NEW YORK An article for Vanity Fair by former New York Times reporter Todd Purdum, set to appear this week, alleges that former President Bill Clinton is consumed by “cavernous narcissism” and that a former aide tried to pull an “intervention” 18 months ago, disturbed by stories of Clinton allegedly fooling around with women on the road. The former president “rebuffed” that attempt.
The article is now online at the magazine’s site and it titled “The Comeback Id.”
Purdum is married to former Clinton press secretary DeeDee Myers.
Clinton’s office responded angrily Sunday, charging, “A tawdry, anonymous quote-filled attack piece, published in this month’s Vanity Fair magazine regarding former President Bill Clinton repeats many past attacks on him, ignores much prior positive coverage, includes numerous errors, and ultimately breaks no new ground. It is, in short, journalism of personal destruction at its worst.” Then if offers point-by-point rebuttal.
The article claims that Clinton, now 61, has gotten caught up in a world of rich friends in pursuit of making tens of millions of dollars since leaving office.
One former aide says: “There’s an anger in him that I find surprising. There seems to be an abiding anger in him, and not just the summer thunderstorms of old. He has been called into question repeatedly by top staff.”
Purdum writes: “Whatever the facts of Clinton’s personal life, it is beyond dispute that he has associated with some decidedly unpresidential company. In 2002, Clinton flew to Africa with the New York investor Jeffrey Epstein on his private Boeing 727 on an anti-aids and economic-development mission. (Others on the mission included Kevin Spacey and the comedian Chris Tucker.) In 2006, Epstein was indicted on state charges of soliciting prostitution in Palm Beach, Florida, and he later came under investigation by federal authorities amid allegations that he hired under-age girls for massages and more in a house stocked with sex toys and genitalia-shaped soaps. He remains the subject of at least four pending civil lawsuits from young women and is reportedly expected to accept a plea deal on a state charge that would give him 18 months in prison, followed by house arrest, in lieu of a trial now set to begin this month.”