|
July 17, 2000, Monday
WITNESSES SCOFFING AT HER DENIALS
BYLINE: Robert Hardt Jr.
SECTION: All Editions; Pg. 004
LENGTH: 436 words
Paul and Mary Lee Fray laughed at the first lady's contention yesterday that she doesn't remember the fight they had with the Clintons on Election Night in 1974.
"Damn, that's good," Paul Fray chuckled from their home in Sherwood, Ark.
The Frays - along with a third campaign worker - allege that Hillary Rodham Clinton called Paul a "f- - -ing Jew bastard" following Bill Clinton's unsuccessful run for Congress.
Mrs. Clinton denied the epithet yesterday, saying that she didn't take part in any fight with the Frays and that she didn't even remember the third accuser, college coordinator Neil McDonald.
"It's incredible that she says she doesn't know who Neil is, because he lived with Hugh and Tony right around the time of the election in Fayetteville," Fray told The Post.
Virtually every Clinton biography mentions the major dustup between the Clintons and the Frays after Clinton's narrow loss to GOP incumbent John Paul Hammerschmidt.
But only Jerry Oppenheimer's "State of a Union" - to be released tomorrow - includes the Frays' and McDonald's charge that Mrs. Clinton made the anti-Semitic remark.
"First she's saying she didn't say that to me and now she's saying she can't even remember this fight?" Fray asked.
"What a lie!"
The Frays also addressed
a two-page handwritten letter that Paul sent Mrs. Clinton in 1997.
The letter, dated July 1, says: "At one time in my life, I would say things without thinking, without factual foundation and without rhyme or remedy unless it furthered my own agenda.
"I said a lot of things that were unfair about Hillary in connection with that race and her relationship with Bill.
"But what she called me was a fact."
Ron Addington, a senior staffer in Clinton's 1974 campaign, said he has no doubt that there was a major fight between the Clintons and the Frays - but can't believe that Hillary would have used a racial epithet.
"I wasn't there the night of the fight, but it was common knowledge that there was a big showdown between them. She had a big fight with Paul at least one time before," Addington told The Post.
"Hillary said a lot of things - some of them not so nice to Paul - but I can't imagine her using an ethnic slur," Addington said.
Addington also said Hugh and Tony Rodham lived for a time in his apartment - not Neil McDonald's.
"It is very, very possible that Hillary doesn't remember Neil, but he was in headquarters every day," Addington said.
"He was a hard-working college student but he wasn't a big player in the campaign."
McDonald couldn't be reached last night.
|