Morning Shows Snipe At Clinton Over Bosnia Remarks

Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton may not have come under fire when she landed at Tuzla Air Base back in 1996, but today's morning news shows put the candidate squarely in their sights for her misleading recollections of the event.

There have been questions about the veracity of Clinton's accounting of her trip to Bosnia for some time, but the matter has only reached a full-on inflammation in recent days. The critical ingredients of the burn were the release of Clinton's schedules while she was First Lady of the United States - which got reporters sifting through pages in search of grist for a story - and Clinton's own retelling of the story in a public appearance on Saint Patrick's Day. The Washington Post's thorough "fact-check" of the trip (and their subsequent "four Pinocchios" rating) drove the story. And while it was still percolating by the time Sunday morning came, by the end of the day, video (and video parody) of the event were YouTubing their way across the internet. Since then, CBS has pulled video from their own archives, and Anderson Cooper led with the flap, and Clinton's "I misspoke" defense on last night's AC360.

Today's morning show pile-on was the next step in the gestation of the story.

THE TODAY SHOW:

MATT LAUER: I still remember winning a Little League championship singlehandedly when I was ten, probably didn't happen. But this isn't the little league. This is someone running for President. There were reporters on the trip and she's using her experience as a deciding factor. How could this happen?

CHUCK TODD: It's worse than that, Matt. there have been reporters questioning her story on this a few weeks ago. One even reached out to the comedian Sinbad, who was also on this trip to get his recollection of it and it differed the First Lady. So somebody didn't scrub that speech. It was in prepared remarks last week. Not only did she say it with certitude, but it was in her prepared text. So this was a real sort of bone-headed mistake on the campaign's part at a time when everybody is looking at everything so carefully.

LAUER: And does it make people go back and start to question everything she said?

TODD: Right. She's been talking about her role in the Irish Peace process, she's been talking about her role in children's health care. So I think all of this is going to invite some renewed scrutiny on some of her claims of experience. And it's at a time when she wants the focus to be on Barack Obama and questions about him.

THE EARLY SHOW:

HARRY SMITH: This is so interesting because her campaign comes down and says this is a misstatement. Is this Pinocchio syndrome, an exaggeration, or a misstatement of fact?

Story continues below

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JEFF GREENFIELD: Funny you mention that because The Washington Post which does fact checks based on how many Pinocchios a statement is worth gave this one four. And the reason really, it's the contrast between the vividness of her memory and the damning nature of the videotape. If she had said I visited the Balkans and I met with our troops, she did. Fine. No problem. But it's the nature -- it's like a fish story where the fish grows every time you tell the story. And in this case, she's so clear and vivid about what she remembers compared to the reality that it frankly reminds me of the old Groucho Marx line, who are you going to believe, me or your lyin' eyes? It's an embarrassment. We want to be careful about exaggerating this. she doesn't have to withdraw from the race because of it, it's just something she didn't need right now.

James Carville provided defense for Clinton on today's GOOD MORNING AMERICA:

DIANE SAWYER: How does somebody misspeak about sniper fire and ducking for cover?

JAMES CARVILLE: Well, first of all, it happens in campaigns. I remember that Senator McCain had an embarrassing thing in Baghdad where he said it how safe it was and circumstances were not exactly like that. You never like that to happen but they're not unusual in politics.

SAWYER: You're stopping there. I'm alway surprised when you stop.

CARVILLE: Did you want me to continue?

Whether the media will continue to ride this story through till Sunday is anyone's guess. Chances are good, however, that it will - the CBS's of the world didn't have the time to rummage through their video archive while primary contests were coming hot and heavy, but with a month to go before the Pennsylvania primary, this incident - like Obama's pastorate controversy - can swell to a sizable proportion. The fact is, Jeffrey Toobin probably unwittingly got close to the truth last night on CNN when he told Anderson Cooper: "And I think the reason we're looking at stories like this is that what we would really like to talk about are differences on the issues between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but they're just not there." Or they're not looking for them.

Comments

[jrldev]

Poor woman. Did anyone notice her haggard appearance at the moment she had to admit the
"mis-spoken" story about the "war zone" visit. Her "good friend and advisor" Mr.Carvill­e was somewhere else trying to spin the facts. This woman is going to destroy her party one way of another if
she does not get her way. Really not much difference than Mr.Clinton­. They have stick together thru the
years to achieve their individual ambitions. If she does not get her way now maybe he will start looking around for another Monica.

[kennedy]

Hillary looked great. That is more than I can say for your haggard Obama. Another reason he fled to St. Thomas.

And the only working Obama is doing is working hard as he!! to destroy the DEM party.

[zerostress]

Another place to go for whoopers and little white lies from our beloved politicians is
Factcheck.org.

http://www.factcheck.org

Beware though that it is (theoretically) non-partisan so truth (?) may harm the perception of your preferred candidate. Well worth bookmarking in any case.

[profmsf]

What a joke. Civilians do not forget being on the wrong side of a gun. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Aftica in 1976, I was traveling in Zambia with a friend when we found ourselves a bit too close to the border between Zambia and then Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. We stopped in our tracks when the Zambian soldiers cocked their rifles. Fortunately no shots were fired - some Canadian girls had not been so lucky in 1975 - but the image remains seared on our memories to this day. HRC would have to be senile to have forgotten details of an event like that if it had actually occurred in Bosnia. Obviously she has a fertile imagination. How awful it would be for her to wake up at 3am thinking someone was firing on her!

[Clinton]

Another HRC lie to add to the collection.

[SuburbanMalcontent]

That collection is so big at this point, they'll have to add another wing to the library in Little Rock.

[cowman]

LOL, but who will pay for it?

Whoever they get, we'll never know.

[kennedy]

Rezko the crook would have to buy his BFF Obama another mansion to hold all of Obamas lies.

[snowcat]

it's called vetting her,...fin­ally!

[lincat]

That's right snowcat, she hasn't been vetted yet.

[SuburbanMalcontent]

I agree. That's why my head wants to explode every time I hear her say "I've been tested and vetted fully...."

[cowman]

I would to see those test results.

[FLGator]

A major problem with the thought of a Mrs. Clinton presidency is not only the inevitable endurance of her ongoing lies, but the constant barrage from the likes of Penn and Wolfson to belittle us for being too stupid not to believe her.

It would be an invariable "Through The Looking Glass" situation where left is right and up is down and only Hillary is smart enough to know the difference. We would have to set our common sense and life experiences aside and follow her blindly; something I am not willing to do.

She is an embarassment to herself, her party and an insult to any thinking person.

[SuburbanMalcontent]

Sounds a lot like the current occupant of the White House. You know, Clear Skies Act, Patriot Act, Healthy Forests Act......

[Clarabell]

Someone below said "It's about time her 35 years of experience were scrutinize­d." Give me a damned break. And now isn't it novel that the morning news is sniping at Hillary -- would someone please tell me when they weren't? And don't tell me that the media was pushing for her because if you do, you are really quite stupid. Chris Matthews has been "HILLARY, HILLARY, HILLARYING for years now with the obvious -- at least to me -- intention of making everyone sick of her. And you know what, it's worked. And now that everyone is sick to death of her, they have started on Obama, but I'm afraid most of the lameasses in the country are too damned dumb to see what has happened. We are going to end up with McCain and good for us. I guess it's time that we all start worrying about ourselves because this country as a whole has gone to the dogs.

[getitrighthistime]

HRC has been scrutinized but its been silly stuff. What is she wearing, why is she wearing that. None of the scrutiny has been substainative. Now we are finally getting to the meat. She needs to stand up and defend her "35 years of experience" Many of us find the claim absurd. Finally the media is taking its head out of its a** and doing the kind of work it should have been doing all along.

[SuburbanMalcontent]

Oh Please. The fact of the matter is that if she had ANY other last name she'd be nothing more than a footnote in this election at this point. After losing 12 straight the media would have sent any other person into oblivion. So face it Clarabell, supporting a woman just because she's a woman, no matter how many failings she has, is not the way to go. The media has propped her up this whole time. But it's not a love hate thing, it's a survival thing. The media needs the race to continue because if it doesn't they'll have nothing else to cover. They love a horse race, even if it's been over for months now.

[tinkaboutit]

I like Clinton better than Obama. The blatantly unfair news coverage she got and the obnoxiousness of the Obama supporters has really turned me off. Feh-who cares. I wish it was November already so I can start enjoying politics again.

[UTMark]

What blatantly unfair news coverage are you referring to?

[needavid]

It is so unfair to the democrats that the media pounces everything in their life while McCain gets away with all the rediculous things he has been saying. The media is helping to tear the democratic party apart. Hillary has been helping them attack Barack in the past, I hope this puts things into perspective for her and other dems out there.

[naschkatze]

His time is coming. What ticks me off is that the Europeans are mad for Obama, and Hillary is holding him up while McCain gets to go over there and act so presidential and commander-­in-chiefy.

[thehand]

What an idiot she is !! I thought Bush was supposed to be the dummy. LImbaugh and the rest of talk radio are having a field day with this. Rush was doing a montage of clips on all these different times she told this whopping lie. I guess is it was her rich daddy that got her into whatever ivy league school she went to. What a dummy!! It's almost as bad as the one she told about being named after Sir Edmond Hillary. I'm glad the corporate media and Huffpo are doing their jobs and exposing her for the fraud she is. A back room deal that would steal the nomination for her will put the old man in for sure. Is anyone still stupid enough here not to back Obama now??? just wondering

Funny thing too, Obama should have responded to the racist remarks of Ferraro by just stating how if Hillary hadnt married for power she wouldnt be in this race either.

[IndependentTogether]

It all depends on what your definition of... "sniper"..­. is...

[Binea]

ROTFLMBO !!!

[dawlishgal]

There are really only 4 possible scenarios:

There are really two things going on here....fo­rgetting what really happened and "remembering" something that didn't happen.

The question is WHY?

l) Maybe that she actually falsely recalls a welcoming greeting as a sniper attack becauses she perceives a lot of things as attacks out of some kind of paranoia. (Do we want somebody who makes that kind of mistake with her finger on the big red button)?

2) Maybe her "forgetting" has some kind of biological basis...it would be interesting to know what else she is "forgetting" these days and whether or not some kind of premature aging is taking place.

3) Maybe she (or her multimillion dollar PR firm) cooked up something to make her look like a hero, just this one time, as a bleeping necessity when she competes for high office with men (This is what my feminist friends would say).

4) Maybe she is some kind of chronic fibber and gets her jollies by misleading people.

I am not comfortable with any of these scenarios, no matter how much my feminist pals tell us that Hillary will return to being a fine, honest, carer-for-the-poor person once the odious job of competing with men is successfully completed.

[dsinha]

Didn't realize Hillary Clinton suffered from a Walter Mitty syndrome. This is what insecure people do when they're the underachievers in the family. And she wants to be President??

Seriously?

[TheNextReport]

Gore Once More TheNextReport.blogspot.comm)

It is becoming clear with each passing day that the credibility of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has been damaged in a way that could likely sway independents, conservative Democrats and other key groups in the national election. The polling figures that show either Democrat running neck and neck against John McCain demonstrate the weakness of both candidates and should serve as a disturbing warning. The Democrats have not fared well in such close match-ups in the last few presidential contests.

It has been reported that as many as 20% of supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton could end up deliberately voting for John McCain out a sense of being betrayed by the Democratic Party. Added to a number of voters in Michigan and Florida that already feel disenfranchised by the early primary debacle, the hope for change in Washington is getting dimmer by the moment. It is time for the uncommitted super delegates and voters in the remaining primaries to consider the odds. An election is a numbers game and in this one the stakes are critical for the country and the world. Barack Obama would make an excellent Supreme Court justice and Hillary Clinton a first-rate U.N. ambassador. It is time for the party to lay the groundwork for a brokered convention. It is time for a direct appeal to Al Gore to enter the race.

[luckyoldson]

This site has morphed into what closely resembles any of the many right wing blogs that spend the entire day badmouthing Democrats, with Hillary at the forefront. There's literally NO discourse or discussion of issues, just a constant barrage of attacks on anything Hillary says or does.

Why waste time with all of the inane comments about her or Bill, and just rename the blog site: OBAMALAND and get it over with?

*Oh, and I can't wait to see how many here will handle their vote...if Hillary actually wins the nomination­...(VOTING FOR McCAIN??).­..and don't waste your time telling me it can't happen...w­e've got plenty of time left before that decision is made.