Clinton Questions Sanders' Health Care Work in '90s, Despite Video Showing Them Together
"She is literally the one out front."
ST. LOUIS, MO -- Hillary Clinton on Saturday suggested that Bernie Sanders was not involved with her fight for universal healthcare in the 1990’s —- despite video footage from the time that appears to show otherwise.
“I always get a little chuckle when I hear my opponent talking about doing it,” she said at a rally today in St. Louis, Missouri, referring to universal healthcare. “Well, I don’t know where he was when I was trying to healthcare in ’93 and ’94 standing up against the insurance companies, standing up against the drug companies.”
The remark raised eyebrows after a Sanders staffer immediately tweeted out video from 1993 of the Vermont senator standing directly behind the then-first lady during a press conference about healthcare. In the video, Clinton thanks Sanders for being there. “I’m grateful that congressman Sanders would join us today from Vermont,” she said.
The Sanders campaign also pointed out a photo Clinton sent Sanders in 1993 in which she thanked him for his “commitment to real healthcare access for all Americans.”
Clinton’s comment today comes one day after she mistakenly praised the Reagans for their fight against HIV/AIDS. “I misspoke,” Clinton said in a statement. “For that, I’m sorry.”
Clinton’s communications director Jen Palmieri, however, told reporters it is “ridiculous” to call Clinton’s remark about Sanders today a gaffe and that the video of Sanders behind Clinton “proves our point.”
“He is literally standing behind her,” Palmieri said. “She is literally the one out front."