Bill Clinton says he wondered if Trump administration might try to ban his latest book
'I was actually trying to think if there was some reason they could think of to ban it,' the ex-commander in chief said during an interview alongside Patterson Tuesday on 'The Daily Show.'
Clinton's comment came in response to a question from host Jordan Klepper on if he knew when the book, 'The First Gentleman,' was 'going to be banned by the Trump administration.'
'It wouldn't be the White House, but in certain counties, they may all of a sudden,' best-selling scribe Patterson, a vocal critic of book bans, told Klepper.
'They don't need a reason,' Patterson, 78, added.
'One person goes in [and says] 'I don't like the book.' And, 'OK, we'll ban it,'' he said. 'So it'll probably be banned in a couple of counties.'
Patterson was one of nearly two dozen authors who donated millions to the free expression organization PEN America in 2023 to push back against book banning efforts. A year earlier, more than 1,500 individual titles were removed from K-12 schools across the country, according to PEN America.
'I don't like it. It's a bad deal,' Clinton, 78, said of book bans.
'Maya Angelou, who read the inaugural poem at my first inauguration — wrote it, and read it and was a great human being — the first thing the White House did was to ban her book, 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,'' Clinton recalled.
Angelou's 1969 autobiography was reportedly one of nearly 400 books that was pulled from the U.S. Naval Academy library in April as part of an effort to remove titles containing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) content.
Calling it a 'magnificent book,' Clinton reflected on Angelou's personal story about a child who 'loses the ability to speak for a couple of years because she was abused, and then she blooms.'
'I couldn't figure out why that was a problem,' Clinton said.
'I don't like book banning,' the 42nd president added.
'I wasn't ever for banning books that were full of things they said about me that weren't true,' Clinton said.
'It never occurred to me that I should stop you from reading them.'
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The Hill
3 days ago
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Epstein birthday book included note from Bill Clinton: WSJ
Former President Clinton was among the famous and wealthy individuals who penned notes to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The Journal previously reported that President Trump wrote a 'bawdy' note for the leather-bound birthday album given to Epstein three years before the disgraced financier was first charged with sexually abusing girls in Florida in 2006 and more than a decade before Epstein's higher-profile sex trafficking arrest in 2019. Trump denied writing the letter and sued The Wall Street Journal over its report. The New York Times separately reported on Thursday that it had reviewed a 'contributor list' for the book that included Trump's name. According to the Journal's latest report on the birthday book's entries, Clinton, who left office in 2001, penned a handwritten note that read: 'It's reassuring isn't it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends.' A Clinton spokesperson declined to comment to the Journal but referred the outlet to a previous statement saying the former president did not know about Epstein's crimes and that they severed ties years before Epstein's death. The Hill reached out to a Clinton representative for comment on Friday but did not immediately hear back. Epstein died in a New York City prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, but his case has continued to draw intense interest about his associates. Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI announced earlier this month that an investigation concluded that Epstein kept no 'client list' and died by suicide, but the DOJ this week has conducted private interviews with Epstein's associate and the source of the birthday book, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years behind bars after she was convicted in Epstein's sex trafficking scheme. Meanwhile, the Epstein controversy has engulfed Washington, D.C., and effectively ground the House to a halt this week ahead of its August recess. A House Oversight panel on Wednesday approved several subpoenas related to the case, including one directing the DOJ to hand over materials related to the Epstein files and separately for Clinton and other prominent Democrats to testify before the House.
