Latest news with #FirstGentleman
New York Post
12-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Bill Clinton stumbles ahead of NYC book event, sparking concern: ‘Can hardly walk'
Bill and Hillary Clinton spotted in New York City for the launch of their new book "The First Gentleman." Former President Bill Clinton sparked concern on social media Wednesday after he was spotted walking gingerly and stumbling ahead of a book event in New York City. Clinton, 78, needed to grab hold of a pole in order to pull himself up from the street to the sidewalk outside the 92NY cultural center in Manhattan, where the event was taking place, video posted on X showed. The 42nd president's left leg immediately buckled as he planted his foot on the pavement, causing him to stumble. Advertisement 3 Clinton will turn 79 in August. Santi Ramales / BACKGRID Yet no one around the ex-commander in chief, including Secret Service agents and autograph hunters, appeared all that concerned. Clinton then slowly made his way to autograph seekers, where his wife, Hillary, was already signing a few items. Advertisement The former president's gait and physical appearance shocked many on social media. 'Bill can hardly walk,' conservative columnist Buzz Patterson wrote on X, sharing the clip of the trip. 'Bill Clinton ain't looking well,' Texas Patriot tweeted. Some X users compared Clinton's physical decline to that of former President Joe Biden. Advertisement 'Bill Clinton is starting to stumble around like Joe Biden,' one account tweeted. Another person described the ex-commander in chief as looking 'very Bidenlike – unsteady, sleepy.' One social media user noted that Clinton looked to be in an 'obvious fragile state,' and that Hillary left him 'in her dust' as she exited the black van carrying them to the event. 3 Clinton is promoting his new book with James Patterson, titled 'First Gentleman.' Santi Ramales / BACKGRID Advertisement Clinton has faced several health problems since leaving the Oval Office in January 2001 after serving two terms in the White House. A fever landed him in a Washington, DC, hospital last December, where he spent one night being treated for the flu and was released on Christmas Eve. In 2021, Clinton was hospitalized for about a week in California after a urinary tract infection spread to his bloodstream. 3 Bill and Hillary Clinton took selfies and signed autographs ahead of the event. Santi Ramales / BACKGRID In 2004, he underwent a successful quadruple heart bypass surgery that was described as a 'relatively routine' four-hour procedure at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University. And six years later, he was taken to the same Manhattan hospital where surgeons inserted two stents into a clogged artery, according to his doctors at the time. The former president was attending an event Wednesday night related to his new political thriller, 'The First Gentleman,' which he co-authored with James Patterson. Advertisement The book is described by 92NY as 'a propulsive, white-knuckle ride through the West Wing, the media, and the American psyche.' It takes place in a world where the US has elected its first female president and her husband is put on trial for murder.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bill Clinton reveals key White House details in murderous new political thriller
WHITE PLAINS, NY – Most former presidents write memoirs after they leave the White House. Former President Bill Clinton has been there, done that. First on his literary agenda now? Writing political thrillers. Clinton is a thriller reader himself, but more than that he just really wanted a chance to work with bestselling author James Patterson. Their third novel, "The First Gentleman" is out now from Little, Brown and Company. Sitting down for an interview with USA TODAY, the prolific pair catch up like a couple of old friends – Clinton shares a story of tourists he spotted reading his wife's book while in Korea and gives Patterson the name of a new author to check out. "He reads everything," Patterson tells me. Both love S.A. Cosby, Michael Connelly and Lee Child. In their latest novel, the fictional Madame President Wright's husband is on trial for murder, a potential crime uncovered by journalist couple Brea and Garrett. Not only is it harmful to the White House image for the first gentleman and former Patriots player to be accused of murder, but it threatens to upend the carefully crafted economic "Grand Bargain" the president is nearly ready to announce. It's a twisty thriller with plenty of inside jobs, political sabotage and many, many deaths. Clinton and Patterson take us inside their writing process, revealing how they weave details pulled from real life with fictional characters to create the next big nail-biter. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Question: How has your collaboration changed over three books? Patterson: I don't think it's changed. Other than, I will say, I think this turned out really, really well. If somebody's looking to read a book with really good characters and great story or if they want to find out sort of how Washington really works, I think this is really cool for either one of those kinds of people. But initially we had, it was a little bit of a problem in terms of getting the characters real. They weren't working and we just kept going at it. Clinton: We had this just gut-wrenching conversation because in the beginning, we were excited – what would it be like to write a book that was from the point of view of the first gentleman, the first woman president's husband? It had all kinds of fascinating ramifications. But then something happened while we were doing it and I realized we hadn't created anybody you could like. Patterson: We have these two (reporters) and they weren't working, either, in the beginning. When people think of my writing, they go "short chapters," but the whole thing is character. Alex Cross is, in my opinion, a great character. Lindsay Boxer is a really good character. The characters in "First Gentleman," there are four of them, are really good characters, and that's the key. Obviously (Clinton) was key in terms of making those characters work, especially in the White House. Clinton: People (in the White House) struggle to maintain some measure of normalcy, however they define it. Even though you have to be ambitious to be elected president and disciplined to execute the job, you're still a person. We all react differently to different things that happen. So we try to capture that. Patterson: The humanity. I wish we could get back to the understanding that whatever party you're with, (we are) human beings. I'll give you one quick example: Last year, the president called the house and my wife and he said, put it on (FaceTime). And there he was with his grandkids, and he was in a tiger suit with only his face showing. Human being! Right, and in this book, all the first gentleman wants to do is go on a run with no one bothering him. Patterson: President Clinton used to go on runs. Clinton: I went running every morning for years. I still have the M&M's box that I was given by the head of my security detail on my 100th run when I was president. I loved it. Patterson: Once M&M's get 20 years old you don't eat them anymore. Are there any other signature Clinton White House details that made it into the book? Patterson: You have a relationship with a man and a woman, and obviously, it would've been possible at one point for President Clinton to be the first gentleman. Clinton: It's the only job I ever wanted that I didn't get. Is that why you chose to make a female president in this book? Clinton: I had thought a lot about, long after I left the White House and Hillary was running, and I thought about it. This character, he and his president wife, they're closer to the age Hillary and I were when we actually served. So I was thinking about, even though he was a pro football player and macho guy, he was really proud of his wife. He wanted her to succeed. He wasn't threatened by her being president, but he could be threatened by people making certain assumptions about him, like he was a dumb jock, which he's not. Patterson: But is he a murderer? Clinton: We keep that hanging a long time. In the book, President Wright is trying to pass legislation to address Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. How did you come up with the "Grand Bargain"? Clinton: I knew what the drivers of the debt are and what the politics pushing against real change are, and so I tried to think of the things we could do to get it under control that would be the most bearable, both for people and politically. Patterson: It's a fascinating thing. How do you solve the problem with Social Security and Medicaid? And there is, you know, there's in the book, there is a solution. It's complicated, which is kind of cool. You don't hear anything (today), about, well, how do we solve these problems? I'd like to hear that right now. Yes, there is a problem. Clinton: Medicaid pays for about 40% of all childbirth and pays for an enormous percentage of senior citizens' health care and a lot of other stuff. It's really important. So this bill that's just been presented cuts Medicaid in order to help pay for a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires. In all respect, (Patterson) and I don't need a tax cut. We'd rather have people with health care. So these are choices, and unless people understand that these choices are being made, they can't know clearly whether they're against or for whatever's being proposed. Patterson: This lays out that there is an alternative to that which makes sense and we don't have to cut things off for people who really need help. What was it like crafting fictional presidential addresses? Clinton: I imagined what I would say if confronted with the challenges she was confronted with. If you really want to change something, people like to hear about it in speeches and imagine it, but it almost always requires a mind numbing, detail-written piece of legislation – not always, but mostly. So, I tried to figure out how to sell it in the speech and describe how complicated the legislation would be without putting people to sleep. I found it difficult, but I think it's important, because one thing I learned the hard way is if you can't explain it, you can't sell it, and if you can't sell it and it's hard, you're going to get creamed. The problem we describe is something like what really exists today. Except today, it's in many ways more severe. It's just that our economy has been, for the last 20 years, or now 30 years, stronger than any other one in the world. Patterson, were there any details about the presidency or White House that Clinton added that surprised you? Patterson: A lot of little things. I might set a scene and he'd go: "It can't happen in that room. That room is so small, there's not room for three people in that room." And anytime it pops up: "The Secret Service wouldn't act like that. They would act like this." A lot of the thriller writers that we all like, they just make stuff up. When you're working with a president, you just can't make it up, because he'll go: "No, it wouldn't work that way. Here's how it could work." One of the beauties of this book, and the three that we've done, is that it's a really good story with really good characters, but it's also authentic. Did you have a favorite character to write? Patterson: Favorite character for me is Brea – she just develops, she gets stronger and stronger for a lot of reasons, and there is one big twist in there, and that really propels her as a character. Clinton: I agree with that, and one of the reasons I liked her is that she's smart and brave and good and honest, but in the beginning of the book, she thinks something that's very wrong about a big issue, and when she knows she's wrong, she turns on a dime and does the right thing. You don't see that much in Washington. Patterson: Or in general. Clinton: There are people that think that you never admit error. You accuse other people of doing what you're doing, and you roll along. The worst thing you can do is admit that she made a mistake. I like her because she's playing in the big leagues − her whole life is on the line, and she still does the right thing. Patterson: We've sold this in Hollywood and ... the production companies go, "Well, maybe we should cast (First Gentleman) Cole." I'm going like, no, you better cast Brea, because Cole, he's a good character, but Brea, she's real, and Garrett, her partner, they are really key characters. And the president herself, but Cole, eh, I don't know. Not as big a character. Who would be your dream actor to play her? (Brea, the protagonist, is Black.) Patterson: There's so many. I mean, that's the beauty right now − one of the nice things that's happened in Hollywood, especially with Black actors, so many have been discovered. There are so many choices. What are you excited for readers to see in this story, especially fans of your last two thrillers? Clinton: I'm excited for them to see, first of all, that there's still room for citizen activism that can make all the difference in the world, from people who just want to do the right thing, like Brea and Garrett. Secondly, I want them to see that a president and her husband are people. No matter what's going on, she's still got to go to work every day. If she thinks (Cole) machine-gunned half a dozen people, she's still got to go to work. Nobody else can make these decisions. I want them to see how staff behaves, senior staff, and when they're honorable and when they're not, and what a difference it can make, because you can't be president unless you can trust them. You have to have some people you trust. Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY's books reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you're reading at cmulroy@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bill Clinton, James Patterson new book is a murderous, twisty thriller
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill Clinton worries the ‘courts won't hold until the midterm election' in terms of checking Trump
Bill Clinton told The View on Thursday his biggest concern right now with the Trump administration is that 'the courts won't hold until we have the midterm elections' and this is something everyone 'should be worried about' regardless of their politics. Appearing on the daytime ABC talk show alongside novelist James Patterson to promote their upcoming thrillerThe First Gentleman, the 42nd president was first asked to weigh in on Donald Trump's first few months back in office. The former commander-in-chief, whose wife lost the 2016 presidential election to Trump, laid out a fairly dark vision of the current state of the country. 'I agree with you that we need to talk about the future and beyond President Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill,'' co-host Sunny Hostin noted. 'He is working to dismantle, in my view, our foundational institutions, right?' She continued: 'He's intimidating law firms and universities. He's stifling media. He's illegally disappearing people and deporting people. And he's now threatening to impeach judges. So are you confident that the courts will hold, and what concerns you most about what he's doing now?' Reacting to Hostin's question, which referenced the administration's complaints about a 'judicial coup' amid a spate of unfavorable court decisions over Trump's executive orders and policies, the former president wondered what would happen if the White House just outright defied the judicial branch. 'That the courts won't hold until we have the midterm elections,' he replied to the View host. 'Because they've made – the Supreme Court has made some good decisions which so far have been ignored.' Clinton then brought up the case surrounding Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador's notorious CECOT mega-prison despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation. The Supreme Court affirmed a ruling in April that the administration must 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's return to the United States, but he is yet to be sent back. The federal judge in the case ruled this week that Abrego Garcia's lawyers can seek sanctions against the government. 'They sent him away, then manufactured a picture that made it look like he had MS-13 on his hands, which he didn't, and the guy is still there in jail,' the former president declared. 'And so I'm worried about that. And you should be worried about that, whatever your politics.' Still, as Clinton expressed fear that the judicial branch may be eradicated within the next year, he did offer up a glimmer of hope that a Trump exit from the White House will eventually bring about strengthened checks and balances. 'I have a sinking suspicion if we – if our party wins the White House in the next election, there will be a hallelujah moment and the Supreme Court will rediscover the Constitution,' he said to applause. 'I'll be happy if that happens, because all of us should operate under guardrails,' Clinton concluded. 'The whole purpose of the Constitution was to repeal royal governments, unaccountable governments that no Democrat or Republican can be without accountability. That's what I think, so we'll see what happens. But I'm pretty upbeat about it.' With the White House increasingly attempting to undermine the courts and casting the federal judges as corrupt and impeachable, legal experts told The Independent that 'Trump could be on a path to contempt of court or his own impeachment,' but that 'nobody knows where a 'dangerous moment for democracy' is headed.' Additionally, the administration's relentless attacks on the courts for not rubber-stamping the president's agenda ignore 'the fact that Trump's unprecedented usage of executive actions could itself be responsible for his sky-high rate of failure in court,' The Independent's John Bowden notes. Clinton's fears about what the Trump administration will unleash in the coming months echo his warnings just ahead of last year's election. Campaigning for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris at the time, Clinton told CNN, 'What has surprised so many people – although I'm sure this happened in the '30s throughout Europe, when they were considering things with fascism – a lot of people just can't believe how many voters in America agree that he doesn't make sense, agree that he's advocating things that would be bad, but somehow think that if the experience was good for them back then, it was magically his doing and everything was fine.' He added, 'So, I don't know what's going to happen.'
BBC News
01-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
'When the other side declares war on you, you still have to do the job': Clinton on being president and his new thriller
Former US President Bill Clinton and best-selling author James Patterson sat down with the BBC to discuss how real life informed their new political thriller, The First Gentleman. What happens when the president's husband is put on trial for murder? That's the conundrum at the heart of former US President Bill Clinton and thriller maestro James Patterson's latest collaboration, The First Gentleman. It's a novel that only those two could conjure up, after the huge success of their earlier books, 2018's The President Is Missing (three million copies sold) and The President's Daughter (2021). Patterson is as big as they come in the thriller world (with more than 230 million books sold worldwide) but as Clinton, a long-time fan of the genre, tells the BBC: "it was just an adventure in my old age" when they first collaborated. And it's clear while speaking to them in person just how much fun they're still having together. Their gripping new novel centres on US President Madeline Wright and husband, Cole Wright, a former professional American football star. He still carries the scars of his career and is looking for a purpose in the White House, as he fights to clear his name in a trial for the murder of a cheerleader more than 20 years ago. It's a classic police procedural-meets-courtroom drama, as journalists, detectives and political operatives all work to uncover the truth behind who killed the cheerleader and to exonerate the First Gentleman – or to destroy him – and his wife's political agenda. And, of course, the role of First Gentleman is one that President Clinton might have found himself taking on in 2017 if his wife, Hillary Clinton, had won the 2016 election against US President Donald Trump. It's clear that Bill Clinton's presidency is still with him as he writes. "There were times in the White House, and not just when the Republicans were trying to impeach me, but when we were going through really controversial hard things, where I had the feeling that I was – in the minds of those covering me – more a storyline than a story. We tried to get all that in there." Rather than focussing the narrative on the First Couple, however, the book has a pair of journalists at its core. Independent investigative journalist and lawyer Brea Cooke and her partner, Garrett Wilson, are digging into the disappearance of Suzanne Bonanno, a cheerleader who the First Gentleman was seeing back when he was playing for the New England Patriots football team 17 years earlier. It looks like Wright might have killed her, as Cook and Wilson unravel what really happened and where her body might be. Inspired by an iconic pair like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Patterson sees it as natural that journalists would be at the novel's centre, "journalists, sometimes they deserve what they get, but most journalists want to go after the truth… That's what we want journalists to do." Clinton, who had his own tussles with conspiracy-minded journalists through the years, agrees that even in an era of fevered partisanship honourable journalists will succeed: "I still think being able to stand up as a standout person who will tell the truth even when it means, 'I was wrong, but here's what I think the truth is.'" And when the story makes its Hollywood debut (it has been sold and is being written by Peaky Blinders' Steven Knight), it's likely that Brea Cooke will be the central character – the journalist digging for the truth. But The First Gentleman is not just a courtroom drama. It's also likely the first thriller in history to have as a central part of the plot a grand bargain on the US debt and spending. Without spoiling the ending, let's just say President Wright lays out how to solve entitlement spending and balance the budget. This book is coming out at the same time as Donald Trump and the Republican Party are laying out their own plans. Could President Wright's proposal work? Patterson jokes: "We have a big, beautiful bill in our book." Sneaking in some substantive information is all part of how they see their books connecting, says Clinton: "I think people don't mind learning something useful while being entertained by a hell of a good story." In their first book it was cybersecurity, now it's budget negotiations. 'In the beginning, it was a mess' And on their third outing, what have the writing pair learned from each other? For Patterson, it's all about research and authenticity, and after finishing his recent memoir, he's more focused on "paying much more attention to the sentences… I think I'm better than I've ever been, between keeping it real and being really conscious of the sentences." But even for this experienced pair, the first drafts of this book were tough. Patterson admitted that: "In the beginning, it was a mess, honestly, which we've never had before. We did not have the president, and they were not good characters. The journalists were not good characters. We kind of knew what the story was, but the characters were just all wrong." And then Clinton called him one night to say, "I have a real problem. I don't give a damn about any of these people." They added depth and scenes to draw the characters out. More like this: • The world's most misunderstood novel • Author Ann Patchett on finding kindness in chaos • Forty of the most exciting books to read in 2025 But as much as they are warm collaborators, they're also united by a certain outlook on life. Patterson describes it: "One of the things we have in common, I think we look at the world as not black and white. It's always complicated. It's subtle. There's shades, and I think that's one of the reasons we can work together." And in the end, what drives this novel to its twisting denouement is a sense of duty. Will the president do the right thing by her husband and by the country? The echoes are clear to Clinton: "One thing I know something about, when the other side declares war on you in the White House, you still have to show up and do the job." In a tumultuous moment, this thriller from a former president might offer an essential piece of advice for world leaders. Lucas Wittmann is the executive director of the Unterberg Center for Poetry and Literature at the 92nd Street Y in New York. He was previously an editor at Time and The Daily Beast. The First Gentleman by Bill Clinton and James Patterson is published by Century and is out now. --
CBS News
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Bill Clinton and James Patterson on their new thriller, "The First Gentleman"
Seems that there is always a lot going on behind the walls of the White House where truth can often be stranger than fiction. But fiction can be pretty compelling, too. In the new novel "The First Gentleman" (to be published June 2 by Little, Brown & Co.), the commander in chief is a woman, and her husband is accused of murder. It's the third collaboration from best-selling author James Patterson and his co-writer, President Bill Clinton. Little, Brown & Co. Was there a scenario in the book that Patterson couldn't have written without Clinton's help? "Oh, I couldn't have done any of it without him," Patterson said. "I would have been lost. But the other thing, you know, look, I mean, he's the expert on the first gentleman. You know, he was almost a first gentleman!" "Yeah, I thought about it for years. And it's the only political job I ever wanted and I didn't get!" Clinton smiled. "'Cause I really thought Hillary should be president." Clinton would have been the very first first gentleman had his wife, Hillary, won the 2016 election. And he says back then he did a lot of thinking about what his role would be as a presidential spouse: "How could I do this job in a way that I would be on-call to help if she needed me, but I wouldn't get in the way?" "That's the way I feel about this relationship: How can I help without getting in the way?" Patterson said. "I'm kind of the first gentleman of our [relationship]!" "If you believe that, I got some land in Arizona I want to show you!" Clinton laughed. And sometimes, their made-up White House looks almost like real life. In the book, the president keeps working through an agonizing personal crisis. During his 1999 impeachment proceedings, President Clinton kept working, too, with some of the very people who were trying to kick him out of the White House. "And they were amazed by it," he said. "They'd come and do business with me, [and] as far as they knew, I couldn't remember what was going on. And we would try to hammer out deals." In the midst of impeachment? "Because that's what I got hired to do," Clinton said. "The American people don't pay you to have personal feelings. They pay you to deliver for them." Clinton and Patterson have been delivering since 2018, with their first book about a president gone missing, and in 2021 their second about the president's daughter getting kidnapped. Both were bestsellers. But for them, it's really not all about work. Asked how their relationship has evolved over their three books together, Clinton replied, "We've played a lot more golf." Patterson said, "He's been president more times, but I have more holes-in-one." "Oh God. Well, I have one; he has nine," said Clinton. "How many Americans have nine holes-in-one?" "I know. That's sick," Patterson said. "Remember I'm a fiction writer." "Makes the craziness stop for a little while" I asked, "There's so much political drama in the world today, real-life political drama. Do you think that there's an appetite for political thrillers, for fictional political thrillers?" Patterson said, "I think so, 100%. I mean, one of the nice things here is you escape, but you don't totally escape reality. It's like, 'Yeah, I love this. I can't put it down.' Or 'I keep reading,' or in some cases to me what's even better, which is you don't want it to end. "I think it's useful, and 'cause so many people are wandering around, they go, 'Oh my God, oh my God, please make it stop'? This makes it stop for a little while, makes the craziness stop for a little while for people." Clinton said, "One reason I hope there's an appetite is… I hope that people will still believe in our democratic system enough to stick with it and keep pushing to make it work." During the summer, Patterson lives at his home on the Hudson River; the president is about five miles away. Former President Bill Clinton and writer James Patterson, with correspondent Tracy Smith. CBS News Asked what they may have learned about each other during the writing process, Patterson offered, "the notion … of not worrying about stuff that we can't do anything about. And if we can do something about it, try to do it." Their new book comes out tomorrow and they hope it's another bestseller. But if you spend any time at all with Patterson and Clinton, you get the sense that their partnership is about something money can't buy. I asked, "Back when you wrote your first book together, The New York Times said that the two of you 'complete each other in the Jerry Maguire sense.'" "Well, we kinda do," Patterson said. "This has been driving me for months now, which is: my time here is short. What can I do most beautifully? And in this case, doing another book with my friend is a beautiful thing to do." READ AN EXCERPT: "The First Gentleman" by Bill Clinton and James Patterson WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with Bill Clinton and James Patterson For more info: Story produced by John D'Amelio. Editor: Jason Schmidt.
