David Maraniss: Bill Is ‘an Authentic Phony’; Hillary ‘Is a Phony Phony’

TODD: "David, I want to start with you. You’re the closest thing of anybody here that has crawled inside the head of the Clintons. You wrote a book on Bill—"
MARANISS: "It’s been a dangerous place."
TODD: "This Hillary Clinton issue, it’s she’s not Bill. Right? That is really what you hear from Democrats. That’s ultimately why they’re not rushing, they’re sort of waiting to rush."
MARANISS: "Yeah, I mean, Hillary dillemma, it’s fascinating. You know, going all the way back to 1974 when she drove from Washington out to Fayatteville so they can attach their stars together. It’s helped their rise together, but it’s also hindered her in two important ways. One is that she doesn’t have Bill Clinton’s charisma and amazing campaign abilities.

"You know, and theater. You know, you talk about authenticity. I always have called Bill Clinton sort of an authentic phony. He really is good at that. And Hillary, if you look at it, just as theater, is a phony phony. She’s not as good at it. So that always hurts her in comparison with Bill. The other one is that because of Bill Clinton’s history, there’s been sort of an encrusted defensiveness to the Clintons that Hillary became sort of the poll star of defending her husband.

"And it became so second nature to her that I think that that’s what carried out through the whole email problem as well. So I think she’s had to overcome that. Look, the parallel with Al Gore is fascinating because Mrs. Clinton, like Al Gore is experienced and intelligent, but she’s also married to Bill Clinton, and Al Gore wasn’t."