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Mediamatters.Org - On the August 13 edition of
CNN's Larry King Live, CNN
political contributor and Republican strategist Amy Holmes accused Sen. Hillary
Clinton of fostering doubt about Sen.
Barack Obama's religion. Holmes mischaracterized Clinton's response during a March 2 60 Minutes interview to the question of
whether Clinton
"believe[d] that Senator Obama is a Muslim," falsely asserting that "Hillary Clinton herself said
she wasn't -- she thought he was Christian, as far as she knew." As Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented, contrary to
Holmes' claim, Clinton's first three words in response to the
question were, "Of course not." Indeed, during the interview with
CBS correspondent Steve Kroft, Clinton
equated the false rumors about Obama's religion to false rumors about
her: "Look, I have
been the target of so many ridiculous rumors. I have a great deal of sympathy
for anybody who gets, you know, smeared with the kind of rumors that go on all
the time."
From the March 2 edition of CBS' 60 Minutes:
KROFT: You don't believe that
Senator Obama is a Muslim?
CLINTON: Of course not. I mean, that's --
you know, there is no basis for that. You know, I take him on the basis of what
he says. And, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that.
KROFT: And you said you'd take
Senator Obama at his word that he's not a Muslim.
CLINTON: Right. Right.
KROFT: You don't believe that he's a
Muslim --
CLINTON: No. No. Why would I? There's no --
KROFT: -- or implying, right?
CLINTON: No, there is nothing to base that
on, as far as I know.
KROFT: It's just scurrilous --
CLINTON: Look, I have been the target of so
many ridiculous rumors. I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody who gets,
you know, smeared with the kind of rumors that go on all the time.
From the August 13 edition of CNN's Larry King Live:
HOLMES: I agree with Peter [Beinart,
Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow]. I don't think Barack Obama should
give this any more attention, any more oxygen. But I would like to say that so
much of this criticism in this book is being laid at the feet of the GOP, as if
this is a conservative -- concerted conservative smear machine, which it's not.
And let's remember, back in the Democratic primary, it was Bill Clinton
questioning Barack Obama's love of country, when he said that he thought if McCain
and Hillary ran that you would have two candidates who loved their country and
were devoted to their country. So I would like to, you know, kind of put this
out on the table, that a lot of this was coming from Democrats, long before
this [Jerome] Corsi put out this book.
BEINART: Well, but Mary Matalin is
the head of this publishing house.
LARRY KING (host): Yeah. Mary
Matalin is.
HOLMES: I understand that. I
understand that. But so much of the attacks on this is that this is only the
GOP and that it's somehow coordinated and concerted, when, in fact, in
the Democratic primary, we saw left-wing blogs attacking Barack Obama on
religion. Hillary Clinton herself said she wasn't -- she thought he was
Christian, as far as she knew.
Media Matters - CNN's Amy Holmes falsely accused Hillary Clinton of fostering doubt about Obama's religion {...} On Larry King Live , Amy Holmes falsely asserted that "Hillary Clinton herself said she wasn't -- she thought he [Sen. Barack Obama] was Christian, as far as she knew." In fact, during the 60 Minutes interview to which Holmes was referring, when Clinton was asked whether she "believe[d] that Senator Obama is a Muslim," the first three words of her response were, "Of course not." {...} Published: August 15, 2008, 12:24 am - Indexed: August 15, 2008, 3:25 pm - Page Size: 20KB |