At the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City on Tuesday, U2’s lead singer Bono did a killer impression of President Bill Clinton that managed to sum up a lot of the work the two men have done to fight poverty and disease in Africa.
“When I first met Bono, he, he walked into the Oval Office, and actually I thought it was a member of his own road crew,” Bono said, after sneaking into Clinton’s empty moderator chair. “Uh, he wasn’t really dressed right and actually I felt like the rockstar on that occasion.
“But together, you know, we did this Drop the Debt thing, and my God there’s 51 million children going to school in Africa because of this Drop the Debt thing.
“Then, I had Chelsea torture me about all this AIDS stuff, and we got to work on it,” Bono continued. “And the foundation did incredible work. Right now, we’ve got affordable AIDS drugs for everybody all over the world.”
“I must be really easy to make fun of,” the former president joked after he retook his seat onstage.
(UPDATE: President Clinton has attempted a Bono impression.)
The conversation became deadly serious as the rock star took on big oil.
“We know corruption is killing more kids than TB, AIDS, and malaria put together. There is a vaccine and it’s called transparency,” said Bono.
Exxon, Chevron and the American Petroleum Institute are suing to block rules based on bipartisan US legislation that mandates disclosure of payments made to foreign government for rights to oil, gas and minerals.
“I’m no cranky anti-corporation critic here,” Bono said. “I implore the people in this room, from Exxon, from Chevron… You can’t have it both ways. You can’t give alms to the poor on one level and have your hands on their throats on another.”
You can watch the whole session below.
