Scott Pelley asked Hillary Clinton a hard question considering that a recent Quinnipiac poll showed that 67 percent of voters said they don’t think Clinton honest and trustworthy, with only 30 percent saying she is. Even 3o percent of Democrats do not think she is honest and trustworthy.
PELLEY: You know, in ’76, Jimmy Carter famously said, “I will not lie to you.”
CLINTON: Well, I have to tell you I have tried in every way I know how literally from my years as a young lawyer all the way through my time as secretary of state to level with the American people.
PELLEY: You talk about leveling with the American people. Have you always told the truth?
CLINTON: I’ve always tried to. Always. Always.
PELLEY: Some people are gonna call that wiggle room that you just gave yourself.
CLINTON: Well, no, I’ve always tried —
PELLEY: I mean, Jimmy Carter said, “I will never lie to you.”
CLINTON: Well, but, you know, you’re asking me to say, “Have I ever?” I don’t believe I ever have. I don’t believe I ever have. I don’t believe I ever will. I’m gonna do the best I can to level with the American people.
Chris Cillizza discussed what a horrible answer this is:
First, it does nothing at all to quell concerns about her ability to be honest and straightforward. In the New Hampshire exit poll, more than one in three (34 percent) of all Democratic primary voters said that honesty was the most important trait in their decision on which candidate to support. Of that bloc, Bernie Sanders won 92 percent of their votes as compared to just 6 percent for Clinton.
That’s broadly in keeping with national polling over the last year, which has consistently shown large majorities of voters voicing skepticism about Clinton’s trustworthiness. Her answer to that criticism has, to date, been to blame it on a Republican party obsessed with her and willing to say or do anything to tarnish her reputation. There’s truth in that but, as the New Hampshire exit numbers suggest, the problem is bigger than just Republicans out to get her.
Second, the answer from Clinton on honesty reinforces a perception that the former secretary of state tries to play with words, giving a heavily couched response when a simple one would — and should — do. You can imagine people rolling their eyes or saying, “Why doesn’t she just answer the question?” while watching that painful response by Clinton.
I’ve been told that there are 2, 10 and 15 minute versions of “Clinton Lies Compilation” on YouTube. I am more concerned about the four or eight year version of Clinton Lies we will see if she is elected.
Either Clinton is lying again here, or she is delusional. Maybe she thought she was telling the truth when she claimed that there were ties between Saddam and al Qaeda in the run up to the Iraq war. In that case she was either lying or showed she is incompetent to manage our foreign policy. She took plenty of heat last fall for her revisionist history on supporting the Defense of Marriage Act.
As I mentioned in December, Factcheck.org had quite a list of lies from Clinton in their article naming Donald Trump the King of Whoppers. And that list of whoppers from Clinton was far from complete. I discussed the types of dishonesty we have seen from Clinton back in November. Plus there were her lies in the last Democratic debate, which even a former Clinton adviser has chastised her for.
Hillary Clinton claiming she is not a liar is as ridiculous as Richard Nixon saying he is not a crook. Or as ridiculous as Clinton claiming to be a progressive.