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‘Shut up and listen’: Bill Clinton tells off Marine during rally

Bill Clinton told a heckler who identified himself as a Marine to “shut up and listen” during a small-town South Carolina rally for his wife’s presidential bid, video footage shows.

Clinton was 40 minutes into a one-hour stump speech in Bluffton before a crowd of about 500 when a man claiming to be a retired Marine sergeant began speaking about the Veterans Administration.

Clinton responded politely until the man moved on to the topic of the 2012 terrorist attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, where U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died. “We had four lives in Benghazi that were killed, and your wife tried to cover it up,” he shouted as the crowd booed.

“Can I answer? Are you going to let me answer?” Clinton asked repeatedly as the man continued his diatribe.

The former president, exasperated, then barked, “Shut up and listen to my answer, and I’ll answer it.

“I’m not your commander-in-chief anymore, but if I were, I would tell you be more polite,” Clinton said as the man grew increasingly agitated.

AP
As the heckler was hustled out of the room by county deputies, Clinton said, “His mind has been poisoned by lies and he won’t listen.”

Once the man was gone, though, a woman who apparently had accompanied the heckler and been videotaping him began her own outburst, shouting, “Hillary lied over four coffins, she lied to those families, so all those families are liars?”

“Will you listen to me?” Clinton demanded as the crowd grew irate and the deputies escorted the woman from the room.

The former president spoke up for his wife, who as secretary of state was responsible for the Benghazi compound’s security, after the crowd quieted down.

“You can imagine how she feels when people make these charges,” he said. “She lost a lot of sleep over this, believe me.”

And he bemoaned the loss of civility in politics. “Americans have one remaining bigotry,” he said. “We don’t want to be around anyone who disagrees with us.”