'There is no possible way you could get me to read that book': Chaffetz fires back after Clinton took a swipe at him in her campaign memoir

pulse

September 19, 2017 8:36 PM

Jason Chaffetz, the former Republican representative from Utah, hurled an insult back at Hillary Clinton after she claimed to mistake him for Reince Priebus.

Jason Chaffetz, the former Republican representative from Utah and House Oversight Committee chairman, hurled an insult back at Hillary Clinton after the former presidential candidate claimed in her new book that she mistook Chaffetz for then-Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus when the two greeted each other at the presidential inauguration.

Chaffetz dismissed Clinton's book, "What Happened," and called her campaign a "train wreck."

"There is no possible way you could get me to read that book," Chaffetz told Yahoo News on Monday. "I read the cover and the question is asked and the question is answered in the same page: What happened? Hillary Clinton happened. You don't need to know anything else. It's just — it was a train wreck."

Clinton recalled shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with Chaffetz — who relentlessly pursued investigations into her use of a private email server as secretary of state and the circumstances surrounding a terrorist attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya — as she left Trump's inauguration ceremony in Washington.

"I saw a man off to the side who I thought was Reince Priebus, head of the Republican National Committee and incoming White House Chief of Staff," Clinton wrote in her book. "As I passed by, we shook hands and exchanged small talk. Later I realized it hadn't been Priebus at all. It was Jason Chaffetz, the then-Utah Congressman and wannabe Javert who made endless political hay out of my emails and the 2012 tragedy in Benghazi, Libya."

Chaffetz later posted a photo on Instagram of his handshake with Clinton, writing, "So pleased she is not the President. I thanked her for her service and wished her luck. The investigation continues."

The post was criticized online by those who felt the comment was petty and ungracious.

Apparently Clinton had considered responding to Chaffetz.

"What a class act!" she wrote. "I came this close to tweeting back, 'To be honest, thought you were Reince.'"

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