Hillary Clinton gave Bill a black eye in White House: new book

Washington: Hillary Clinton has a “volcanic” temper and a loud fight she had with Bill Clinton in 1995 left the then US President with a black eye, an ex-Secret Service officer has claimed in a ’tell-all’ book. The forthcoming book — Crisis of Character by former Secret Service officer Gary J Byrne who was assigned to the White House during Bill Clinton’s presidency — alleges that 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary “lacks the integrity and temperament to serve in the office.” The book is due to be released 28 June — a month before Hillary is likely to take the stage to accept the Democratic presidential nomination in Philadelphia. [caption id=“attachment_2784442” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton. AP[/caption] The 285-page book describes Hillary Clinton’s “appalling leadership style” as being “volcanic, impulsive, enabled by sycophants and disdainful of the rules set for everyone else”, Fox News reported citing excerpts from the book. While most of the book’s contents have remained under wraps so far, a preview on Amazon features large sections from the introduction, first two chapters and afterward. It also shows the title page, featuring a Chapter 11 titled Wild Bill. In the introduction, Byrne says he “personally observed” President Clinton’s infidelities and was complicit in covering them up. “I even secretly disposed of sordid physical evidence that might later have been used to convict the president,” Byrne writes. Byrne recalls an alleged fight between the first couple during the summer of 1995 in Chapter 1, The Vase. Byrne is quoted as saying that a vase was smashed during the loud argument and the next morning President Clinton sported “a shiner, a real, put-a-steak-on-it black eye”. Clinton’s personal scheduler Nancy Hernreich allegedly told Byrne the eye condition was a result of Clinton’s allergy to coffee. The book, however, is not solely about the Clintons. “While books about the Clintons written by supposed insiders are plentiful, Byrne’s credibility is bolstered by reporting at the time of the Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton sex scandal,” the media report said. A New York Times article from April 1998 reported that Byrne, “a uniformed member of the Secret Service assigned to the White House”, told the deputy chief of staff in 1996 about concerns he had regarding Lewinsky’s visits to the West Wing of the White House. Byrne says in the introduction to Crisis that what he saw in the 1990s “sickened me”. “We were supposed to lay our lives — not our consciences — on the line,” he writes.