Sidney Stone Blumenthal (born November 6, 1948) is an American journalist, political operative, and Abraham Lincoln scholar. A former aide to President Bill Clinton, he is a long-time confidant of Hillary Clinton, and was formerly employed by the Clinton Foundation. As a journalist, Blumenthal wrote about American politics and foreign policy. He is also the author of a multivolume biography of Lincoln, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln. Three books of the planned five-volume series have already been published (A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel, and All the Powers of Earth), and subsequent volumes were planned for later.
Blumenthal has written for publications such as The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, for whom he served for a time as the magazine's Washington correspondent, and was, briefly, the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for Salon. He is a regular contributor to the openDemocracy website and is a regular columnist for The Guardian.
Early life Blumenthal was born in Chicago to Claire (née Stone) and Hyman V. Blumenthal. His father was Jewish, while his mother was Protestant Christian. He became involved in politics at age 12 as a courier for a local Democratic Party election precinct captain. Hearing John F. Kennedy reference The New York Times during a campaign rally he attended prompted him to begin reading that paper regularly. He earned a BA in Sociology from Brandeis University in 1969. While there, he joined the Students for a Democratic Society.
Journalism career After graduation, Blumenthal began his career in Boston as a journalist for the underground paper Boston Phoenix and The Real Paper. Blumenthal was part of a generation of New Left journalists who eschewed objectivity in favor of taking sides. He blamed journalistic detachment for Ronald Reagan's presidential victory. Geraldine Baum wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "In Blumenthal's writings, Democrats stood for goodness and progress, Republicans for darkness and defeat."
1984 political coverage In 1983, Blumenthal became the chief national political correspondent for The New Republic, covering the 1984 United States presidential election. Soon after, Blumenthal began working as a political reporter for The Washington Post before then returning to The New Republic. Blumenthal played a major role in Gary Hart's bid for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination. Although Hart's bid was ultimately unsuccessful, Blumenthal wrote a speech that was considered a positive "turning point" that established Hart's viability, while also writing a cover story on Hart in The New Republic-- while not disclosing to the magazine's readers he advised Hart and wrote speeches for him. Discomfort with Blumenthal's political involvement contributed to The Washington Post reassigning him to its "Style" section.
The New Yorker In 1993, Blumenthal became the chief Washington correspondent for The New Yorker before joining the Clinton Administration in the summer of 1997. Not too long into the job at The New Yorker, Blumenthal was replaced by Michael Kelly, although Blumenthal stayed on as a part-time writer. Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post wrote that "Kelly ordered Blumenthal to stay away from the magazine's downtown office", and Kelly himself explained to the newspaper: "I did not trust [Blumenthal]. I felt his relationship ... with the president and first lady was such that I was not sure I wanted him around the office as I was working on stories. He was serving two masters, and I was not comfortable with that. ... I had reason to believe that he wanted a job with the White House." According to Kelly, "He took a column that had a well-deserved reputation and turned it into a vehicle for the Clintons and for denouncing their enemies." Over time, Blumenthal was eased out of his job. Kurtz wrote that "The New Yorker assignments dwindled", and Blumenthal not long after officially went to work for the Clinton White House.
Clinton administration years
Blumenthal served as assistant and senior advisor to Bill Clinton from August 1997 until January 2001. His roles included advising the President on communications and public policy and serving as liaison between the White House and former colleagues in the Washington press corps. He later became a central figure in the grand jury investigation that ended in the impeachment of President Clinton. While working for Clinton, Blumenthal was known for his loyalty to the Clintons. He was also known for his often baseless attacks on their political adversaries, including Barack Obama when he ran against Hillary Clinton to be the 2008 Democratic nominee for president. This was the primary reason Rahm Emanuel, the first chief of staff for President Obama, barred Blumenthal from a position in the State Department during Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State.
Testimony before Congress In 1998, Christopher Hitchens submitted an affidavit which directly contradicted Blumenthal's testimony in which he stated that he never referred to Monica Lewinsky as a stalker. Lawmakers called on the Department of Justice to prosecute Blumenthal for perjury. Arlen Specter even filed a motion to investigate possible perjury by Blumenthal; however, Hitchens promised to withdraw his affidavit and nothing came of the matter.
Clinton impeachment trial During the investigation by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, Blumenthal was called to the grand jury to testify relating to what Clinton had told both Blumenthal and his senior staff in regard to Monica Lewinsky. The leadership of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives felt enough evidence existed in regard to the Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky cases for impeachment proceedings to begin in December 1998. After the House Judiciary Committee and United States House of Representatives impeached Clinton on December 19, the matter then passed to the United States Senate. Blumenthal was one of only four witnesses called to testify before the Senate. No live witnesses were called, and the four were interviewed on videotape. His testimony addressed a major allegation that Clinton had pressured Betty Currie to falsely attest that it was Lewinsky who initially pursued Clinton, not vice versa; he also said that he believed Clinton told him the truth and thus had no reason to think that he was hiding information. The Senate acquitted Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice, and the impeachment proceedings ended. In his 2003 book The Clinton Wars, Blumenthal observed that the media frenzy over the Lewinsky scandal had in large part defined Clinton's legacy, and that this was unfair because he said it overshadowed his merits, citing for example Clinton's mediation of international struggles in the Balkans and the Middle East.
Blumenthal v. Drudge In 1997, Blumenthal filed a $30 million libel lawsuit against blogger Matt Drudge and AOL, which hired Drudge, stemming from a false claim Drudge made of spousal abuse, attributed only to unnamed "top GOP sources". Drudge retracted the story not long after, saying he had been given bad information. In Blumenthal v. Drudge, the court refused to dismiss Blumenthal's case for lack of personal jurisdiction. Drudge publicly apologized to the Blumenthals, and Blumenthal dropped his lawsuit and reached a settlement involving a nominal payment to Drudge over Blumenthal having missed a deposition. In his book The Clinton Wars, Blumenthal claimed he was forced to settle because he could no longer afford the suit."Should Libel Law Be Strengthened to Protect Plaintiffs?", FindLaw.com, August 23, 2001."Is AOL Responsible for Its Hip Shooter's Bullets?" . Columbia Journalism Review, November 1997. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
Relationship with Christopher Hitchens In the mid-1980s, during Blumenthal's visit at the Lehrman Institute, he met fellow journalist Christopher Hitchens. Shortly thereafter, Blumenthal and Hitchens developed a close relationship, which included sharing dinners, attending important family events together, and trading opinions and information. Blumenthal's relationship with Hitchens deteriorated during the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Under subpoena, Hitchens submitted an affidavit to the trial managers of the Republican Party in which Hitchens swore under oath that Blumenthal had described Monica Lewinsky as a stalker. Hitchens' allegations contradicted Blumenthal's own sworn deposition during Clinton's impeachment trial that he never said any such thing. "Is it possible Christopher Hitchens and his 'former friend' are both telling the truth?" This resulted in a hostile exchange of words between the two men and allegations by congressional Republicans that Blumenthal lied under oath. But Hitchens refused to testify against Blumenthal: "Were my words to be used against Blumenthal, I told [congressional Republicans], I would repudiate them and place myself in contempt," Hitchens later wrote. Following the publication of The Clinton Wars, in which Blumenthal recounted the disagreement, Hitchens wrote several articles in which he once more accused Blumenthal of lying.Hitchens, Christopher, "Thinking Like an Apparatchik". The Atlantic, July/August 2003. "In his new book Sidney Blumenthal presents a disconcertingly cynical yet naive account of the Clinton years". Retrieved May 21, 2015. At the end of his life when Hitchens was dying of cancer, Blumenthal wrote to Hitchens in a letter that, according to Christopher Buckley, contained words of "tenderness and comfort and implicit forgiveness".
Post-Clinton administration years Published works and memoirs After the Clinton presidency, Blumenthal's book, The Clinton Wars, was published in 2003. In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote: "Beyond his intention to set the record straight on controversies that plagued the Clinton presidency, Mr. Blumenthal has a more personal agenda. Barely mentioning others close to the Clintons, and illustrating this memoir with smiling, convivial photographs of himself in their company ... Blumenthal sends a clear message to his administration colleagues: Mom liked me best."Maslin, Janet, "Clinton's Good Soldier Explains All Those Messes". The New York Times, May 15, 2003. Retrieved 2026-06-06. Maslin further wrote: "The Clinton Wars means to solidify Mr. Blumenthal's place in history. He wrote memos and speeches (included here for the reader to enjoy). He gave valued advice. He came up with the slogan One America, which, he helpfully points out, is 'an updating of E pluribus unum. He introduced President Clinton to a promising British politician named Tony Blair. And he was often in the presence of greatness. 'I once sat with the president and Tony Blair as, in about 15 minutes, the two men easily thrashed out a prickly trade problem involving bananas and cashmere,' he reveals."