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Wednesday: Hillary Rodham Clinton smiles with her daughter, Chelsea, as she's introduced at a campaign event in Boca Raton, Fla. (AP Photo)

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a three-part series focusing on misstatements, prevarications and falsehoods proclaimed by the three major presidential candidates.

Sen. Hillary Clinton presents the image of a seasoned, ever-disciplined politician whose experience as first lady and a New York senator makes her ready to be commander-in-chief. But a series of misstatements — exaggerations, half-truths and lies — made by Clinton over the last 15 years have at times undermined her image and called her credibility into question.

1. Travelgate, June 23, 2000
An investigation was launched into the firing of seven long-time employees of the White House travel office, all of whom were replaced with friends and relatives of the Clintons.

Non-truth: In a sworn deposition to the General Accounting Office, Clinton was asked if she had any involvement in the decision to fire the staffers: “No, I did not,” she replied. She said she did not know the “origin of the decision” to fire the staffers, “had no role in the decision to terminate the employees” and “did not direct that any action be taken by anyone” regarding the matter.

Truth: The Office of Independent Counsel investigating it and other matters found “overwhelming evidence that she in fact did have a role in the decision to fire the employees” and that her testimony was “factually false.”

Sources: “Honesty: Hillary’s Glass House,” National Journal, Dec. 10, 2007; “Testimony About Travel-Office Dismissals,” New York Times, Oct. 19, 2000; “The First Lady Is Chided, But Not Charged,” New York Times, June 23, 2000.

2. Iraq War Vote, Jan. 13, 2008
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Clinton was asked about her 2002 vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq. Her vote helped authorize President Bush to use force in Iraq if diplomatic efforts failed to disband a nuclear weapons program that Saddam Hussein was believed to have developed.

Non-truth: Clinton insisted it was “not a vote for preemptive war.”

“It was a vote to put inspectors back in to determine what threat Saddam Hussein did in fact pose,” Clinton said.

Truth: On Oct. 10, 2002, on the Senate floor, Clinton said, “This is a very difficult vote … any vote that might lead to war should be hard, but I cast it with conviction.”

Sources: “Meet the Press,” NBC, Jan. 13, 2008;” Hillary Rodham Clinton official Senate Web site.

3. Sniper Fire, March 17, 2008
In 1996 Clinton visited Bosnia as first lady.

Non-truth: She told an audience at the George Washington University that she remembered “landing under sniper fire.”

“There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base,” she said. She made similar comments to other audiences.

Truth: Videotape of her arrival at Tuzla Air Base shows Clinton walking off the plane, greeting troops and walking calmly around camp. She is then met by a young girl who reads her a poem.

Clinton has admitted she “misspoke,” calling her story a “minor blip.” She attributed the misstatement to campaign fatigue. “I made a mistake. That happens. It proves I’m human, which you know, for some people, is a revelation.”

Sources: “Clinton Recalls Bosnia Trip as Dangerous,” Associated Press, March 17, 2008; “New CBS Video Contradicts Clinton Again,” CBS News, March 25, 2008; “Clinton Says She Erred on Bosnia Story,” Associated Press, March 25, 2008.

4. Vince Foster Documents, April 22, 1994
After the suicide of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster, First Lady Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff Maggie Williams had documents removed from Foster’s office.

Half-truth: During a press conference, Clinton was asked why Williams was involved in removing the documents. Clinton responded: “I don’t know that she did remove any documents.”

Truth: Clinton administrations officials later acknowledged that the first lady requested the documents be removed and turned over to Williams. Williams was told to store the papers in the White House residence, where Clinton’s personal attorney later picked them up.

Source: “The Whitewater Affair: Excerpts From Hillary Clinton’s News Session on Whitewater,” New York Times, April 23, 1994; “Whitewater File Was Kept at White House Residence; Foster Office Papers Stored for Several Days,” The Washington Post, Aug. 2, 1994.

5. Iraq War Criticism, April 5, 2008
Non-truth: In Eugene, Ore., Clinton said that she was first to criticize the Iraq war, before Barack Obama, during their time in the Senate. “I started criticizing the war in Iraq before he did,” she said.

Truth: On Jan. 18, 2005, Obama criticized the war to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while questioning Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying the Bush administration presented an “open-ended commitment” to a U.S. presence in the country. On Jan. 26, eight days later, Clinton said the Bush administration’s Iraq policy was “riddled with errors, misstatements and misjudgments.”

Sources: “Clinton: Democratic Contest a Primary, Not a Coronation,” FOXNews.com, April 5, 2008; “Senate Foreign Relations Committee Holds Hearing on Nomination of Condoleezza Rice To Be Secretary of State,” NYTimes.com, Jan. 18, 2005; “Statement of Senator Clinton for the Congressional Record on Her Vote on the Nomination of Dr. Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State,” Clinton.Senate.gov, Jan. 26, 2005; “In Oregon, Clinton Makes False Claim About Her Iraq Record Vs. Obama’s,” Jake Tapper, ABCNews.com, April 6, 2008.

6. Brokering Irish Peace, Jan. 6, 2008
Non truth: In Nashua, N.H., Clinton told supporters that when she was first lady she organized a town hall in Belfast, Ireland, to help promote peace talks between Catholics and Protestants.

“I remember a meeting that I pulled together in Belfast, in the town hall there, bringing together for the first time Catholics and Protestants from both traditions, having them sitting in a room where they had never been before with each other because they don’t go to school together, they don’t live together; and it was only in large measure because I really asked them to come that they were there,” Clinton said.

Truth: There is no record of such a meeting at Belfast City Hall. The former first lady held a 50-minute meeting of Catholic and Protestant women at a Belfast café on Nov. 30, 1995, arranged by the U.S. Embassy, and she attended a Christmas tree lighting ceremony with President Clinton at Belfast City Hall.

Sources: “Nobel Winner: Hillary Clinton’s ‘Silly’ Irish Peace Claims,” Telegraph, March 8, 2008; “Hillary Clinton Hears How Hatred Is Buried,” Reuters News, Nov. 30, 1995. “First Lady Hears Voice of Women: Hillary, Bill Clinton in Northern Ireland,” The Times (UK), Dec. 1, 1995.

7. Chelsea Jogging, Sept. 17, 2001
Non-truth: Clinton told NBC’s Jane Pauley that her daughter, Chelsea, went jogging on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and had planned to run near the World Trade Center.

“She’d gone, what she thought would be just a great jog,” Clinton said. “She was going to go down to Battery Park, she was going to go around the towers.”

Truth: In a Nov. 9, 2001, article in Talk magazine, Chelsea Clinton never wrote she went jogging on Sept. 11, 2001. Instead, Clinton said she was alone inside a friend’s apartment 12 blocks away when the first plane struck the World Trade Center. She watched the second plane hit the South Tower on her friend’s television.

Sources: “Today Show,” NBC News, Sept. 18, 2001; “Chelsea Clinton Speaks Out for the First Time in a Personal Account of the September 11 Tragedy and Its Aftermath,” Talk, Nov. 9, 2001.

8. Death of a Mother, March 2008
For about five weeks, Clinton told a story related to her by an Ohio deputy sheriff about a pregnant woman who lost her baby and died two weeks later.

Half-truth: Clinton said the woman was uninsured and was refused medical treatment because she could not come up with a $100 examination fee.

“It hurts me that in our country, as rich and good of a country as we are, this young woman and her baby died because she couldn’t come up with $100 to see the doctor,” Clinton said.

Truth: Trina Bachtel, 35, died last August, two weeks after her son was stillborn. But she did have health insurance and was not denied treatment for her troubled pregnancy when she sought help at a hospital in Athens, Ohio. She had, however, been asked to pay $100 for treatment at a clinic she first visited, where she had incurred debts when she previously lacked health care. The Ohio deputy sheriff confirmed that Clinton related the story as he had told it to her.

Sources: “Ohio Hospital Contests a Story Clinton Tells,” New York Times, April 5, 2008; “Clinton’s Tale Part Truth, Part Errors,” Associated Press, April 7, 2008.

9. Refugee Borders, March 12, 2008
Non-truth: Clinton said in a cable news interview that she “negotiated open borders” in Macedonia to fleeing Kosovar refugees.

Truth: Macedonia’s ambassador to the U.S. at the time, Ljubica Acevska, said during a March 2008 interview with National Public Radio that her government always had a policy to allow refugees’ passage into the country.

Sources: “American Morning,” CNN, March 5, 2008; “Is ‘First Lady’ A Foreign Policy Credential?” NPR, March 12, 2008.

10. Origins of the Name, April 2, 1995
Non-truth: At an airstrip in Nepal, Clinton told Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to conquer Mount Everest, that she had been named after the renowned mountaineer.

Truth: Clinton was born in 1947, when Sir Edmund was still an obscure beekeeper from New Zealand. He did not climb Everest until 1953, six years later.

Sources: “Hillary Clinton Meets Man Who Gave Her Two Ls,” New York Times, April 3, 1995; “Hillary, Not as in the Mount Everest Guy,” New York Times, Oct. 17, 2006.

11. National Guard Health Insurance, Dec. 20, 2007
Non-truth: Clinton’s television ad, “Guard,” which ran in New Hampshire, claimed National Guard and Army Reserve personnel had no health insurance until she and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham took action.

“You would think that after all the sacrifices and service of the National Guard and Reserve protecting our country, they would have had health insurance. But they didn’t,” Clinton says in the ad. “So I reached across the aisle and worked for three years with Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, to change that. Now every member of the Guard and Reserve has access to the health coverage they need.”

Truth: Before Clinton took office, all active-duty Guard and Reserve troops were covered by federal insurance, and four out of five non-active-duty National Guardsmen and Reservists were covered by their civilian employers or other sources.

Source: “Exaggerating Help For Troops,” FactCheck.org, Dec. 20, 2007.

12. Bill Kennedy Endorsement, April 15, 2008
Clinton scored an endorsement from a Montana politician, Yellowstone County Commissioner Bill Kennedy.

Non-truth: A press release from Clinton’s campaign said Kennedy was prompted to go for Clinton because of remarks Barack Obama made to a group of California donors in which he said small-town Americans get bitter and “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” as a way to explain their frustrations.

“Today, Hillary Clinton received the endorsement of another prominent Montana leader, Yellowstone County Commissioner Bill Kennedy. … Kennedy said Sen. Obama’s remarks last week at a San Francisco fundraiser solidified his support for Sen. Clinton,” reads the Clinton campaign statement.

Truth: Kennedy told FOX News a day after the release: “I had been leaning toward Hillary for months. I actually decided to endorse her two weeks ago.” In other words, Kennedy decided to back Clinton on April 1, five days before Obama’s comments.

Sources: “Montana Pol: Clinton Endorsement Preceded Obama ‘Cling’ Flap,” FOXNews.com, April 15, 2008; “Yellowstone County Commissioner Backs Hillary for President,” Hillary for President Official Web site, April 14, 2008.

Thursday: John McCain
Friday: Barack Obama

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Hillary Clinton. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.