http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/03/from-the-fact-c.htmlMarch 21, 2008 5:03 PM
I have now talked to three former Clinton Administration officials whom I trust who tell me that then-First Lady Hillary Clinton opposed the idea of introducing NAFTA before health care, but expressed no reservations in public or private about the substance of NAFTA.
Yet the Clinton campaign continues to propagate this myth that she fought NAFTA tooth and nail because she opposed the substance of the bill.The campaign claims over and over that she did not support NAFTA. That may be emotionally and intellectually true -- but actions speak louder than misgivings.
On a conference call today, as Ben Smith from Politico details, Clinton campaign spokesman Jay Carson claimed that “in four of the five meetings” about NAFTA on then-First Lady Hillary Clinton's schedule, “Sen. Clinton was pushing back.”
Carson says the fifth meeting was the November 10, 1993 pro-NAFTA meeting for businesswomen that we reported on earlier this week, where Clinton was something of the keynote speaker. He says that was just a "drop by" -- which is how it was described in her schedule. But people who attended say it was more like she was the headliner.
And the Clinton campaign will not concede that she was advocating for NAFTA in the meeting.
"That's ludicrous," said Laura E. Jones, executive director of the United States Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, who was there. "There was no question that everyone who spoke including the First Lady was for NAFTA, it was a rally on behalf of NAFTA to help it get passed. It's unquestionable. And there are many people out there who were there who remember the incident who work in this industry."
FULL story at link.