During tonight’s Democratic town hall on MSNBC, Hillary Clinton shockingly defended her vote for the Iraq War as a favor for President Bush helping New York after 9/11. Around the 4-minute mark of the video below, Clinton admitted that she had “a different set of experiences” with George W. Bush than Sanders did, in response to Chris Matthews asking her why she was wrong on Iraq War while Sanders was right.

“I’m sitting there in the Oval Office, and Bush says to me, ‘What do you need?’ And I said, ‘I need $20 billion to rebuild, you know, New York,’ and he said, ‘You got it.’ And he was good to his word,” Clinton said in response to Matthews’ question on why Bernie Sanders was right on the Iraq War vote and Clinton was wrong.

“Literally, that same day, I get back to the Capitol, and the Republicans are trying to take that money away. We kept calling the White House, Bush kept saying, ‘I gave them my word, I’m going to stick with it.’ So, you know, I had a different set of experiences.”

As a U.S. Senator from New York, Clinton famously voted for the authorization for use of military force in Iraq in 2003. The War in Iraq is regarded as one of the worst foreign policy blunders in a century, playing a key role in creating the conditions that led to the rise of ISIS.

Earlier in the exchange, around the 90-second mark of the video, Clinton also seemed to echo the Bush administration’s arguments for the Iraq War.

“Saddam Hussein could have ended it immediately. He could have said, come anywhere, look anywhere, we have nothing. But he didn’t choose to do that,” Clinton said. “Remember, at the end of the first Gulf War, we did find evidence of a nuclear weapons program.”

Later in the exchange, Matthews pointed out that the former First Lady and Secretary of State had a pattern of supporting regime change around the world, citing her efforts to oust Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

CLINTON: Libya was very different. You know, I think, it’s, conflating the two does a disservice–

MATTHEWS: But the principle of regime change, what do you make of it?

CLINTON: No, no, look–

MATTHEWS: Constantly trying to knock off their leaders?

CLINTON: No, that, that is just an overstatement that doesn’t really reflect the situation–

MATTHEWS: Don’t you support knocking off Assad? Bashar Assad?

CLINTON: You know, I think that, given the bloodshed that he has spilled, that would be a good outcome. But Americans aren’t gonna do it.

 

Clinton also uttered a surprising remark during her segment of the town hall in which she said the US “didn’t lose a single person” in Libya. Apparently her calculation didn’t include the four Americans who died as a result of the attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi.

The Libyan intervention and ousting of Gaddafi is also responsible for thousands of refugees fleeing genocide at the hands of ISIS-affiliated groups. Thousands more Libyan civilians have been killed in the violence that’s plagued the country in the wake of the instability following Gaddafi’s death.

Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will battle for delegates in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio tomorrow.

Tom Cahill is a writer for US Uncut based in the Pacific Northwest. He specializes in coverage of political, economic, and environmental news. You can contact Tom via email at tom.v.cahill@gmail.com.

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http://usuncut.com/politics/hillary-clinton-iraq-war-vote-bribe-video/