Not that it needed to be said, but those WikiLeaks emails made it pretty clear that Hillary Clinton didn’t have to worry about invoking her fact checkers in the media from the debate podium whenever things got a little dicey up there.
Things have reached the point where PolitiFact was able to declare as half-true Donald Trump’s assertion that Hillary Clinton deleted 33,000 emails, based on his unprovable, unspoken implication that there was something criminal to her actions. Everyone knows what he meant, though.
Imagine how well viewers took CNN political producer Dan Merica’s note that Hillary Clinton at a rally in Florida Tuesday incorrectly stated she was in New York City on 9/11.
Hillary Clinton incorrectly tells an audience in Florida that she was in New York on 9/11. She wasn't. Here is what she said: pic.twitter.com/Qsxv7kzz0i
— Dan Merica (@merica) November 1, 2016
this tweet is ridiculous..Delete your account
— Jermain Hall (@cycleflyer) November 1, 2016
OK, it is what she said, but no one would ever call out a man for saying something that’s incorrect, right?
Hillary says she was in New York City on 9/11 (She wasn't) pic.twitter.com/3ppmncpeTI
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) November 2, 2016
https://twitter.com/jlpulice/status/793598815597170689
https://twitter.com/UKinNYC/status/793601940634542080
you know what she meant.
— Will Harris (@HesWillHarris) November 1, 2016
Seriously? You're really going to nit pick this?
— Stephanie Mentork (@trumphandq) November 1, 2016
https://twitter.com/JestOneVote/status/793599502812786688
what a a post, it was clear what she meant
— Ashley Rodriguez (@AshleyRod85) November 1, 2016
She was there the next day. Flew a FEMA plane bc all flights cancelled. So just give me a break w the semantics.
— WindUpBird (@MickieMo) November 1, 2016
She was in DC being a Senator. Sept 12th boarded 1st FEMA plane to NYC, got into a helicopter & flew right to Ground Zero. OK?
— Mahlers5th (@CarolynRodham) November 1, 2016
So, would PolitiFact rate this one only half-true, since she clearly misspoke, or true, because her supporters understood what she meant to say?
Congratulations!
You now have zero integrity. #Kudos— #InformedDissent (@PeebsY0) November 1, 2016
https://twitter.com/GlenVotes2016/status/793599960637771776
Hillary’s supporters like fact-checks of her speeches almost as much as they like James Comey these days. “Incorrectly tells” was a bit judgmental; this was obviously more a case of her misspeaking, like she did when she relayed the story of her trip to Bosnia.
https://twitter.com/RONCOULTER/status/793600872521601025
she was in Bosnia under sniper fire remember? and she did not have classified info on her private server
— Henry Castro?? (@Henry3Castro) November 1, 2016
https://twitter.com/BadMisterKitty/status/793601407765151745
"I remember coming under fire from the Pulse nightclub shooter in Orlando. Brian Williams was there, he can confirm."
— Jim Russell (@realjimrussell) November 1, 2016
And Chelsea was jogging next to the Twin Towers . Not Really– 4 years of this ??
— William Benson Huber (@NYCWBH) November 1, 2016
https://twitter.com/ZhidoBandera/status/793600102812319744
Wake me when CNN chyron reads: “HRC says she was in NYC on 9/11 (she wasn't)" https://t.co/vqS1BmvUIC
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) November 1, 2016
Kind of like this one?
https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/763784580633653248
Heck, when Rudy said she wasn't in NYC on 9/11, they called him a liar.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 1, 2016
yes, and they put a 9/12 picture out to mock him. but in that case he FALSELY said she’d claimed to be in NYC on 9/11
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) November 1, 2016
Once they’ve managed to drag Hillary across the finish line, the news networks won’t have to worry about ugly accusations of lying anymore when “Clinton misspoke” will suffice.