Frist on Meet the Press
Sen. Bill Frist was on Meet the Press today. The transcript is here and Crooks and Liars has the video) but Arianna says Russert led him to the edge of the water but stopped short of making him drink his lies. She was hoping for a full Oprah-style turnaround.
Frist told Meet the Press on an earlier occasion his HCA stock was in a blind trust and he didn't know he owned it. Today there was this exchange:
RUSSERT: You told CNBC, "It should be understood I put this into a blind trust. So far as I know I own no HCA stock. ...It's a blind trust. Totally blind. I have no control." That's not accurate.
FRIST: You know, I could have been more precise in my words.
According to Bloomberg News today,
Frist, 53, said he misspoke in 2003 when he said that because it was held in a ``blind'' trust ``as far as I know, I own no HCA stock.'' He said he should have made it clear he didn't know how ``how much stock of any particular entity'' the trust held.
He acknowledged that ``what America thinks is a blind trust, it may be something different, but I'm going to follow the rules, which I did.''
Frist ordered his trustees to sell the stock on June 13, a month before the Nashville, Tennessee, company issued a second- quarter earnings estimate that failed to meet analysts' predictions. HCA shares plunged 8.9 percent, the biggest decline in more than two years. ....
When he set up his trust in 2000, Frist reported owning between $5 million and $25 million in HCA shares.
That's a little more than imprecise wording, Mr. Frist. As the DNC said today, Frist continues to mislead.
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