Altaffer/AP Former President Bill Clinton held a press conference at his Harlem office yesterday to announce that his foundation had negotiated with three drug companies to lower the price of medicines for HIV/AIDS patients in developing countries. Of course, the press packed into room was there for juicy details on Clinton's successful mission to North Korea, which secured the release of two American reporters after five months of detention. But while clearly savoring the attention, Bubba was tight lipped on the details, telling reporters:
My job was to do one thing, which I was profoundly honored to do, as an American, and as a father: I wanted those young women to be able to come home. Anything I say beyond that could inadvertently affect the decisions and moods either here or in North Korea, or the attitudes of our allies, and I have no business doing that. I’m not a policy maker anymore.
Regarding Republican allegations that his trip bolstered dictator Kim Jong Il and involved some undisclosed "quid pro quo," Clinton reiterated that no concessions were made to the North Koreans, other than the visit itself: "I was not asked for any more; nor did I offer anymore. What the White House told you on that was factually accurate." But Clinton did reveal a bit about his flight home with the journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, explaining that they were deeply emotional and unable to sleep.
And when the plane stopped over at an American military base in Japan, Clinton said, "They got their first real old-fashioned American breakfast, huevos rancheros. And they had to be careful, since they had been on a radically different diet for almost 5 months, to measure their intake. It was basically a lovely thing." You can hear his husky voice in your ear just by reading that last sentence, can't you? The Big Dog is definitely back on top—yesterday he even surfaced on Mercer between Spring and Prince, shaking hands and soaking up the adulation. According to a report on Gawker, "People were going crazy cheering."
In today's Times, Douglas H. Paal, who was the top American representative to Taiwan under President George W. Bush, filed an editorial defending Clinton's mission, deeming it "dignified and correct throughout." Meanwhile, media outlets are scrambling to score the first sit-down with one of the journalists. Ling's sister tells the Today Show, "We’re just taking things very, very easy with her. Even getting sentences out is challenging, because she’s not used to talking as much." She did reveal that the women didn’t know the negotiations were going on, and one day before their release "they were sitting in a facility and they truly, truly thought they would be sent to a labor prison camp imminently."
Ling's sister also told CNN that the two were arrested almost immediately after entering North Korea: "She said that it was maybe 30 seconds and then everything got chaotic. It's a very powerful story, and she does want to share it." It'd be nice if she shared it soon, so the national conversation can return to important issues like the beer summit and Obama's birth certificate.
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