Fact Check! Ann Coulter Smacks Down the Myth That Hillary Gave Up A Fancy Career in Law to Defend Children

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand took to the DNC stage last night to talk about the values of America, values that Hillary Clinton supposedly embodies.

“We have a responsibility to one another,” she said. “It’s about who we are as a nation. It’s why after law school, she could have gone to a fancy law firm, but she chose to work at the Children’s Defense Fund, where she advocated for children with disabilities.”

It’s a nice story, but is it true?

Hillary’s website certainly wants to you to think so.

Her bio reads, “After law school, Hillary could have taken a high-paying job in Washington or New York. But instead, she went to work for the Children’s Defense Fund.”

There’s just one problem.

Re Gillibrand's speech: Are we sure Hillary could have gone to a fancy law firm after failing the DC bar exam?

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 26, 2016

Hillary failed the D.C. bar exam. She couldn’t have worked at a fancy D.C. law firm if she had wanted to.

https://twitter.com/grascarp/status/728532153437442048

In her memoir, Living History, she writes, “I had taken both the Arkansas and Washington D.C. bar exams during the summer, but my heart was pulling me toward Arkansas. When I learned that I had passed in Arkansas but failed in D.C., I thought that maybe my test scores were telling me something.”

There’s no shame in failing the bar exam, but you can’t then turn around and say you made a selfless choice to work somewhere else.

It’s hard to give someone credit for a choice they made when they had no other option.