Bill Clinton ‘burst a gasket’ over pro-Hillary group’s comments

Former President Bill Clinton was furious when a pro-Hillary Clinton group spoke out during New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) “Bridgegate” scandal, according to a new excerpt from the paperback version of HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton being released this week.

The episode recounted by authors Amie Parnes of The Hill and Jonathan Allen of Bloomberg News highlights the former president’s continued presence as a powerful force in Hillary Clinton’s political circle.

{mosads}It also emphasizes a significant danger for Hillary Clinton: that differences and competitions among those close to her could torpedo her expected 2016 presidential campaign.

Former President Clinton blew up in December 2013, when when Correct the Record, launched by the Democratic super-PAC American Bridge to defend Hillary Clinton’s record from GOP attacks, criticized Christie over the news that officials close to the governor had shut down lanes of the George Washington Bridge linking New Jersey to New York to punish political enemies.

Clinton believed that Correct the Record had violated an iron rule of politics by attacking an imploding enemy. The former president was worried that the “collateral damage” to Hillary Clinton could have been high and that she could have been drawn into a polarizing debate.

Watching from New York, the former president “burst a gasket” and let loose on his chief of staff  Tina Flournoy, who in turn called Burns Strider. A former faith adviser to Hillary Clinton in 2008, Strider had signed on with Correct the Record just a few weeks before.

“Your boy is red in the face,” Flournoy told Strider, who is also a confidante of the former president.

With that, Christie — who maintains a cordial relationship with the former president and even lent his name to the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting earlier that year — was off limits to the Clinton operation, according to the excerpt, released by Crown Publishing. 

Strider himself was frustrated with the episode, according to the book, a New York Times best-seller. He was worried that too many groups connected to Clinton were vying for influence, and that this was making it harder for them to craft a clear message.

In June 2014, several groups held a “come to Jesus” meeting in the office of Jim Messina, the former campaign chief for President Obama who had taken charge at Priorities USA.

John Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Clinton who was then working as a counselor to Obama, took charge of the meeting.

The biggest sign of infighting within Clinton’s operation since that episode occurred earlier this month with David Brock’s resignation from the board of Priorities USA Action.

Brock complained that two other pro-Clinton organizations he runs, Media Matters and American Bridge, had been the victims of an “orchestrated political hit job” by Priorities USA. The New York Times had run a story calling into question the fundraising practices of those groups.