Bill Clinton revives an old conspiracy tale as he prepares to hit the trail

Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton have long believed in a unified-field theory about their opponents — one that she memorably dubbed a “vast right-wing conspiracy.” And they have their own theory of the moment it all began.

The former president, who is about to take a more visible role in his wife’s presidential campaign, told the tale again in a broadcast over the weekend in which he described getting a menacing phone call from inside the George H.W. Bush White House.

It was 1991, as the then-Arkansas governor was mulling whether to challenge a popular incumbent president, he said.

The caller said, “We’ve looked at the field. You’re the only one who can win,” Clinton recalled in an interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN. “The press has to have someone every election. We’re going to give them you. You better not run.”

More