Posted on 03/26/2008 7:20:00 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she made a mistake in claiming that she came under hostile fire in Bosnia 12 years ago, as rival Barack Obama's campaign continued to challenge her credibility. In a recent speech and interviews, the New York senator described a harrowing scene in Tuzla, Bosnia, in which she and her daughter, Chelsea, had to run for cover as soon as they landed for a visit in But video footage of the day showed a peaceful reception in which a young girl greeted the first lady on the tarmac.
Clinton told reporters in Pennsylvania on Tuesday that she erred in describing the scene, which she now realizes after talking with aides and others.
"So I made a mistake," she said. "That happens. It proves I'm human, which you know, for some people, is a revelation."
The more important issue, she said, is whether she would be a better commander in chief than Obama or Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Clinton and Obama are competing for votes in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary.
Clinton's aides had tried to control the Bosnia flap Monday, saying the New York senator "misspoke."
But Clinton had to address the issue herself Tuesday, after repeated airings of the 1996 video clips caused critics to ridicule her.
Reminded that she had said it was the first time she had misspoken in 12 years, Clinton told reporters: "I was joking. Lighten up, guys."
In a March 17 speech in Washington, Clinton said of the Bosnia trip: "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."
That account was still posted on her campaign Web site Tuesday.
Clinton told CNN last week, "There was no greeting ceremony, and we basically were told to run to our cars. Now, that is what happened."
Several news outlets disputed the claims.
Clinton began retracting the remarks in a series of private interviews Monday and Tuesday before addressing about two dozen reporters here after a speech.
She told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "I was sleep-deprived, and I misspoke."
She told KDKA radio in Pittsburgh: "You know, I have written about this and described it in many different settings, and I did misspeak the other day. This has been a very long campaign."
The Obama campaign fueled the Bosnia brouhaha Tuesday, sponsoring a conference call with Pennsylvania reporters that featured retired Maj. Gen. Walter Stewart of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Stewart said he was assigned to the Army's European headquarters when Clinton visited Bosnia as first lady in 1996. He said her claim that she landed under enemy fire insulted U.S. soldiers charged with her security.
Clinton's explanation that she misspoke was "really astonishing," said Stewart, who supports Obama.
"She has no sense of what a statement like that does to soldiers," Stewart said. "She is insulting the command in its entirety."
"Believe me, heads would have rolled all over" if the military put the first lady and her daughter in a position of "unacceptable risk."
At her news conference, Clinton said, "the military and the Secret Service did a terrific job" of handling the situation in Bosnia. "We did take precautions," she said, noting that she was the first president's wife to enter a war zone since Eleanor Roosevelt.
Clinton did her best to change the subject Tuesday. She launched her first TV ad in Pennsylvania, in which she promises to "end $55 billion dollars in giveaways to corporate special interests and invest it in middle class tax cuts and creating new jobs." The ad aired in Ohio prior to its March 4 primary.
At a rally in Greensburg, east of Pittsburgh, she proposed ways to help Americans save for retirement. She would offer up to $1,000 in matching tax cuts to middle-income families who put money into retirement savings accounts. About 3.4 million Pennsylvania families would qualify, she said.
Clinton's plan also would "close the loophole that allows companies to cut their employees' pensions when they sell off subsidiaries," her campaign said in a statement. She also called for bankruptcy law changes to reduce companies' ability to evade pension obligations.
On another front, Obama campaign aides posted his tax returns from 2000 to 2006 on his campaign Web site, and called on Clinton to do the same. They also called on Clinton to release full records of her daily schedule during her eight years as first lady.
Clinton said she hoped to release her tax returns "within the next week."
She was VERY angry when she said this.Anyone have the clip?
“Mistake”.
That’s not how you spell “LIED”.
Bubba wanted to get rid of them both so he could have a grand old time with young women.
This was not a “mistake.” It was a big, bare-faced lie. You don’t make a “mistake” when you claim to have done something you never did, and which you would certainly remember.
She is trying to portray herself as someone who knows something about combat, so as to qualify herself for the most important job in the world.
For any other mortal, this would be called what it is — “resume fraud,” and it is grounds for firing when it is discovered.
Hillary was just confused. Perfectly normal for someone growing up in the rarified air of being named for Sir Edmund. ;-) ;-)
"So what?" "What are you gonna do about it?" "Nothin' - - that's what I thought."
Not really something to joke about, hil..."lighten up"?? I say, "GET A GRIP!!!"
Hil lIE ry..... was no mistake she mentioned it a cpl times....these clintons will do anything to get back in that white house....
>>At a rally in Greensburg, east of Pittsburgh, she proposed ways to help Americans save for retirement. She would offer up to $1,000 in matching tax cuts to middle-income families who put money into retirement savings accounts. About 3.4 million Pennsylvania families would qualify, she said.
Uh, isn’t that what President Bush wanted to do - and was raked over the coals, by the RATS, including Fat Thighs?
Hey, this could happen to anyone if they are tired — mistakenly believing that you came under sniper fire rather than just having a routine visit.
I am surprised that this happened to HER though. I mean, she has such superior insights that only she can read the Wall St. journal and see what everyone else has missed, and turn a couple thousand into a few hundred grand in the cattle futures market. Her relationship with Tyson foods at the time was mere coincidence.
But her facial/body-language said: Whatever... meet me in Denver, untermensch!”
The story line not advanced is the tacit approval of the MSM in enabling Hillarita and Bubba’s fibs. This whopper has been out there for a number of years. She referred to this “storyline” in her My Lies (oops My life) book and has repeated it in the presence of many media people. Anyone contest it then as well as any number of contradictory tales?
I do not have to repeat, but will, if this was attributed to a person of the “R” or “C” persuasion, it would be 24/7 negative wolfpack frenzy.
The only reason it is being highlighted is it assists the Media’s candidate BHO.
Anyone ever figure out how he jumped to the top of the pack in a hotly contested Illinois Senate primary in 2004?
As a greiving widower his poll numbers would have skyrocketed.Plus he could have blaimed it on the military.
She was sleep-deprived. The campaign's too long. So how is she going to handle a whole 4 years as leader of the free world?
Hillary was also one of the first out the gate to condemn Scooter Libby for attributing inconsistencies in his accounts to memory lapses. I guess when you're Hillary Clinton, memory lapses are OK.
SLEEP DEPRIVED!!!! What about that 3am phone call?????
Obviously she'll be blowing zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs when the phone rings at 3AM.
So, why doesn't the media go talk to Chelsea, since she was supposed to have been there WITH her mother, wherever it REALLY was where they "ran for cover"? Wouldn't Chelsea have a memory as to where it might have been instead? Didn't SHE "run for cover" along with her mother? And does not the government (or the White House, even) keep track of all the conditions apparent when the First Lady of the United States of America and her DAUGHTER travels to some DANGEROUS place and keep records to say exactly where Clinton and her daughter really were and what the conditions really were when this "failed memory" happened? I mean, come ON people. This is such a bold-faced LIE by the presumptive President of the United States (not to mention her memory loss) as to be a total joke! She can't think back clearly to 1996 to something that presumeably scared the hell out of her AND her only daughter, yet none of it is true or accurate? God help us if this woman actually gets herself re-planted in the White House at ANY future time. What a complete PHONEY! What a LIAR!
Only the clintons are able to lie about the lies they tell about the lies they tell.
erred ... is that Klintoonian for lied ?
Oh come on! keep this in the realms of credulity!
Next you'll be suggesting bill would have the interns blowing him under the table in the Oval Office!
Keep it real!
hillary clinton, “PHONY SOLDIER” !
I am glad this lies gets a play in the media even though she has told worse lies that should have received media attention.
This made me think the question to Chelsea might have been a setup to divert from this story and get sympathy as well. I noticed Hillary agents have been swamping the talk shows with "not proper question to ask a CHILD" talking points. Child nothing. Chelsea is 27 and campaigning for her mother. Bushes' daughters were not off limit and they were under 21.
Excellent line.
Humanists always claim an "inability to cope" with a situation type excuse, but, yet, demand of others to cope with what they demand, in Nazi like orders to follow, without discussion.
"I'm human" means you have to cope with what I cannot cope with, and if you cannot, you are evil.
It’s crazy how the media is playing the horror flaps of Obama and Hillary. A conservative would have been shot down way before the “Gore invented the internet” flap, and told to appologize for lies told in 1950 or earlier.
It’s always like that: liberals can spare the plumbing and sewage system and spew out in public, while conservatives are criticized for unclean toilets. The same demand goes along in the public vs. private sector, by the way.
The gross slime bag nasty Orwelian behavior is unfortunately popular in some perverted arenas of liberal land. The mainstream media has become beyond pathetic.
It is nice to see how easily she equates herself with those who are actually under sniper fire this very minute.
I remember when I sent my “nuts” letter to that silly Hun during the bulge. *cackle* You guys should have seen his face!
“Gee, I thought it was Bosnia where we got the sniper fire. Maybe it was a White House tea.” Shucks, I forget....
After she's president: She told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "I was sleep-deprived, and I nuked Florida."
BTW, I'm not a believer in conspiracies, but given her overall pattern to try and act tough unneccessarily, what did she know about Waco and when did she know it?
So, why doesn’t the media go talk to Chelsea, since she was supposed to have been there WITH her mother, wherever it REALLY was where they “ran for cover”?
there was a thread the other day showing Chelsea repeating Momma lie the day after is was exposed for what it is.. I’ll post the link as soon as I can find it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIX4c1YCdTI I think this is what you are looking for.
So she’s saying that she was not exposed to sniper fire on this occasion. Is she not saying that she was, indeed, exposed to sniper fire on some occasion, but she was just confused about where she was at the time?
That’s it.
WOW is she pissed.
You can see how annoyed she is.
A glimpse into the REAL Sir Hillary!? Thanks.
You’re welcome. Glad I could help.
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