Democratic hypocrisy laid bare as leaked memo shows Bill Clinton's 'quid pro quo' deal with Russian president Boris Yeltsin
President Donald Trump is currently facing an impeachment inquiry over his alleged pressuring Ukraine to investigate domestic political opponent Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
The Democrats, who are pursuing the case whole-heartedly, have charged that Trump withheld American aid to the East European nation till it agreed to launch the probe and conduct an inquiry into Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 election.
But it was not the first time that such a case of seeking quid pro quo from a foreign leader was sought by an American president.
According to a report in the Washington Times, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin of Russia met in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in 1996, the year when both the American and Russian leaders were seeking re-elections. And there: Clinton reportedly offered Washington’s support for an embattled Yeltsin—in lieu of Moscow’s lifting of ban on US chicken imports that was imposed over concerns that the poultry was infected with bacteria. Washington Times obtained a leaked memorandum of conversation that found Clinton pressuring Yeltsin.
Was Clinton helping a longtime political supporter?
“This is a big issue, especially since about 40% of U.S. poultry is produced in Arkansas,” Clinton was heard telling Russia’s first president. “An effort should be made to keep such things from getting out of hand.” The former American president, who is also the last to be impeached, did not mention however that most of the Arkansas chicken was produced by Tyson Foods Inc.—the chairman of which, Don Tyson, remained one of his loyal supporters.
Yeltsin did not ignore the request. “A leader of international stature such as President Clinton should support Russia, and that meant supporting Boris Yeltsin. Thought should be given to how to do that wisely," he told Clinton.
The issue then became a part of the talks between the then vice president Al Gore and Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Days after the meeting, Gore announced that Russia lifted the ban. The meeting was later known to be “Chicken Summit” in Washington and Clinton’s critics said he loosened the policy with a major power to boost the market of infected chicken only to help a long-time supporter.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican, blasted the Democrats for considering the act of negotiation as impeachable when there have been precedents.
“The idea that the very act of negotiating would be impeachable requires such a complete lack of historical knowledge that it is a little hard to believe that even [House intelligence committee Chairman Adam B.] Schiff thinks it is real. We are watching a pretext for a predetermined outcome,” he was quoted as saying by the Times.
There was no call for an impeachment in case of Clinton, unlike his successor, and instead, his administration had sought the FBI to probe the leak of the confidential memo and denied that he had fought for his long-time friend and supporter.
Clinton's then-officials defended him
Some of the Clinton administration’s officials came to defend his talks with Yeltsin. Mike McCurry, the then White House secretary, did not deny the talks between the two former presidents but said it was not accurate to see it as Clinton promising to compromise America’s policies towards Russia in lieu of lifting ban on chicken imports.
Strobe Talbott, a deputy secretary of state in the Clinton presidency, also said in a 2002 book that a scoop by the Washington Times distorted the story about the presidential exchanges.
“While Clinton was indeed advancing American commercial interests and doing so on behalf of a company in his home state, the notion that he either intended or implied a threat of withholding support for Yeltsin if Russia didn’t ease the import restrictions was nonsense,” he wrote.
The Republicans had taken on the diplomacy but a congressional inquiry was hampered by the failure of the White House to provide documents.
Obama used a similar tactic on Russia in 2012
Even in March 2012, another Democratic president in Barack Obama was heard telling the then Russian president Dmitry Medvedev that he could shift Washington’s policy in a direction that suits Moscow if he won a second term that year.
“This is my last election,” Obama told Medvedev. “After my election, I’ll have more flexibility.”
The “flexibility” was about meeting Russia’s demands to limit American missile defenses, specifically plans to deploy anti-missile interceptors in Europe that Moscow regarded as threats to its offensive missile forces.