Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson told reporters yesterday that Hillary only misspoke "on one occasion" when she told voters that she arrived in Bosnia in 1996 under sniper fire and had to run for cover after the opening ceremony was canceled because of the gunfire. That's a flat-out lie. Hillary made similar claims at least four times since last December. And what's worse, her campaign repeatedly defended the "misspoken" comments, and even sent surrogates out to defend them, claiming they were true. Rather than admitting that Hillary screwed up, and puffed up her resume, the campaign is now choosing to lie to us about facts we already know.
Last night, Joe posted the Keith Olbermann segment about Hillary's false claims. Hillary spokesman Howard Wolfson claimed the following yesterday, per Olbermann: "It's possible she misspoke." Possible? Did she also misspeak the four other times she claimed the exact same story?
- In Dubuque, Iowa in December Hillary claimed that Bosnia was too dangerous for the president and that she ran across the tarmac.
- In late February, Hillary claimed during the White House 3 am phone ad roll-out that sniper fire forced the airport ceremony inside.
- In a March 17, 2008 press conference Hillary repeated the claims.
- In her March 17, 2008 prepared remarks - PREPARED remarks, i.e., these remarks were intentional - she said the same thing.
Let's revisit the latest details, per Olbermann:
Hillary's spokesman Howard Wolfson is now saying she was on the front lines by landing at the airport. As Olbermann noted, there was an 8 year old girl with flowers on those front lines, the US military commander in charge at the time said there was no threat of enemy fire, and Hillary herself stopped and took photos with military personnel. These were the front lines, but Hillary was doing photo opps with soldiers and 8 year old girls?
Here is Hillary's latest explanation, per yesterday:
Hillary: "I was also told that the greeting ceremony had been moved away from the tarmac but there was this 8 year old girl and I can't rush by her, I have to at least greet her, so I took her stuff and then I left."
Again, bull. There are photos and videos of Hillary and Chelsea posing with troops for photos on the tarmac. It was too dangerous for Hillary to linger any longer than a quick hug with a kid but the troops then put the president's wife's and daughter's lives at risk by posing for glamor shots? Then there's this:
Hillary yesterday: "I say a lot of things -- millions of words a day -- so if I misspoke, that was jsut a misstatement."
2 million words a day = 83,333 words an hour = 1388 words a minute = 23 words a second. Yes, you do say a lot of things.
