More Lies from Clinton: After Stating Vivid Details in Prepared Remarks She Retracts Claims of Facing Sniper Fire in Bosnia
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 08:20PM From the Frontruner
Pictured above: Gunfire? yeah right. Professional liar Hillary Rodham Clinton stands on the runway of the Tuzla Air Base surrounded by local school children who gathered to meet her, Monday, March 25, 1996. Mrs Clinton was on a one-day visit to the US troops stationed in Bosnia.
The CBS Evening News (3/24, story 3, 2:15, Attkisson, 7.66M) reported, "It was supposed to be an example of Hillary Clinton's battle-tested experience." Sen. Hillary Clinton: "I remember landing under sniper fire." Attkisson: "In the speech last week, Senator Clinton was referring to her visit to Tuzla, Bosnia in 1996 as first lady. The brutal war was over, but hostilities continued and though the trip was exactly 12 years ago tomorrow, the memory seemed etched in Clinton's mind." Clinton: "There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport but we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." Attkisson: "Problem is, that's not what happened. And we should know. CBS News accompanied the First Lady and daughter Chelsea on that Bosnia trip that's Senator Clinton talking to me on the military flight into Tuzla, and these are the pictures we recorded of the greeting ceremony when the plane landed." Clinton aides "acknowledged her arrival in Bosnia was not quite as dramatic as Clinton put it."
NBC Nightly News (3/24, story 3, 2:55, Mitchell, 9.87M) reported, "Those of us on that trip recall it differently. Instead of running for cover, Clinton was greeted by a school girl, who read her a poem of welcome." However, Clinton's "C-17 did make a corkscrew landing, standard for a battle zone." Robert Shrum, Democratic strategist: "What stuns me about this is the explicitness of her recollection, combined with the certitude in that video clip that this all really happened. Now we are told she misspoke. Why is she doing this? She doesn't need to. It just hurts her." Mitchell: "For that, Clinton was awarded four Pinocchios from the 'Washington Post' fact checker."
Comedian Sinbad Denies Clinton Story
The AP (3/25, Sanner) reports Clinton's campaign "said she 'misspoke' last week when saying she had landed under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia as first lady in March 1996." The Obama campaign "suggested it was a deliberate exaggeration by Clinton, who often cites the goodwill trip with her daughter and several celebrities as an example of her foreign policy experience." During a speech "last Monday on Iraq, she said of the Bosnia trip: 'I remember 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.'" The AP adds, "According to an Associated Press story at the time, Clinton was placed under no extraordinary risks on that trip. And one of her companions, comedian Sinbad, told The Washington Post he has no recollection either of the threat or reality of gunfire."
The New York Times (3/25, Healy, Seelye, 1.18M) reports Clinton "admitted that she 'misspoke' about the episode - a concession that came after CBS News showed footage of her walking calmly across the tarmac with her daughter, Chelsea, and being greeted by dignitaries and a child." The "backpedaling was a rare instance of Mrs. Clinton's acknowledging an error, and she did so on a sensitive issue: She has cited her 'strength and experience' since the start of the presidential race, framing her 80 trips abroad as first lady as preparation for dealing with foreign affairs as president." Clinton "corrected herself at a meeting with the Philadelphia Daily News editorial board; she did not explain why she had misspoken, but only admitted it and then offered a less dramatic description."
Long Island Newsday (3/25, Tayler, 402K) reports, "'On one occasion, she misspoke,' Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said Monday in reference to her Washington speech. In fact, Clinton also referred to having to move the Bosnia welcoming ceremony inside at least one other time, on Feb. 29. But, Wolfson insisted, Clinton was potentially in danger. 'There were reports of snipers in the hills and they were forced to cut short an event on the tarmac. That is what she wrote in her book,' he said of Clinton's memoirs."
The Politico (3/25, Zenilman) reports Clinton's "campaign spokesman conceded the point this morning, and she met later in the day with the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer, where she was grilled by columnist Will Bunch." In the interview, Clinton "acknowledged today for the first time that it was a 'misstatement' when she said in a major prepared foreign policy speech last week that 'I remember landing under sniper fire' but also tried to brush off the entire issue as 'a minor blip.'"
Writing on the 'Attytood' blog on the website of the Philadelphia Daily News (3/24), columnist Will Bunch says that during a meeting with the editorial boards of the Philadelphia Inquirer and The Daily News, he quizzed Clinton on her comments regarding her Bosnia trip. Bunch related, "Clinton acknowledged today for the first time that it was a 'misstatement' when she said in a major prepared foreign policy speech last week that 'I remember landing under sniper fire' but also tried to brush off the entire issue as 'a minor blip.' She also gave a revised account of her airplane landing and her tarmac greeting at the Tuzla Air Force base 12 years ago -- seeking to explain a picture re-published this weekend in the Washington Post showing her and daughter Chelsea calmly greeting an 8-year-old girl."
The New York Daily News (3/25, McAuliff, 729K) reports, "Team Obama pounced. 'When you make a false claim that's in your prepared remarks, it's not misspeaking, it's misleading,' said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor. 'It's part of a troubling pattern of Sen. Clinton inflating her foreign policy experience.'"
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