Jerry Brown is now apologizing for taking a shot at Bill Clinton in the course of the California gubernatorial race, after his Republican opponent launched an ad using 18-year-old footage of Clinton attacking Brown when they ran against each other for president.
The Whitman ad showed Clinton accusing Brown of raising taxes when he was previously governor of California in the 1970s and early 1980s. Brown responded in an interesting way, with some amateur video to match.
“I mean Clinton’s a nice guy, but who ever said he always told the truth?” Brown joked to a crowd of supporters, which prompted them to cheer a joke at the expense of their party’s former president. “You remember, right? There’s that whole story there about, did he or didn’t he. Okay, I did — I did not have taxes with this state! So let’s be clear about that. Thank you very much.”
After the video made the rounds, Brown quickly called a press conference on Monday to apologize. “Bill Clinton was an excellent president,” Brown said “It was wrong for me to joke about an incident from many years ago, and I’m sorry.”
Brown apologized to a Clinton aide, but did not speak to Bill directly.
The TPM Poll Average gives Whitman a lead of 46.0%-44.2%.
