This is a response to that "13 minutes of lying" video /u/PM_ME_ECON_ARTICLES posted:
Recently, this video has been making the rounds. It has been around for awhile, but now it is even being written about in national news articles. It is often used as a generic response to any Hillary Clinton supporter on social media. But as I actually watched the video, I noticed something funny - it isn't what it says it is. The vast majority of the video isn't even attempting to portray lies, it's just odd random clips strung together. Some are woefully out of context and others don't seem to serve any purpose whatsoever.
I am crafting a comprehensive response to this video. Feel free to copy/paste and use this when necessary.
0:00 - 0:06
Fair use. Okay cool.
0:07 - 0:20
Here, Anderson Cooper cites three examples of Hillary Clinton changing her view on an issue.
The first is gay marriage - she used to oppose it, now she is for it. Yep, that's true. And it applies to the vast majority, if not all, liberal politicians. And yes, that includes Senator Sanders.
Does this mean Clinton, Sanders, and Obama should be condemned as "anti-gay" because at one point they did not support gay marriage? No, not at all. In contrast with the impression of many young people today, opposing gay marriage at one point or another does not mean the politician was "anti-gay." Gay marriage is not - and was not - the only LGBT issue. People who act like gay marriage has always been THE gay rights issue have an enormous lack of historical perspective, and to suggest such is usually indicative that an individual was not alive and/or politically aware during the 80s and 90s. More on this later.
The second is immigration - Cooper says that Clinton supported President Obama's immigration policy in the past but now says it is too tough. Due to vague wording, it is unclear what specifically Cooper is referring to here. But it is generally true that Clinton, along with the rest of the Democratic Party, has shifted gradually left on this issue. To be fair, the extent of the issue has greatly changed as well. Net migration with Mexico has gone from positive, to zero, to now negative. Immigration is a complicated issue, and so politicians tend to have complicated views on it - again, Senator Sanders is no exception.
The third is the TPP - this is the easiest to defend. This trade agreement has been continually modified over the past few years. The final text was not available until the end of last year, meaning that those who opposed the TPP were basically just doing so on guesswork. Once the text was finalized, Clinton expressed her dissatisfaction with the finished product.
0:21 - 0:27
"I have always fought for the same values and principles."
Yeah, this isn't a lie. You can shift policy positions while still coming from the same values.
0:28 - 1:56
In this segment, several clips are played of Hillary's statements on gay marriage over the years. First of all, I would like to note that the clip from 2004, ironically, in its full context is actually her speaking in opposition to an amendment that would've banned gay marriage federally.
But also, I'd like to take this opportunity to give some perspective for all of you who are getting riled up about positions on gay marriage but were born after 1990. Yes, gay marriage is awesome. We made a lot of progress and that's fantastic. But for many decades, gay marriage was not "THE" gay rights issue. Even gay rights groups were unsure if they wanted to pursue it - many in the LGB community considered it unimportant or even "giving in" to heterosexual customs. Rather, the "gay rights issues" that these groups were fighting much more strongly included fighting against anti-sodomy laws, fighting against discriminatory workplace practices, and promoting awareness/research on AIDS. Gay marriage only became the preeminent issue later on. Want to know why most of the middle aged gay people you know support Hillary? Want to know why Ellen DeGeneres loved Hillary even in 2008? Because even though she was late in supporting gay marriage, she has consistently fought on the right side of important LGBT issues, including in her Senate voting record.
1:57 - 2:08
What is the point of this clip? Proving Clinton has a sense of humor about her own shortcomings? How dare she!
2:09 - 2:48
So... Hillary has said she is both moderate and progressive. She can be moderate on some issues and progressive on others, which is exactly what she says in the debate clip. This doesn't seem to be a big problem.
2:49 - 3:13
I don't get it. Is there a lie somewhere here? Using sound effects and big red letters that say "30,000 personal emails" doesn't mean it is outrageous, especially if it counts all sorts of invitations, forwarding, etc. etc.
3:14 - 4:10
A clip from Trey Gowdy going on about something in the Benghazi committee. I'm pretty sure if he was right about less than 1% of the emails being in the system, the committee would have been able to come up with something more damning than what they currently admit they have, which is nothing. I've been able to find no factual basis for what he's saying here.
4:11 - 5:05
More political grandstanding from the Benghazi committee, with an even weaker argument. Y'all do know that in emergencies, it's not unexpected that people would be communicating in more phone calls and in person meetings rather than leisurely emails, right?
5:06 - 5:28
If she's anything like some of the old people I know, she's saying she sends emails on behalf of both her and her husband. Alternatively, it's very possible that Bill Clinton has someone like a personal assistant who sends emails for him. Not to mention that the "two email" claim seems to be a bit of a humorous exaggeration anyway.
5:29 - 5:40
Once again, this video fills time with a seemingly random clip of Hillary being human.
5:41 - 6:51
Wow, such undeniable cleverness in the editing of speech bubbles and question marks here.
The first attempt here at portraying a "lie" is the selective editing of a 2007 speech to act as if Hillary said that homeowners are solely responsible for the crisis. As she says in the full speech, both homeowners and exploitative banks played a part in this. And that's not just not a lie - that's accurate. There are many people that can be blamed for the crisis - banks, homeowners, people in government. It was complicated, and presenting a complicated evaluation of the issue is not worthy of condemnation.
(EDIT: Bonus full context from that speech as provided by another redditor: https://np.reddit.com/r/hillaryclinton/comments/4k49ba/a_comprehensive_response_to_hillary_clinton_lying/d3c8aso)
The other clever editing here is adding the list of Hillary's donors to the side of the video. These donations are not directly from the companies listed. It is donations from employees of those companies. Investment bankers are some of the richest people by occupation, so it makes sense that they would be pretty high up on the list. Plus, investment bankers benefit when the economy grows just like everyone else. So if they believe Clinton can help the economy, they stand to benefit from that too.
6:52 - 7:18
Is this supposed to be a lie? 9/11 did happen in New York. I'm starting to think this isn't even attempting to be a video of lies at all!
7:19 - 8:37
While I see what this video is trying to do with this juxtaposition, it's not the same thing. In 2008, Hillary was defending an individual mandate against Obama who (ironically) opposed it at the time. Now in 2016, Hillary is arguing that Sanders' plan strips away too many other current systems in order to create a new one. While the juxtaposition is interesting, it's just an entirely different argument. To portray Hillary's 2008 statement as "Democrats can never disagree on health care" is just ridiculous.
8:38 - 10:56
Yep, Bosnia. Bad call, story was way exaggerated by Clinton. Clinton apologized. We're 11 minutes into a 13 minute video and you finally got ONE lie, I'll totally give you this one. Congrats. Let's see if you'll get another one in the remaining time.
10:57 - 12:56
Based on the summation of those clips, my conclusion is pretty easily that Clinton supported NAFTA, wanted to make it the best trade agreement it could be, wanted it to be both free and fair trade, and was then disappointed when its results were not as good as she had hoped. I don't see any contradiction here.
As a side note - dramatic background music and an edited-in fart? Really?
My overall evaluation of this video is that it is mostly random filler, and it doesn't even try to be what it says it is in the title - a video of Hillary Clinton lying for 13 minutes. At best, this video includes one solid lie and some slightly vague politicalspeak. Truly damning for Hillary. /s