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POLITIFACT: Hillary Never Shamed Other Women, Trump Is Lying

POLITIFACT: Hillary Never Shamed Other Women, Trump Is Lying

Given the fallout from Trump’s leaked audio, him and Republicans are desperately clinging to a demonstrably false talking-point blaming Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton without any facts for publicly shaming women who have made claims against her husband. Politifact waded into the debate and debunked the Trump’s myth ahead of tonight’s town hall presidential debate, where it’s sure to be a hot topic:

A pro-Trump advertisement makes several claims about Hillary Clinton’s hypocritical treatment of women, relying primarily on her own words or those of close confidants.

The broader message — that Clinton enabled her husband’s alleged sexual assaults — has been and continues to be debated, by pundits and experts alike.

We didn’t weigh in on those arguments, but we did look into the ad’s more specific use of quotes attributed to Clinton. The quotes themselves are hearsay in some cases and subject to different interpretations based on context.

The ad further misleads by saying Hillary Clinton “savaged” the dignity of people who accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment or assault “and shamed them.”

We rate this claim Mostly False.

It’s easy to forget today that House Republicans in the 1990s – led by disgraced Speaker Newt Gingrich – went on a mindless witch hunt from 1994 until the end of President Bill Clinton’s term of office. After spending millions of dollars on investigations and a special prosecutor, all they managed to dig up was that the President had had an affair, even though their investigation was supposed to show some actual wrongdoing in a real estate transaction called “WhiteWater.” This is how Republicans have turned the machinery of government against the American people — by attacking the only party who is actually interested in governing rather than on scoring petty political points and self-enrichment.

Ironically, the only direct quotation of Hillary Clinton in the basket of lies by pro-Trump advertisements actually comes from an interview with Matt Lauer about the never-ending Republican investigation into her and her husband (remind you of Benghazi?) without any actual result. Yes, Democratic nominee spoke to the very same NBC Today Show host in 1998 who was called out by President Obama last month, for allowing Trump to lie through his teeth at length in the “Commander in Chief” forum just last month and interrupting Clinton ceaselessly.

Hillary said then that, “some folks are going to have a lot to answer for,” which was taken out of context because she was talking about the budding right-wing lie factory conspiring to poison America’s political debate. The direct quote is from the interview where she actually revealed the very real right-wing conspiracy that she has been proven correct about.

“The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president,” Clinton said.

 

Grant Stern
is the Executive Editor of Occupy Democrats and published author. His new Meet the Candidates 2020 book series is distributed by Simon and Schuster. He's also mortgage broker, community activist and radio personality in Miami, Florida., as well as the producer of the Dworkin Report podcast. Grant is also an occasional contributor to Raw Story, Alternet, and the DC Report, and an unpaid senior advisor to the Democratic Coalition and a Director of Sunshine Agenda Inc. a government transparency nonprofit organization. Get all of his stories sent directly to your inbox here:

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