October 09, 2016 - 7:27 PM
WASHINGTON - A claim from the second presidential debate and how it stacks up with the facts:
HILLARY CLINTON, in response to a question about her saying that politicians need to have "both a public and a private position" in a 2013 paid speech, said, "As I recall, that was something I said about Abraham Lincoln after having seen the wonderful Steven Spielberg movie called Lincoln. It was a master class watching President Lincoln get the Congress to approve the 13th Amendment."
DONALD TRUMP replied, "She lied. Now she's blaming the lie on the late, great Abraham Lincoln."
THE FACTS: Clinton's recollection is correct.
Clinton invoked the movie "Lincoln," and the deal-making that went into passage of the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery, in an April 2013 speech to the National Multifamily Housing Council.
According to excerpts of the speech included in hacked emails published last week by WikiLeaks, Clinton said politicians must balance "both a public and a private position" while making deals, a process she said was like making sausage.
"It is unsavoury, and it always has been that way, but we usually end up where we need to be," Clinton said according to the excerpts. "But if everybody's watching, you know, all of the backroom discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous to say the least. So, you need both a public and a private position."
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Contributed by Associated Press writers Jeff Horwitz and Chad Day.
EDITOR'S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures
News from © The Associated Press, 2016