Mrs. Clinton, on TV, Talks of Policy, and Life in White House

Mixing policy talk with personal reflections, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton told a live TV audience Thursday night that she chafes at the confines of White House life but loves to see what’s getting done.

Mrs. Clinton, in an hourlong interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” said she found it “profoundly sad” that rumors circulated about her relationship with Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster after his suicide last summer.

“It’s so sad that when something tragic happens that people . . . try to create conspiracies and act paranoid and all that,” she said. “But some of it is not explainable except for people who just want to cause trouble.”

Mrs. Clinton seemed at ease as she shifted back and forth between talk about health care and gun control and lighter topics, such as her ever-changing hair styles.

Her answer was more terse when asked about a threatened lawsuit by an Arkansas woman who contends that President Clinton made sexual advances toward her when he was governor.

“I have nothing to add to what’s already been said by the White House,” she said without elaborating. The White House has said the woman’s allegations are untrue.

When asked to assess the intense criticism that she attracts from some circles, Mrs. Clinton speculated one cause is “fear and insecurity” at the changes the President is pushing, and part of it is resistance to her path-breaking role as a new kind of First Lady.

“I’m kind of a transition person in the history of our country,” she said, noting her role as a working woman and mother.