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  • 2016-03-15 (xsd:date)
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  • Was Hillary Clinton Bribed for Her Iraq War Vote? (en)
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  • On 15 March 2016, the web site US Uncut published an article suggesting that Hillary Clinton had admitted during a live television interview that her vote in favor of the Iraq War (made while she was a U.S. senator representing New York) was part of a bribe: No portion of the quoted text involved Hillary Clinton expressing an explicit quid pro quo admission regarding her Iraq War vote. The context of her remarks involved her having just flown over Ground Zero (while air travel was largely still restricted) and witnessing the devastation wrought on New York City by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Although Clinton confusingly veered off the topic in explaining why she voted to authorize the war in Iraq, she didn't appear to be describing any sort of mutual back-scratching agreement with President Bush. The exchange in question occurred between Clinton and MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews beginning at roughly the 4-minute mark in the clip shown below: What Hillary Clinton seemed to be saying here was a reiteration of a similar discussion summarized in a February 2016 Slate article — that she believed President Bush when he said he was using the threat of war with Iraq to push for a diplomatic solution (i.e., to force Saddam Hussein into readmitting U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq), that she took Bush at his word on that issue because she had seen him come through with a promised $20 billion in aid to New York that she had asked for (over Republican opposition), and that her personal experience with seeing President Bush follow through on what he promised was one that Bernie Sanders (who voted against the war) did not share. But, ultimately, her vote proved wrong because President Bush went back on his word that he would allow time for the diplomatic approach to play out: Clinton's anecdote about meeting with George W. Bush to secure aid for New York was part of a complicated (and arguably self-serving) justification for her Iraq War vote that was likely confusing to many viewers who weren't previously familiar with the full background context of her remarks, but it's quite a stretch to interpret her words to mean her supporting vote was due to a political trade-off (i.e., a bribe) rather than an error in judgment. (en)
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