Clinton vs Trump, Trump vs Clinton
- Thread starter Eventhorizon
- Start date
A lot of people thought 'it would burn' in previous elections too, but it hasn't. Remember all those nutty conservatives thinking Obama was the end of the world?
Crappy as the two party system is it provides some sort of balance where nothing too radical of a change seems to occur.
I really don't like either of our two candidates, but lets face it, just like previous elections
1. The future POTUS will have overpromised on the campaign trail, and invariably underdeliver.
2. Future POTUS will have, by the end of his or her term, done [perhaps significantly] less than he or she set out to do. This is largely do to checks and balances as well as a rather ineffective congress (partly by design.)
3. Take advisement from members of his or her cabinet (it won't be POTUS just going HAM, POTUS is not really 'leader of the free world.")
And specifically with Trump, even though he is a harsh speaker who, I agree, appears racist, i don't think he will set off any significant international conflicts (by his own words/actions. I could well be wrong though.) Foreign leaders have put up with many other former presidents they did not care for.
Admittedly a somewhat conservative leaning stance, but i enjoyed reading these:
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/145309172876/the-risks-of-a-trump-presidency
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/143944074406/a-few-observations-on-clinton-trump-persuasion
Admittedly though, Adams seems a lot more pro-Trump than I am. Although he says he's 'disavowed all candidates' and claims that Hillary generally 'has better mastery of the issues.'
In regards to Clinton. Yes, she has made some questionable decisions, and yes, a lot of people see her as slimy and dishonest.
She does have two main things going for her, i think though:
1. She is in fact a career politician. She knows how to play the game. I would think because of this she could get a lot more done, than someone like Trump or Sanders, who seem less prone to negotiate, and might rub many members of Congress the wrong way/against them
2. Her husband's been there before. Regardless of opinions of Bill Clinton's presidency, the fact that she is married to someone who has 'been there, done that" seems in no way disadvantageous.
All this to say, I dont think it will be the end of The States.
Yes, i agree, none of our candidates are that great, but let's be reasonable here, stuff is likely not going to 'burn down.'
Crappy as the two party system is it provides some sort of balance where nothing too radical of a change seems to occur.
I really don't like either of our two candidates, but lets face it, just like previous elections
1. The future POTUS will have overpromised on the campaign trail, and invariably underdeliver.
2. Future POTUS will have, by the end of his or her term, done [perhaps significantly] less than he or she set out to do. This is largely do to checks and balances as well as a rather ineffective congress (partly by design.)
3. Take advisement from members of his or her cabinet (it won't be POTUS just going HAM, POTUS is not really 'leader of the free world.")
And specifically with Trump, even though he is a harsh speaker who, I agree, appears racist, i don't think he will set off any significant international conflicts (by his own words/actions. I could well be wrong though.) Foreign leaders have put up with many other former presidents they did not care for.
Admittedly a somewhat conservative leaning stance, but i enjoyed reading these:
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/145309172876/the-risks-of-a-trump-presidency
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/143944074406/a-few-observations-on-clinton-trump-persuasion
Admittedly though, Adams seems a lot more pro-Trump than I am. Although he says he's 'disavowed all candidates' and claims that Hillary generally 'has better mastery of the issues.'
In regards to Clinton. Yes, she has made some questionable decisions, and yes, a lot of people see her as slimy and dishonest.
She does have two main things going for her, i think though:
1. She is in fact a career politician. She knows how to play the game. I would think because of this she could get a lot more done, than someone like Trump or Sanders, who seem less prone to negotiate, and might rub many members of Congress the wrong way/against them
2. Her husband's been there before. Regardless of opinions of Bill Clinton's presidency, the fact that she is married to someone who has 'been there, done that" seems in no way disadvantageous.
All this to say, I dont think it will be the end of The States.
Yes, i agree, none of our candidates are that great, but let's be reasonable here, stuff is likely not going to 'burn down.'
disregard for national security, as well as Bengahzi, sure i can see. Although it could have been another person in the Benghazi situation with the same result. A lot of it was bad luck. Some negligence? Probably. Gross negligence? Debatable.
But how can you claim Clinton is responsible for or related to:
Fast & Furious
IRS Targeting
ISIS
Granted i'm not well versed in all these issues, but there seems to be quite a bit of fallacious thinking here due to the distaste of the Democratic Party.
But how can you claim Clinton is responsible for or related to:
Fast & Furious
IRS Targeting
ISIS
Granted i'm not well versed in all these issues, but there seems to be quite a bit of fallacious thinking here due to the distaste of the Democratic Party.
This was in relation to a response to stu concerning the democratic party as a whole. Not Clinton alone.
Yeah @rawr , calling anyone who identifies with the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and the bevy of pols that ushered in the social safety net, the civil rights act, the peace corp, head start and the affordable care act, co-conspirators to criminality is directed solely at me. It is my cross to bare. If you (or anyone) took offense to that remark it is obvious that your are thin skinned to treasonous proportions.
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Remember the good old days when we could be good Democrats and lock up the Japanese in camps? Or we could be good Republicans and massacre Indians? What's happened to us?
What is so different about Trump and Clinton vs Roosevelt and Roosevelt?
What is so different about Trump and Clinton vs Roosevelt and Roosevelt?
George was locked up in one of those camps, let's ask him.Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!
George Takei ✔ @GeorgeTakei
Once again, Donald, you have shown why you cannot lead us. 50 people are dead, and you bask in congratulations.
Trump can't be that stupid. Either can W. I think they are both good actors and people blame their stupidity on their incompetence. It is very hard for me to accept that someone as savy as Donald is continuing to say bigoted things now that he has the nomination clinched. You may be right, but consider my point of view. President Hillary seems like an inevitability at this point.
It's not really stupidity its vindictiveness. Trump had all but won the Republican nomination beating Ted Cruz. At that time, Trump makes this wild accusation that Cruz's father has some weird association with the JFK assassination. He didn't need to say this, but he did because its in his character to do things like this. He wanted to bury Cruz by attacking his family. He just says whatever comes into his head at the time, and is totally non-self reflective. He never apologizes for any statement and will never retract what he has said. This is the type of person he is and why he is temperamentally unsuited for the presidency.
4 people dead as a direct result of Hillarys inaction and she says, "What difference does it make...
Neither should be President.
Neither should be President.
Funny how no one is satisfied with either candidate?
Almost as if the popular will of the people is not being heard or effecting change.
This is how big money corrupts and destroys democracy...they do it through lobbyists who the average person can’t afford to hire.
Our Congress has consistently sided with the will of big money on both sides of the isle and not what the the people want...I’ll find you the study if you don’t believe me, though I can’t imagine anyone would find it a stretch of the imagination that our Congresspeople for the most part are big money whores with the top 10% of America as their Dukes and Barons while the rest of us serfs captured 8% of the wealth created by the US.
I’m sharpening my pitchfork.
Almost as if the popular will of the people is not being heard or effecting change.
This is how big money corrupts and destroys democracy...they do it through lobbyists who the average person can’t afford to hire.
Our Congress has consistently sided with the will of big money on both sides of the isle and not what the the people want...I’ll find you the study if you don’t believe me, though I can’t imagine anyone would find it a stretch of the imagination that our Congresspeople for the most part are big money whores with the top 10% of America as their Dukes and Barons while the rest of us serfs captured 8% of the wealth created by the US.
I’m sharpening my pitchfork.
http://www.politifact.com/subjects/
Stu.... there are videos online..easily found of Clinton doing nothing but lying. This isnt a debate about either lying. Im sure Trump is a liar to some extent. Everyone is, even me. I tried not lying for a week. Its draining. Every time someone asked me how I was doing and I wanted to chop out "fine". Thats a lie. So really it comea down to what you lie about and how it effects people. And thats why Hillary can never be allowed to be President.
[video=youtube;-dY77j6uBHI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dY77j6uBHI[/video]
[h=1]Fact-checking ‘Hillary Clinton lying for 13 minutes straight’[/h] By Linda Qiu on Friday, May 20th, 2016 at 4:29 p.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton looks on during her primary night gathering at the Philadelphia Convention Center on April 26, 2016. (AP Photo) A YouTube video mash-up of Hillary Clinton comments claims to show "Hillary Clinton lying for 13 minutes straight." It’s been viewed more than 7 million times as of May 2016. (You can watch the video at the bottom of the story.)
But does the video get things right?
See related rulings
It begins with a back-and-forth between Clinton and CNN’s Anderson Cooper during the Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas in October 2015.
"You were against same-sex marriage. Now you're for it. You defended President Obama's immigration policies. Now you say they're too harsh. You supported his trade deal dozen of times. You even called it the ‘gold standard.’ Now, suddenly, last week, you're against it," Cooper asked. "Will you say anything to get elected?"
"Well, actually, I have been very consistent. Over the course of my entire life, I have always fought for the same values and principles," she responded. The video cuts off the rest of the sentence, "But, like most human beings — including those of us who run for office — I do absorb new information. I do look at what's happening in the world."
PolitiFact has documented Clinton’s shifting stances on a number of issues since 2008, including most mentioned in the video -- and a few not mentioned. Our Flip-O-Meter ratings are not value judgments on changed positions, which some say demonstrate flexibility and ability to compromise and others say are born from a lack of conviction or political expediency. The video, for instance, describes them as a lie.
That being said, we wanted to provide some additional context to the video of Clinton’s statements.
On same-sex marriage
The first Clinton contradiction highlighted by the video is on same-sex marriage. PolitiFact gave Clinton a Full Flop for her stance on the issue, but there’s some nuance the video leaves out.
From 1999 to at least 2007, she continuously opposed same-sex marriage while consistently supporting civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. She also spoke on the Senate floor against a proposed federal ban on gay marriage in 2004 and said she supports states making the decision for themselves in 2006.
Clinton reversed course and announced her support for gay marriage in 2013, as the viral video accurately notes. However, the video samples a 2014 interview Clinton did with NPR’s Terry Gross in which she seems to deny her changed position.
"You’re trying to say that I used to be opposed and now I’m in favor and I did it for political reasons. And that’s just flat wrong," Clinton is heard saying in the video, "I have a strong record. I have a great commitment to this issue."
But that’s not all the whole story. Before the excerpted part in the video, Gross asked, "Would you say your view evolved since the '90s or that the American public evolved, allowing you to state your real view?"
"I think I'm an American," Clinton responded. "And I think we have all evolved, and it's been one of the fastest, most sweeping transformations."
On ‘core principles’
The video then segues to Clinton shifting between calling herself a progressive and a moderate. While it’s accurate and fair to charge Clinton with wearing multiple political labels, the video’s most damning evidence requires some additional context.
The video features CNN’s Cooper asking Clinton, "Just in July in New Hampshire, you told a crowd you, ‘take a backseat to none when it comes to progressive values.’ Last month in Ohio, you said you, ‘plead guilty to being kind of moderate and center.’ Do you change your political identity based on who you’re talking to? Just for the record, are you a progressive or a moderate?"
"I’m a progressive," Clinton says in the video before it cuts out to the next topic.
Here’s her next sentence: "But I'm a progressive who likes to get things done. And I know how to find common ground, and I know how to stand my ground, and I have proved that in every position that I've had, even dealing with Republicans who never had a good word to say about me, honestly."
On her emails
There are still many unknowns in the email controversy, and the FBI is currently conducting an investigation. Though Clinton may be able to make the case that she "complied" with the rules, experts on government transparency and records preservations have told us her actions are hard to defend. On the other hand, it’s not clear at all whether she breached national security laws.
The YouTube video includes a clip of Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina arguing with Clinton over how many emails she’s turned over to the State Department.
Clinton says she has turned over about half. Out of over 60,000 emails on her private server, Clinton and her staff deleted 31,000 emails she says were personal and released the remaining 30,940.
But the video suggests the deleted emails may not have been personal by sampling a clip of former President Bill Clinton saying he’s only ever sent two emails. But that’s taken out of context and it was a joke, one that he’s made repeatedly.
The Bill Clinton quote comes from a panel Clinton moderated for the Clinton Global Foundation in June 2015. Clinton was referring to his email practices when he was president (starting around 46:50), more than a decade before Hillary Clinton set up her email server.
On Wall Street
Next, the video features Clinton’s ties to Wall Street. This section is a mixed bag of information in terms of accuracy.
A clip of Clinton from the 2015 Las Vegas debate saying she told Wall Street to "cut it out" in 2007 is followed by chopped up comments Clinton actually made in 2007, in which she seems to hold homebuyers, not Wall Street, responsible for the housing crisis. This gives a misleading impression.
The 2007 comments are taken from Clinton’s speech at the Nasdaq stock exchange that December. Some argue that the speech was more sympathetic to the financial sector than Clinton has suggested, and she does say homeowners and borrowers should shoulder some of the blame for the housing crisis.
But the video leaves out the part when she also names irresponsible mortgage lenders and brokers, the government and regulators, credit rating agencies, speculators and Wall Street "which not only enabled but often encouraged reckless mortgage lending."
As PolitiFact has previously reported, Clinton called for more oversight and transparency in the financial sector in several speeches and dating back to March 2007. From then to 2008, she repeatedly suggested and introduced a bill to establish national standards and regulations for loan brokers and lenders.
The video also points out Wall Street has been contributing to Clinton’s campaign. This is accurate. PolitiFact looked into a viral image highlighting Clinton’s top 10 donors and found that five were financial firms, two were law firms that do a lot of corporate work, and two were media conglomerates.
On universal healthcare
Continuing the theme, the video then exhibits Clinton’s (somewhat hypocritical) waffling on universal health care between her 2008 campaign to her 2016 bid. This is accurate.
When she was running in 2008, Clinton aired an attack ad that said she "has the only health care plan that covers every American." We found that she was the only candidate that year, including then-Sen. Barack Obama, with a health care mandate for everyone — in other words, universal coverage.
"Since when do Democrats attack one another over universal health care?" she said, as excerpted in the viral video.
In 2016, Clinton and her surrogates repeatedly have criticized rival Bernie Sanders for his universal health care proposal. As we’ve previously reported, Clinton said single-payer "will never, ever come to pass" and now wants to build upon and defend Obama’s Affordable Care Act. And her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, received a Mostly False rating for saying Sanders would empower Republicans "to take away health insurance for low-income and middle-income working Americans."
On Bosnia visit
Up next, the video highlights Clinton’s Pants on Fire claim that she landed "under sniper fire" when she visited Bosnia a decade earlier.
As the video aptly demonstrates, she arrived on the tarmac under no visible duress and was greeted by a child who offered her a copy of a poem.
Flying into Bosnia was dangerous in 1996 and Clinton later said she misspoke, but "it's hard to understand how she could err on something so significant as whether she did or didn't dodge sniper bullets," we wrote in 2008.
On NAFTA
Finally, the video concludes with Clinton’s flip-flop on the North American Free Trade Agreement — another accurate charge.
This is a point that Obama made in 2008, when he said that Clinton "was saying great things about NAFTA until she started running for president."
Despite the Clinton campaign’s protests, Obama’s claim is True. Clinton publicly supported NAFTA in 1996, in her 2003 memoir Living History, and in 2004. But as a 2008 presidential candidate, Clinton said NAFTA was a mistake.
Clinton’s free trade zigzagging is not limited to just NAFTA. During her first bid for the White House, she opposed the bilateral free trade deals with South Korea and Columbia. As secretary of state, however, she supported both.
Similarly, Clinton called the Trans-Pacific Partnership the "gold standard in trade agreements" in 2012, but opposed it in the 2016 race. We rated her position on TPP a Full Flop.
[h=1]Fact-checking ‘Hillary Clinton lying for 13 minutes straight’[/h] By Linda Qiu on Friday, May 20th, 2016 at 4:29 p.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton looks on during her primary night gathering at the Philadelphia Convention Center on April 26, 2016. (AP Photo) A YouTube video mash-up of Hillary Clinton comments claims to show "Hillary Clinton lying for 13 minutes straight." It’s been viewed more than 7 million times as of May 2016. (You can watch the video at the bottom of the story.)
But does the video get things right?
See related rulings
It begins with a back-and-forth between Clinton and CNN’s Anderson Cooper during the Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas in October 2015.
"You were against same-sex marriage. Now you're for it. You defended President Obama's immigration policies. Now you say they're too harsh. You supported his trade deal dozen of times. You even called it the ‘gold standard.’ Now, suddenly, last week, you're against it," Cooper asked. "Will you say anything to get elected?"
"Well, actually, I have been very consistent. Over the course of my entire life, I have always fought for the same values and principles," she responded. The video cuts off the rest of the sentence, "But, like most human beings — including those of us who run for office — I do absorb new information. I do look at what's happening in the world."
PolitiFact has documented Clinton’s shifting stances on a number of issues since 2008, including most mentioned in the video -- and a few not mentioned. Our Flip-O-Meter ratings are not value judgments on changed positions, which some say demonstrate flexibility and ability to compromise and others say are born from a lack of conviction or political expediency. The video, for instance, describes them as a lie.
That being said, we wanted to provide some additional context to the video of Clinton’s statements.
On same-sex marriage
The first Clinton contradiction highlighted by the video is on same-sex marriage. PolitiFact gave Clinton a Full Flop for her stance on the issue, but there’s some nuance the video leaves out.
From 1999 to at least 2007, she continuously opposed same-sex marriage while consistently supporting civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. She also spoke on the Senate floor against a proposed federal ban on gay marriage in 2004 and said she supports states making the decision for themselves in 2006.
Clinton reversed course and announced her support for gay marriage in 2013, as the viral video accurately notes. However, the video samples a 2014 interview Clinton did with NPR’s Terry Gross in which she seems to deny her changed position.
"You’re trying to say that I used to be opposed and now I’m in favor and I did it for political reasons. And that’s just flat wrong," Clinton is heard saying in the video, "I have a strong record. I have a great commitment to this issue."
But that’s not all the whole story. Before the excerpted part in the video, Gross asked, "Would you say your view evolved since the '90s or that the American public evolved, allowing you to state your real view?"
"I think I'm an American," Clinton responded. "And I think we have all evolved, and it's been one of the fastest, most sweeping transformations."
On ‘core principles’
The video then segues to Clinton shifting between calling herself a progressive and a moderate. While it’s accurate and fair to charge Clinton with wearing multiple political labels, the video’s most damning evidence requires some additional context.
The video features CNN’s Cooper asking Clinton, "Just in July in New Hampshire, you told a crowd you, ‘take a backseat to none when it comes to progressive values.’ Last month in Ohio, you said you, ‘plead guilty to being kind of moderate and center.’ Do you change your political identity based on who you’re talking to? Just for the record, are you a progressive or a moderate?"
"I’m a progressive," Clinton says in the video before it cuts out to the next topic.
Here’s her next sentence: "But I'm a progressive who likes to get things done. And I know how to find common ground, and I know how to stand my ground, and I have proved that in every position that I've had, even dealing with Republicans who never had a good word to say about me, honestly."
On her emails
There are still many unknowns in the email controversy, and the FBI is currently conducting an investigation. Though Clinton may be able to make the case that she "complied" with the rules, experts on government transparency and records preservations have told us her actions are hard to defend. On the other hand, it’s not clear at all whether she breached national security laws.
The YouTube video includes a clip of Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina arguing with Clinton over how many emails she’s turned over to the State Department.
Clinton says she has turned over about half. Out of over 60,000 emails on her private server, Clinton and her staff deleted 31,000 emails she says were personal and released the remaining 30,940.
But the video suggests the deleted emails may not have been personal by sampling a clip of former President Bill Clinton saying he’s only ever sent two emails. But that’s taken out of context and it was a joke, one that he’s made repeatedly.
The Bill Clinton quote comes from a panel Clinton moderated for the Clinton Global Foundation in June 2015. Clinton was referring to his email practices when he was president (starting around 46:50), more than a decade before Hillary Clinton set up her email server.
On Wall Street
Next, the video features Clinton’s ties to Wall Street. This section is a mixed bag of information in terms of accuracy.
A clip of Clinton from the 2015 Las Vegas debate saying she told Wall Street to "cut it out" in 2007 is followed by chopped up comments Clinton actually made in 2007, in which she seems to hold homebuyers, not Wall Street, responsible for the housing crisis. This gives a misleading impression.
The 2007 comments are taken from Clinton’s speech at the Nasdaq stock exchange that December. Some argue that the speech was more sympathetic to the financial sector than Clinton has suggested, and she does say homeowners and borrowers should shoulder some of the blame for the housing crisis.
But the video leaves out the part when she also names irresponsible mortgage lenders and brokers, the government and regulators, credit rating agencies, speculators and Wall Street "which not only enabled but often encouraged reckless mortgage lending."
As PolitiFact has previously reported, Clinton called for more oversight and transparency in the financial sector in several speeches and dating back to March 2007. From then to 2008, she repeatedly suggested and introduced a bill to establish national standards and regulations for loan brokers and lenders.
The video also points out Wall Street has been contributing to Clinton’s campaign. This is accurate. PolitiFact looked into a viral image highlighting Clinton’s top 10 donors and found that five were financial firms, two were law firms that do a lot of corporate work, and two were media conglomerates.
On universal healthcare
Continuing the theme, the video then exhibits Clinton’s (somewhat hypocritical) waffling on universal health care between her 2008 campaign to her 2016 bid. This is accurate.
When she was running in 2008, Clinton aired an attack ad that said she "has the only health care plan that covers every American." We found that she was the only candidate that year, including then-Sen. Barack Obama, with a health care mandate for everyone — in other words, universal coverage.
"Since when do Democrats attack one another over universal health care?" she said, as excerpted in the viral video.
In 2016, Clinton and her surrogates repeatedly have criticized rival Bernie Sanders for his universal health care proposal. As we’ve previously reported, Clinton said single-payer "will never, ever come to pass" and now wants to build upon and defend Obama’s Affordable Care Act. And her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, received a Mostly False rating for saying Sanders would empower Republicans "to take away health insurance for low-income and middle-income working Americans."
On Bosnia visit
Up next, the video highlights Clinton’s Pants on Fire claim that she landed "under sniper fire" when she visited Bosnia a decade earlier.
As the video aptly demonstrates, she arrived on the tarmac under no visible duress and was greeted by a child who offered her a copy of a poem.
Flying into Bosnia was dangerous in 1996 and Clinton later said she misspoke, but "it's hard to understand how she could err on something so significant as whether she did or didn't dodge sniper bullets," we wrote in 2008.
On NAFTA
Finally, the video concludes with Clinton’s flip-flop on the North American Free Trade Agreement — another accurate charge.
This is a point that Obama made in 2008, when he said that Clinton "was saying great things about NAFTA until she started running for president."
Despite the Clinton campaign’s protests, Obama’s claim is True. Clinton publicly supported NAFTA in 1996, in her 2003 memoir Living History, and in 2004. But as a 2008 presidential candidate, Clinton said NAFTA was a mistake.
Clinton’s free trade zigzagging is not limited to just NAFTA. During her first bid for the White House, she opposed the bilateral free trade deals with South Korea and Columbia. As secretary of state, however, she supported both.
Similarly, Clinton called the Trans-Pacific Partnership the "gold standard in trade agreements" in 2012, but opposed it in the 2016 race. We rated her position on TPP a Full Flop.
[video=youtube;-dY77j6uBHI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dY77j6uBHI[/video]
[h=1]Fact-checking ‘Hillary Clinton lying for 13 minutes straight’[/h] By Linda Qiu on Friday, May 20th, 2016 at 4:29 p.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton looks on during her primary night gathering at the Philadelphia Convention Center on April 26, 2016. (AP Photo) A YouTube video mash-up of Hillary Clinton comments claims to show "Hillary Clinton lying for 13 minutes straight." It’s been viewed more than 7 million times as of May 2016. (You can watch the video at the bottom of the story.)
But does the video get things right?
See related rulings
It begins with a back-and-forth between Clinton and CNN’s Anderson Cooper during the Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas in October 2015.
"You were against same-sex marriage. Now you're for it. You defended President Obama's immigration policies. Now you say they're too harsh. You supported his trade deal dozen of times. You even called it the ‘gold standard.’ Now, suddenly, last week, you're against it," Cooper asked. "Will you say anything to get elected?"
"Well, actually, I have been very consistent. Over the course of my entire life, I have always fought for the same values and principles," she responded. The video cuts off the rest of the sentence, "But, like most human beings — including those of us who run for office — I do absorb new information. I do look at what's happening in the world."
PolitiFact has documented Clinton’s shifting stances on a number of issues since 2008, including most mentioned in the video -- and a few not mentioned. Our Flip-O-Meter ratings are not value judgments on changed positions, which some say demonstrate flexibility and ability to compromise and others say are born from a lack of conviction or political expediency. The video, for instance, describes them as a lie.
That being said, we wanted to provide some additional context to the video of Clinton’s statements.
On same-sex marriage
The first Clinton contradiction highlighted by the video is on same-sex marriage. PolitiFact gave Clinton a Full Flop for her stance on the issue, but there’s some nuance the video leaves out.
From 1999 to at least 2007, she continuously opposed same-sex marriage while consistently supporting civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. She also spoke on the Senate floor against a proposed federal ban on gay marriage in 2004 and said she supports states making the decision for themselves in 2006.
Clinton reversed course and announced her support for gay marriage in 2013, as the viral video accurately notes. However, the video samples a 2014 interview Clinton did with NPR’s Terry Gross in which she seems to deny her changed position.
"You’re trying to say that I used to be opposed and now I’m in favor and I did it for political reasons. And that’s just flat wrong," Clinton is heard saying in the video, "I have a strong record. I have a great commitment to this issue."
But that’s not all the whole story. Before the excerpted part in the video, Gross asked, "Would you say your view evolved since the '90s or that the American public evolved, allowing you to state your real view?"
"I think I'm an American," Clinton responded. "And I think we have all evolved, and it's been one of the fastest, most sweeping transformations."
On ‘core principles’
The video then segues to Clinton shifting between calling herself a progressive and a moderate. While it’s accurate and fair to charge Clinton with wearing multiple political labels, the video’s most damning evidence requires some additional context.
The video features CNN’s Cooper asking Clinton, "Just in July in New Hampshire, you told a crowd you, ‘take a backseat to none when it comes to progressive values.’ Last month in Ohio, you said you, ‘plead guilty to being kind of moderate and center.’ Do you change your political identity based on who you’re talking to? Just for the record, are you a progressive or a moderate?"
"I’m a progressive," Clinton says in the video before it cuts out to the next topic.
Here’s her next sentence: "But I'm a progressive who likes to get things done. And I know how to find common ground, and I know how to stand my ground, and I have proved that in every position that I've had, even dealing with Republicans who never had a good word to say about me, honestly."
On her emails
There are still many unknowns in the email controversy, and the FBI is currently conducting an investigation. Though Clinton may be able to make the case that she "complied" with the rules, experts on government transparency and records preservations have told us her actions are hard to defend. On the other hand, it’s not clear at all whether she breached national security laws.
The YouTube video includes a clip of Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina arguing with Clinton over how many emails she’s turned over to the State Department.
Clinton says she has turned over about half. Out of over 60,000 emails on her private server, Clinton and her staff deleted 31,000 emails she says were personal and released the remaining 30,940.
But the video suggests the deleted emails may not have been personal by sampling a clip of former President Bill Clinton saying he’s only ever sent two emails. But that’s taken out of context and it was a joke, one that he’s made repeatedly.
The Bill Clinton quote comes from a panel Clinton moderated for the Clinton Global Foundation in June 2015. Clinton was referring to his email practices when he was president (starting around 46:50), more than a decade before Hillary Clinton set up her email server.
On Wall Street
Next, the video features Clinton’s ties to Wall Street. This section is a mixed bag of information in terms of accuracy.
A clip of Clinton from the 2015 Las Vegas debate saying she told Wall Street to "cut it out" in 2007 is followed by chopped up comments Clinton actually made in 2007, in which she seems to hold homebuyers, not Wall Street, responsible for the housing crisis. This gives a misleading impression.
The 2007 comments are taken from Clinton’s speech at the Nasdaq stock exchange that December. Some argue that the speech was more sympathetic to the financial sector than Clinton has suggested, and she does say homeowners and borrowers should shoulder some of the blame for the housing crisis.
But the video leaves out the part when she also names irresponsible mortgage lenders and brokers, the government and regulators, credit rating agencies, speculators and Wall Street "which not only enabled but often encouraged reckless mortgage lending."
As PolitiFact has previously reported, Clinton called for more oversight and transparency in the financial sector in several speeches and dating back to March 2007. From then to 2008, she repeatedly suggested and introduced a bill to establish national standards and regulations for loan brokers and lenders.
The video also points out Wall Street has been contributing to Clinton’s campaign. This is accurate. PolitiFact looked into a viral image highlighting Clinton’s top 10 donors and found that five were financial firms, two were law firms that do a lot of corporate work, and two were media conglomerates.
On universal healthcare
Continuing the theme, the video then exhibits Clinton’s (somewhat hypocritical) waffling on universal health care between her 2008 campaign to her 2016 bid. This is accurate.
When she was running in 2008, Clinton aired an attack ad that said she "has the only health care plan that covers every American." We found that she was the only candidate that year, including then-Sen. Barack Obama, with a health care mandate for everyone — in other words, universal coverage.
"Since when do Democrats attack one another over universal health care?" she said, as excerpted in the viral video.
In 2016, Clinton and her surrogates repeatedly have criticized rival Bernie Sanders for his universal health care proposal. As we’ve previously reported, Clinton said single-payer "will never, ever come to pass" and now wants to build upon and defend Obama’s Affordable Care Act. And her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, received a Mostly False rating for saying Sanders would empower Republicans "to take away health insurance for low-income and middle-income working Americans."
On Bosnia visit
Up next, the video highlights Clinton’s Pants on Fire claim that she landed "under sniper fire" when she visited Bosnia a decade earlier.
As the video aptly demonstrates, she arrived on the tarmac under no visible duress and was greeted by a child who offered her a copy of a poem.
Flying into Bosnia was dangerous in 1996 and Clinton later said she misspoke, but "it's hard to understand how she could err on something so significant as whether she did or didn't dodge sniper bullets," we wrote in 2008.
On NAFTA
Finally, the video concludes with Clinton’s flip-flop on the North American Free Trade Agreement — another accurate charge.
This is a point that Obama made in 2008, when he said that Clinton "was saying great things about NAFTA until she started running for president."
Despite the Clinton campaign’s protests, Obama’s claim is True. Clinton publicly supported NAFTA in 1996, in her 2003 memoir Living History, and in 2004. But as a 2008 presidential candidate, Clinton said NAFTA was a mistake.
Clinton’s free trade zigzagging is not limited to just NAFTA. During her first bid for the White House, she opposed the bilateral free trade deals with South Korea and Columbia. As secretary of state, however, she supported both.
Similarly, Clinton called the Trans-Pacific Partnership the "gold standard in trade agreements" in 2012, but opposed it in the 2016 race. We rated her position on TPP a Full Flop.
Very hard to debate the words coming out of her mouth. They made a good effort but it falls flat in the face of that. Still I am sure people will continue to believe what they like even in face of the facts directly in front of them. And I have absolutely no argument that can stand under those circumstances. So generally I just shrug and move on.
It's funny, I promise.
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