ABCNews.com falsely claimed Sen. Clinton “held out threat of withholding funding” to troops

Written by Andrew Ironside

Published

Reporting on MoveOn.org's interview with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), an April 10 post on ABCNews.com's Political Radar weblog stated: “Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., held out the threat of withholding funding for U.S. troops in Iraq if President Bush does not agree to a timeline for withdrawal.” But Clinton has done no such thing. Clinton and congressional colleagues have indicated that they will pass legislation to fund the troops. Indeed, the House and Senate have each passed emergency supplemental funding bills for the Iraq war and will meet in conference to reconcile the two versions. Both houses will then be able to send a final version to the president. It is President Bush who has threatened to withhold funds by vetoing a bill if it includes a timeline for redeployment from Iraq.

Clinton stated during the interview: "[W]e should let the American people understand, and let President Bush fully understand that it is he who is rejecting the funding. We have passed funding, but we did it within the context of timelines, and if he can be held responsible for, in effect, vetoing the funding because he will not start to follow the will of the American people, and de-escalate this conflict, and bring our troops home, I think that puts tremendous pressure on Republicans who are going to be running for office again in 2008."

Media Matters for America has previously noted ABC's uncritical reporting of Bush's assertion that Democrats -- rather than Bush himself -- would be responsible for cutting off funding for the troops if Bush vetoes the funding bill. Media Matters has also documented NBC's Nightly News anchor stating that Bush's veto threat constituted “a calculated bet ... that Democrats aren't really going to vote to leave American soldiers high and dry in the middle of the fight.”

From the post on the ABCNews.com Political Radar weblog:

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Eloise Harper Report: In a taped interview with MoveOn.org, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., held out the threat of withholding funding for U.S. troops in Iraq if President Bush does not agree to a timeline for withdrawal.

“I don't want to foreclose any options right now,” Clinton said in the audio-only interview with the anti-war advocacy group. “You know, I don't think we should tell President Bush what we will do. We have to keep the pressure on him not to veto it.”

Clinton's comments were an implicit effort to contrast herself with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., a top rival for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, who took heat from some in the liberal blogosphere last week for telling the Associated Press that “Nobody wants to play chicken with our troops on the ground.”

While the former First Lady kept the option of withholding Iraq war funding on the table, she stopped short of committing to any particular course of action if President Bush vetoes the current war funding bill which includes a March 2008 timetable for troop withdrawal.

“I'm not prepared to throw in the towel and basically concede either point that he, you know, will veto it and then we have to choose one of the strategies that are based on the premise of his veto,” said Clinton.