The President Was Hunted Politically

The President Was Hunted Politically

The Hunting of the President presented an argument by Harry Thomason and Nickolas Perry that from 1990 to 2000 a group of people were committed to destroying the reputation of William (Bill) Jefferson Clinton. Through elaborate testimonials, the claim is that this group of well-funded individuals as well as media attempted to gain from Clinton's alleged misfortunes.

The film begins with a narration that took place approximately ten days before the 1992 presidential election, Andrew Cooper, a reporter from New Zealand, is approached by a man named Everett Hamm. According to Cooper, who explains his story to the camera, Hamm explained that he was a part of a group called the Alliance for the Rebirth for an Independent America (ARIA). The right-wing, well-funded organization, Cooper claimed, was dedicated to discrediting the Clinton family by any means possible. The filmmakers show a tall, bald-headed, burly man with a lot of shadow over his face to portray Hamm has a monstrous individual. Hamm and his well-known co-partner, lawyer Cliff Jackson, planned to do everything they could to hurt Clinton's reputation.

The filmmakers state that in 1988, the state of Arkansas hired an ex-jingle producer as a marketing representative by the name of Larry Nichols. The film makes it known that after it was discovered that Nichols was using his state office and resources to help fund the contras in Nicaragua, Governor Clinton fired Nichols. Four years later, in 1992, Star Magazine paid Nichols $50,000 for his story that Clinton had sex with a group of women while Governor in the state of Arkansas. The camera immediately shows the front cover of Star Magazine and Nichol's story about Clinton. All the women denied the affair happened, except one woman by the name of Gennifer Flowers. Flowers publicly claimed that she and Clinton had a 12-year relationship. The film presents Flowers standing at a podium where she told the press about her alleged affair with Clinton. However, the woman who happened to be a former recording artist at Nichol's old recording studio eventually changed her story.

The filmmakers also state that in August 1993, two Arkansas troopers alleged that Clinton asked them to cover up numerous extramarital liaisons while he was Governor. They were represented by a former Oxford classmate of Clinton, Cliff Jackson. It is believed that the troopers had two motives for their allegations. Jackson told the troopers that he would "cut them in" on everything from magazine features to movie deals. These people wanted to profit tremendously from these claims, according to the film. Also, the film claims that the only reason why these allegations were put into print in the first place was because the troopers felt like they were left behind after Clinton became president in 1992. The camera shifts to the trooper's faces with uneasy looks on their faces as if they are not telling the truth. They felt that Clinton did not take care of them after he left for Washington, not giving jobs to them.

Later that year, another Arkansas trooper contended that Clinton asked him to bring a woman, Paula Jones, up to a hotel room where Clinton "exposed himself and propositioned her." The camera scene shows an empty hotel hallway insinuating the private encounter. The trooper did not see or hear anything, but assumed something consensual occurred because after Jones left Clinton's room, she said she wanted to be his "regular girlfriend." Clinton's staff thought of Jones as a mere groupie who wanted attention from the Governor, as his Chief of Staff claims in an interview. Jones' filed a sexual harassment suit in 1994. Jones' legal advisor, Susan Carpenter McMillan, turned down a negotiated $700,000 settlement once agreed upon by both parties demanding for an apology. According to the filmmakers, Jones had other private legal advisors who called themselves the Elves. The movie displays a movie clip from an old movie where a couple Santa Claus elves are making toys. Then, the scene goes white and puts the definition of elves in the middle of the screen capitalizing on the negative parts of the definition such as the words "magical powers" and "trickery." Clinton appealed to the Supreme Court that he being a defendant in a sexual harassment suit had nothing to do with his presidency. However, unanimously, they voted the appeal down 9 to 0. Their argument was that it would not take that much time and to go through it, which did turn out to be a lengthy process. To make the Supreme Court look incompetent, the film shows the judges smiling while taking a picture, as if they could never be proven wrong. With her lawyers unable to prove that Jones suffered any emotional, professional, or financial damage. Jones finally settles out of court in 1998 for $850,000 with Clinton admitting nothing.

The film declares that around mid-1990, a couple writers and journalists learned of a secret project known as the Arkansas Project which was funded by Richard Mellon Scaife. This project was a full smear campaign to dig up dirt on both Bill and Hillary Clinton as so the filmmakers want to make known to its audience. Parker Dozheir, who was paranoid that since