Clinton Lied About NAFTA Support

By Eric on March 20, 2008

I wrote yesterday about the inconsistencies between Sen. Clinton’s campaign speeches and the newly-released records of her time as First Lady. One of the biggest issues–and one that might have had a huge impact had the Clinton papers been released prior to the Ohio primary–was NAFTA.

On February 24, just before the March 4 primary which included Ohio, the Clinton campaign issued this “fact check” regarding NAFTA:

Hillary criticized Sen. Obama for sending out a mailer that claimed she said NAFTA was a “boon to the economy” when she never did. Today, the University of Pennsylvania’s FactCheck.org concluded “We do judge that the Obama campaign is wrong to quote Clinton as using words she never uttered, and it has produced little evidence that she ever had strong praise of any sort for NAFTA’s economic benefits.”

Also, Hillary has been critical of NAFTA long before she started running for President. For example, here’s Hillary in March 2000:

What happened to NAFTA I think was we inherited an agreement that we didn’t get everything we should have got out of it in my opinion. I think the NAFTA agreement was flawed. The problem is we have to go back and figure out how we are going to fix that.

Well, now that we’ve had a chance to look at all the facts, it turns out that not only did Hillary Clinton support NAFTA in 1993, but she stopped by a closed-door briefing to encourage others to do so as well.

“It wasn’t a drop-by it was organized around her participation,” said one attendee [of the briefing]. “Her remarks were totally pro-NAFTA and what a good thing it would be for the economy. There was no equivocation for her support for NAFTA at the time. Folks were pleased that she came by. If this is a still a question about what Hillary’s position when she was First Lady, she was totally supportive of NAFTA… For people who worked hard to pass NAFTA and who support the importance of markets opening for the economy in the long term, they’re very upset. A number of the women who were there are very upset. You need to have some integrity in your position. The Clintons when Bill Clinton was president took a moderate position on trade for Democrats. For her to repudiate that now seems pretty phony.”

Recalls a second attendee, “they were looking for women in international trade who supported NAFTA. Senator Clinton came by at the end. And of course she asked for our support and help in passing NAFTA.”

Women who attended that event, the second attendee says, have been incredulous to see Clinton distance herself from the trade agreement as she campaigns today. “They’re all saying, ‘What’s this all about?’ We all heard it firsthand.” She says Clinton isn’t being honest with voters today.

Hillary Clinton lied. She lied when she said, “I have been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning.” She lied in Ohio and she’s lying in Pennsylvania. She lied blatantly. She lied deliberately. And I’m willing to bet that she’ll lie again.

Tags: 2008, Hillary Clinton, lies, NAFTA, White House papers

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