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# Bill Clinton Said He Had Chance To Kill Osama Bin Laden

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## Video: Bill Clinton Said He Had Chance To Kill Osama Bin Laden

[Watch (HLS stream): Bill Clinton Said He Had Chance To Kill Osama Bin Laden](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pyDeaOxN.m3u8) (1:35)

![Bill Clinton Said He Had Chance To Kill Osama Bin Laden](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pyDeaOxN/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2014-08-01. Sky News Australia has just uncovered chilling audio of former president Bill Clinton admitting he passed up an opportunity to attack Osama bin Laden. Clinton's remarks came on Sept. 10, 2001 — one day before the horrific 9/11 attacks._


---

Jul 27, 2023 5:05 PM UTC

---

## More From This Series

[All Videos](https://time.com/video/)

[Bin Laden's 'Home Movies': Speech Practice](/video/JSH4tFTq/)

### Bin Laden's 'Home Movies': Speech Practice

[Anatomy of a Raid: Osama bin Laden's Final Moments](/video/A8p4cZgq/)

### Anatomy of a Raid: Osama bin Laden's Final Moments

[President Obama on the Death of bin Laden](/video/OVfQ8fHg/)

### President Obama on the Death of bin Laden

---


## Transcript

Skynews Australia has just uncovered chilling audio of former president Bill Clinton admitting he passed up an opportunity to attack Osama Bin Laden. Clinton's remarks came on September 10th, 2001, one day before the horrific 9 / 11 attacks. I could have killed him, but I would have had to destroy a little town called Kandahar. In Afghanistan, and killed 300 innocent women and children. And then I would have been no better than him. Sky News Australia obtained that audio clip from former Australian politician Michael Kroger, who said Clinton made those remarks during a fundraiser. Hours later the September 11th terrorist attacks orchestrated by Bin Laden killed almost 3, 000 people.

Now the fact that Clinton had a shot at Bin Laden isn't news as these surveillance tapes aired in 2004 by NBC show the CIA had been able to pin down Bin Laden's location at least once in the past. But it's the eerie timing of Clinton's remarks which grabbed headlines, mostly from conservative outlets. But instead of simply condemning the former Democratic president for not taking action, the right's response is a bit more complex. We lost 13, we lost 3, 000 the very next morning, things may have been different. He was being very thoughtful about how he handled it. And that's what Presidents do, they make tough decisions.

When Fox News' Eric Bolling tried to use Clinton's remarks to stir up some outrage, Mediaite notes, " The rest of 'The Five' hosts honestly didn't really find anything too outrageous, and there were even some defensive words spoken in favor of Clinton ." Bin Laden was ultimately killed in May of 2011 during a raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

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