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Bill Clinton did his wife’s presidential campaign few favours yesterday by putting the issue of her discredited claim about “landing under sniper fire” back in the headlines.

The former President gave an unprompted and error-filled defence of Hillary Clinton’s false claim that she had landed under fire in Bosnia during a 1996 visit, just as the damaging issue was dying down.

Mrs Clinton was forced to admit a fortnight ago that she “misspoke” when she described a hair-raising account of landing under attack in Tuzla, Bosnia, during a visit as First Lady. She said that on arrival she had to run for cover, head down. In fact a video of the landing showed a peaceful arrival ceremony in which Mrs Clinton, accompanied by her daughter, Chelsea, shook hands with troops and took time to talk to a little girl.

The controversy was particularly damaging for Mrs Clinton because it spoke to one of her greatest vulnerabilities: wider doubts about her trustworthiness.

Just as the controversy appeared to have receded, Mr Clinton – who has never mentioned it before – thrust it back into the spotlight.

“You know, I got tickled the other day,” he said during a rally in Indiana. “A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me. But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated, and immediately apologised for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995. Did y’all see all that? Oh, they blew it up.”

Mr Clinton went on to say that his wife had been told to sit in the bullet-proof part of the aircraft during landing. He added: “What really has mattered is that even then she was interested in our troops. And I think she was the first First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone. And you woulda thought, you know, that she’d robbed a bank the way they carried on about this.”

In fact, Mrs Clinton made the claim in the morning, on St Patrick’s Day, not late at night. She had also told the same false story on several occasions before, including on December 29 and February 29. She never apologised, and took a week to correct herself. The landing also took place in 1996, not 1995, as Mr Clinton said. In addition, Pat Nixon made a far more dangerous visit to Vietnam as First Lady.

Mrs Clinton’s campaign spokesman, Phil Singer, was forced to respond to the former President’s comments. “Senator Clinton appreciates her husband standing up for her, but this was her mistake and she takes responsibility for it,” he said.

Mr Clinton admitted later that his wife had ordered him to stop discussing the issue on the stump. “Hillary called me and said, ‘You don’t remember this. You weren’t there. Let me handle it.’ I said, ‘Yes ma’am.’ ” Meanwhile, one of the biggest potential problems for Barack Obama, the incendiary and antiAmerican remarks made by his former pastor, also reentered the Democratic battle, courtesy of Dick Cheney.

During an interview the Vice-President said: “I thought the controversy over Reverend Wright was remarkable. I thought some of the things he said were absolutely appalling. I think, like most Americans, I was stunned at what the Reverend was preaching in his church and then putting up on his website.”

Mr Obama predicted yesterday that the Rev Wright’s statements – including “God Damn America” and a claim that US foreign policy provoked the 9/11 attacks – would be used against him if he made it to a general election contest with John McCain.

A national poll released ten days before the next Democratic contest in Pennsylvania showed how the prolonged battle was boosting Mr McCain, who has erased Mr Obama’s ten-point advantage. The Associated Press-Ipsos poll had Mrs Clinton beating Mr McCain 48 per cent to 45 per cent, with the Republican tied with Mr Obama.

Of more potential concern was the finding that a third of Mrs Clinton’s supporters said that they would vote for Mr McCain if Mr Obama were nominated; a quarter of Mr Obama’s supporters would switch to the Republicans if Mrs Clinton were the nominee.

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