Now, you remember this, because George did work in that '92 campaign, and George and I actually were against NAFTA. I'm talking about him in his previous life, before he was an objective journalist and didn't have opinions about such matters.
(LAUGHTER)
STEPHANOPOULOS: [inaudible] opinion.
CLINTON: Yes, but we were in meetings together where we said, look, we think there's going to be a lot of downsides, and we're not really thinking through that.
That's not what happened. Stephanopoulos talked about those meetings on his show two months ago. Here's what he had to say on March 23, 2008:
JAY CARNEY ("TIME"): I think there's a lot of creative and revisionist history happening on people's views of NAFTA. At the time NAFTA was a huge and important push that President Clinton made in his first term. The administration was behind it. There's no indication that the First Lady wasn't behind it. And when he secured it, it was considered a success, that had righted his presidency after a very difficult opening several months in its first year. So I think Senator Clinton has a real problem here arguing that she was against it.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS): It is true, though. I was in some of the meetings. It is true, that at the time, she was pushing health care. And she didn't appreciate the fact that NAFTA was getting a lot more time on the schedule.
And here's the video of the same thing:
So, Stephanopoulous says that Hillary expressed concern that all the attention to NAFTA was taking attention away from her health care proposal. She did not oppose NAFTA because she thought "there's going to be a lot of downsides, and we're not really thinking through that." She simply thought NAFTA was competing with her own legislative priorities. So, again, Hillary's memory of an event conflicts with what really happened.
Clinton insisted she had opposed NAFTA during her husband's presidency, although there is little evidence to suggest she worked against it at the time. She even conscripted Stephanopoulos into service to support her story.
"Now, you remember this, because George did work in that '92 campaign, and George and I actually were against NAFTA," Clinton said. "I'm talking about him in his previous life, before he was an objective journalist and didn't have opinions about such matters."
Okay, the AP's Beth Fouhy wrote there is "little evidence" of Hillary's opposition to NAFTA. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton offered evidence in the person of George Stephanopoulos. So, what does George say? He certainly didn't deny it. Have any journalists interviewed him? Any of his ABC colleagues bothered to ask if it's true? I just did a google search, didn't find anything.
As John reported yesterday, Hillary played George today -- big time. George is now part of the story. Can anyone get the story? Or is George still too intimidated by his old boss to fess up? Stephanopoulos knows if Hillary is telling the truth. He owes his viewers an explanation.
I'm watching the video of the "Townhall Meeting" that ABC's George Stephanopoulos held for Hillary this morning and it's astounding how bad Stephanopoulos is. Let me give you two prime examples.
1. Gas tax.
Stephanopoulos' first question is about Hillary's plan to rescind the gas tax this summer. Does he tell the audience, or ask Hillary about, the fact that she opposed rescinding the gas tax - she opposed her own proposal - when running for the Senate in 2000? No. That would be the hardest question of all to answer, the question that goes to the issue of her credibility on this and every other issue, and Stephanopoulos doesn't even mention it. Here is George's really tough question for Hillary:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Good to be here.
Gas tax has become the defining issue in this primary and in North Carolina. You and Senator McCain called for suspending the 18.4 cent federal gas tax. Senator Obama calls it a gimmick. He says it's pandering. He says it won't really bring any help to consumers, and he also said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Same thing that John McCain's offering on the cheap. That means we're not presenting a truthful response to the challenges that we face in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: What's your response? He says you're not being truthful.
He says? How about "YOU SAID during your first campaign?" Jesus, George. Come on.
2. NAFTA.
Hillary totally rolled over Stephanopoulos on this one. She started by saying, oh George, during the 1990s you and I were in meetings where we both opposed NAFTA. Stephanopoulos says nothing. Not only does he tacitly agree with her claim that he was in meetings with her and that she did oppose NAFTA in those meetings - which is a lie - he doesn't respond by telling us what actually happened in those meetings, that Hillary was such a NAFTA booster it wasn't even funny (see the video below), and worse, he doesn't note that Hillary publicly embraced NAFTA during her time in the White House. They have her on film doing it. Stephanopoulos doesn't even note that she's again flip-flopped on the issue. Hillary lied in front of Stephanopoulos on national TV, invoked Stephanopoulos' name to "prove" she was telling the truth, and Stephanopolous said nothing when he knew for a fact that she was lying.
Here's a video showing just how much of a NAFTA booster Hillary was in the 1990s:
And here's the video of Hillary rolling Stephanopoulos, invoking his name to "prove" her point against Obama, and him saying nothing in response, including him not even noting that she publicly came out for NAFTA in the 1990s. Also note how 42 seconds into the video it seems, suddenly, that Stephanopoulos has come to life. He's going to ask her about her flip-flop, about the fact that she's lying, invoking his name to prove her lie, and he isn't going to stand for it! But then he doesn't:
Now here's the transcript of that video:
CLINTON: Now, you remember this, because George did work in that '92 campaign, and George and I actually were against NAFTA. I'm talking about him in his previous life, before he was an objective journalist and didn't have opinions about such matters.
(LAUGHTER)
STEPHANOPOULOS: (inaudible) opinion.
CLINTON: Yes, but we were in meetings together where we said, look, we think there's going to be a lot of downsides, and we're not really thinking through that.
But in the 20th century and until relatively late in the 20th century, we dominated the world economy. And we had an...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator, what...
CLINTON: ... opportunity to really see our jobs grow here by being smart about how we traded.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But Senator...
CLINTON: But then we've got to make changes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: ... you really have it both ways there. You talked about being against NAFTA in 1992, 1993. Yet President Clinton has said time and time again, NAFTA and free trade agreements were part of the economic success in the 1990s. How can you claim credit for the good things but not take blame for the bad?
Now do you understand why we have a problem with you, George? Now do the rest of you in the media understand what we mean when we talk about bias? When we talk about how you people have no spine whatsoever? How you've become court stenographers rather than reporters? You know the truth, you know these people are lying, and you say nothing to stop them, to contradict them, to put them on the spot. And in so doing, you are complicit in these people lying to the public with your stamp of approval. and you wonder why so many Americans have lost faith in the media.
