Last night on 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft asked her the Muslim question and she couldn’t help but add a caveat:
A weird moment of TV, partially captured in the clip above. Clinton denies she thinks Obama’s a Muslim, but her denial seems something other than ironclad, and the interviewer goes back at her on the question.
Here’s the transcript:
“You don’t believe that Senator Obama’s a Muslim?” Kroft asked Sen. Clinton.
“Of course not. I mean, that, you know, there is no basis for that. I take him on the basis of what he says. And, you know, there isn’t any reason to doubt that,” she replied.
“You said you’d take Senator Obama at his word that he’s not…a Muslim. You don’t believe that he’s…,” Kroft said.
“No. No, there is nothing to base that on. As far as I know,” she said.
“It’s just scurrilous…?” Kroft inquired.
“Look, I have been the target of so many ridiculous rumors, that 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,” Clinton said.
As far as I know ???? What the heck does that mean ?
Here’s the video, judge for yourself:
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:20 am
I agree with your assessment of her carefully chosen words. She left an opening with her first answer to the question (that she “took him at his word”) and Kroft skillfully got her to say something even closer to the line: “as far as I know.”
She knows that she has NO chance in Ohio unless the southeastern-Ohio Appalachian working-class voters turn out for her, and she knows many of them believe the Internet lies. She couldn’t go on TV and debunk the rumors, she’s counting on ignorance, hatred, and fear to help “scare up” votes for her. Disgusting. She should be ashamed.
Texas and Ohio voters, please “reject and denounce” this woman by voting for Barack Obama (who has never been a Muslim, by the way — visit his website for all the facts, including links to interviews, news stories, etc. to illustrate the TRUTH about Obama’s religion and Chicago church).
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:51 am
[...] Hillary Clinton Can’t Get Out of the Gutter [Below the Beltway] Hillary Clinton Stokes False Rumors About Obama’s Faith [From the Left] Video: Of Course Obama is Not a Muslim – “As Far as I Know” [Hot Air] [...]