Bill Clinton sabotaged Hillary’s 2008 Presidential run because he didn’t want her to win and hog the spotlight from him, one of the former President’s closest advisers has revealed.
Doug Band, who was Clinton’s body man and became like an adopted son to him, feared that the Presidency would be ‘all about her’ if Hillary won.
As a result Clinton behaved erratically on the campaign trail, shouted at voters and mocked Barack Obama which earned scorn from Democrats and helped her to lose.
Band’s extraordinary claim comes in a tell-all Vanity Fair piece in which he says he has bitten his tongue about the Clintons for decades.
He described being so close to the Clintons that it was like being in a ‘cult’ that is ‘hard to get yourself out’.
Band says he once levelled with Clinton and said if he wanted to have affairs, he should divorce Hillary because it was the ‘honorable thing to do’.
According to Band, Clinton did visit the Caribbean island owned by Jeffrey Epstein despite his denials.
He also claims Chelsea Clinton was so close with Epstein’s alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell because she ‘had access to yachts and nice homes’ and ‘Chelsea needed that’.
Doug Band (pictured with Clinton), who was Clinton’s body man and became like an adopted son to him, feared that the Presidency would be ‘all about her’ if Hillary won
Clinton sabotaged Hillary’s 2008 Presidential run because he didn’t want her to win and hog the spotlight from him, one of the former President’s closest advisers has revealed
According to Band, Clinton did visit the Caribbean island owned by Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 despite his denials. Pictured: Clinton with Epstein’s alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell on Epstein’s private plane in 2002
Band’s interview with Vanity Fair amounts to an astonishing stab in the front to the Clintons from somebody who was once essentially part of their family.
Band was just 22 and doing a law degree at Georgetown University when he landed an unpaid internship in the White House midway through Clinton’s first term.
When Clinton left office in 2001 Band went with him and helped to resurrect the Clinton brand that was tarnished by controversial pardons and the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.
Band’s extraordinary claim comes in a tell-all Vanity Fair piece in which he says he has bitten his tongue about the Clintons for decades
Clinton was beaten, tired and so out of touch he didn’t even know what the TV show Friends was.
According to Band: ‘No one wanted to be around Clinton. No one wanted to work for him. He was a pariah’.
Band helped set up the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation, the family’s philanthropic arms, which turned Clinton’s fortunes around.
As a result Band became semi-famous himself, briefly dated Naomi Campbell and partied at celebrity hotspots like Bungalow 8.
He fell out with Clinton around 2011 when tensions with Chelsea came to a head and now that there are no Clintons running for public office he is speaking out against them.
Band’s sharpest comments are about Clinton and Hillary’s relationship, especially her failed run for the Presidency in 2008.
By that time Clinton and Hillary lived in ‘separate worlds that had very little overlap’ and Band wanted Clinton to ‘stay out of politics and do great big things’.
But inevitably Clinton got involved in the election and chafed at the scrutiny over their $109m fortune from Wall St speeches.
There were also questions over the Clinton Foundation such as the $31m donated by Canadian mining mogul two days after he dined with Clinton.
On the campaign trail Clinton ‘dismantled everything we had done’ to rebuild his image as a statesman with erratic behavior, especially with regards to Obama.
Band was just 22 and doing a law degree at Georgetown University when he landed an unpaid internship in the White House midway through Clinton’s first term
When Clinton left office in 2001 Band went with him and helped to resurrect the Clinton brand that was tarnished by controversial pardons and the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal
At the time Band thought Clinton was just rusty although ‘Obama drove him nuts’.
But in hindsight he thinks that Clinton may have consciously or unconsciously not wanted Hillary to win.
Band said: ‘He was used to it being all about him, and if she won, it would be all about her.
‘That’s not how he lived his life for the four decades leading up to that election.
‘In her White House, he would be back under a microscope but without the benefit of being the one in charge’.
A Clinton spokesperson told Vanity Fair: ‘That’s ridiculous. President Clinton did more than 300 events on her behalf, and very much wanted her to win’.
After the loss Hillary’s team criticized Band for being an ‘enabler’ for Clinton, a claim that still angers Band.
He said: ‘The idea that anyone can control a person, especially a former president of the United States, is completely ridiculous’.
He was used to it being all about him, and if she won, it would be all about her. ‘That’s not how he lived his life for the four decades leading up to that election.
When Obama called Hillary and offered her the Secretary of State job she turned him down.
Band claims it was because she was ‘bitter, angry, and believed he didn’t deserve to be president’.
Twelve hours later she calmed down and accepted the job – but there were strict conditions for Clinton.
He had to clear all speaking engagements and had to publicly disclose the Clinton Foundation’s 200,000 donors.
Band thought it was revenge for Clinton’s attacks on Obama and was an attempt to ‘control and neuter’ him.
He said: ‘The absurdity of the demands was high. I didn’t care, but I did care about them hampering our global work helping people for their own selfish purposes’.
Another flare-up happened when Clinton became involved with a secret back door attempt to free American journalist Laura Ling and her colleague Euan Lee, who were being held in North Korea.
Clinton flew to Pynongang and convinced Kim Jong-Il to release the women but on the way back Obama told him he couldn’t get off the plane with the hostages, denying him a PR photo.
When Obama called Hillary and offered her the Secretary of State job she turned him down. Band claims it was because she was ‘bitter, angry, and believed he didn’t deserve to be president’. Twelve hours later she calmed down and accepted the job – but there were strict conditions for Clinton
After frantic calls Clinton was allowed to disembark with the newly freed hostages. Band recalled saying: ‘People are going to be like: ‘How small are you guys?’
Band began to leave Clintonworld around 2011 when Chelsea began to assume more power and control over the family affairs.
According to a friend of the Clintons, Chelsea ‘hated Doug because he was like a son to her father’.
Band didn’t like the fact that Chelsea treated him like ‘hired help’, the Vanity Fair article says.
Band had launched consulting company Teneo and offered Clinton $2.5m to sit on the board but Chelsea told him it wasn’t enough.
She wanted ownership in Teneo for her and her husband financier Marc Mezvinsky but Band refused because he ‘thought she was kidding or deeply sick’, he said.
Clinton sided with Chelsea and Band’s relationship with the family permanently soured.
Over the next few months Chelsea accused Band of ‘hustling’ Clinton donors to become Teneo clients.
Band claimed that Chelsea accused him of planting stories with the New York Post about troubles in her marriage.
As Band saw it, Chelsea was the one cashing in with a $1.2m reporting job for NBC – she claimed her salary was $600,000 – a $10m apartment, a driver and a wedding that cost $5m.
Band said: ‘Every job she received was based on her name’.
Another source of tension had been Epstein.
Band had been trying to get Clinton away from Epstein since their notorious 2002 trip to Africa on the pedophile’s private plane called the ‘Lolita Express’.
Band began to leave Clintonworld around 2011 when Chelsea began to assume more power and control over the family affairs. According to a friend of the Clintons, Chelsea ‘hated Doug because he was like a son to her father’. Band didn’t like the fact that Chelsea treated him like ‘hired help’, the Vanity Fair article says
Band had launched consulting company Teneo and offered Clinton $2.5m to sit on the board but Chelsea told him it wasn’t enough. She wanted ownership in Teneo for her and her husband financier Marc Mezvinsky but Band. Clinton sided with Chelsea and Band’s relationship with the family permanently soured
According to Band, Epstein made a series of absurd claims on the trip like he invented the market in derivatives, a complex financial instrument.
Band didn’t know about Epstein’s crimes then – he was first arrested in 2006 – but got enough ‘bad vibes’ to advise Clinton to cut ties with him.
But he didn’t and in 2006 Epstein donated $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation and Clinton made more than 24 more trips on Epstein’s jet.
In January 2003 Clinton visited Epstein’s island in the US Virgin Islands, which locals called ‘Pedo Island’.
A Clinton spokesperson denied this and showed travel log entries with no visit to the island.
Chelsea’s relationship with Maxwell was another problem.
Clinton and Chelsea were so close to her that they attended the King of Morocco’s wedding where they posed with Epstein and Maxwell.
In 2010 Chelsea invited Maxwell to her lavish wedding in Rhinebeck, New York, even though Epstein had by then admitted to having sex with a minor and served 15 months in jail.
Band said: ‘Ghislaine had access to yachts and nice homes. Chelsea needed that’.
In late 2011 Band told Clinton’s office to bar Maxwell from all events related to the family or their various ventures.
Rather than stopping their exposure to somebody embarrassing, his reasons were more personal: to drive a wedge between Maxwell and Chelsea.
Band said: ‘I knew in telling everyone to stop including Ghislaine that Chelsea and her father would be very angry. It made it harder for them to justify being close to her’.
Chelsea’s relationship with Maxwell was another problem. Clinton and Chelsea were so close to her that they attended the King of Morocco’s wedding where they posed with Epstein and Maxwell. In 2010 Chelsea invited Maxwell to her lavish wedding in Rhinebeck, New York, even though Epstein had by then admitted to having sex with a minor and served 15 months in jail
Clinton and Chelsea were so close to her that they attended the King of Morocco’s wedding where they posed with Epstein and Maxwell, he claimed
In January 2003 Clinton visited Epstein’s island in the US Virgin Islands, which locals called ‘Pedo Island’. A Clinton spokesperson denied this and showed travel log entries with no visit to the island
In the article Band does not talk about Lewinsky or any of the other women Clinton is said to have had affairs with.
He appears to have bitten his tongue but finally let rip shortly before he left Clintonworld.
According to the Vanity Fair article Band ‘told Clinton that he believed he was allowing Chelsea to destroy Band’s reputation because, deep down, Clinton was guilty for the pain his infidelities had caused the family’.
Band said that if Clinton wanted to cheat he should divorce Hillary and move on.
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Band told Clinton: ‘It’s the honorable and right thing to do’.
According to Vanity Fair ‘Clinton listened in cold silence, biting his lower lip’ – and their relationship was never the same.
Band, 48, became a multimillionaire off the back of his association with the Clintons and those still loyal to the former President have accused him of the same kind of profiteering the family has been tarred with.
Band said that if Clinton wanted to cheat he should divorce Hillary and move on. Band told Clinton: ‘It’s the honorable and right thing to do’
His Manhattan townhouse is worth $20m and he and his partners sold off a majority stake in Teneo for $700m.
And despite being so close with Democrats he considered working with the Trump administration as their chief hostage negotiator but didn’t accept the job because he didn’t want to be away from his four children.
A Clinton family spokesman said in a caustic statement: ‘No staffer has ever used their role to serve their interests as much as Doug Band.
‘For many years he was a valuable member of President Clinton’s team and supportive of Clinton Foundation programs. Until he wasn’t. He put the foundation at risk by leveraging a world-class philanthropy for his own financial gain. It’s as disappointing a story as it is a sad one and ultimately why Doug Band and the Clintons parted ways’.
Band thought he was done with the Clintons entirely by 2015 but got sucked back in when he offered a job to Huma Abedin, the wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner.
Band said he did it to give Abedin financial freedom from Weiner when he was caught in a sexting scandal but it looked like he was trying to curry favor with the Clintons at a time Hillary was running for President.
Band said: ‘I was so close to Huma for so long, and we had gone through so much together. I felt like I owed it to her to give her the gift of moving on.
‘But clearly it was a mistake’.
Reflecting on his decision to leave the Clintons, he said: ‘It was, in the end, the best thing that happened to and for me.
‘I was able to focus on my family, not theirs; my life, not his (Clinton’s)’.
Being so close to the Clintons is ‘like a cult, that world’, he said.
Band said: ‘It’s hard to get yourself out and difficult to see outside of it. And it’s even harder to understand that when you’re inside’.
