clinton was there and it was, sort of, you know, we weren't sure whether Hillary was going to stay with him. And so I did my stand-up and wasn’t very funny, but I did a few jokes about him. And afterwards the owner of the casino said, you know, President Clinton would like you to call him and gave me a number, and I thought, yeah, right. So, I get home to Florida. I say to Kelli, President Clinton wants me to call him. She's like, it's probably not his number. I dial, and I’m like this is such–hello, Rosie O’Donnell for Bill Clinton. Hello, Rosie, it's Bill...

It was him, and I was like, and then I was like, he's like, I understand that you, you’re upset. And I said to him, you know, to tell you the truth, sir, you broke my heart. I said, you know, I loved you like my mom loved Kennedy and, you know, I had faith in you, one of the few men I had real faith and hope in. And he said, yeah, I know. And I said some things to him that I was, you know, why did you do that and shame your daughter and your wife and, you know what he said to me? He said, I'm sorry. He said, I'm sorry for any man who ever hurt you and all those things you have said to me, I have said to myself, and you're right and I’m sorry. And then I started to cry and couldn't talk. Then I was like, ok, I gotta go, bye!"

O’Donnell then trotted out the old accusation popular amongst the Move On and Daily Kos crowd that Republicans were victorious in 2004 due to some sort of manipulation of the voting machines, during an interview with Elizabeth Edwards, who was on today’s show to promote her new book:

O’Donnell: "But you did talk in the book, Elizabeth, also about how, you know, John Kerry conceding too soon, which, I have to say, I agree with. What was he doing conceding the day after when the votes weren’t all counted and they were cheating with the Diebold machines?"

Wrapping up the interview, O’Donnell and Joy Behar then expressed their hope for a future John Edwards presidential run to Mrs. Edwards:

Behar: "Kerry’s a smart guy, but he doesn’t know how to run. I hope your husband runs again, though, this time."

O’Donnell: "I hope so too."