Election 2016: Hillary Clinton and the Truth Question

Last Updated on February 5, 2022

The so-called “liberal media” certainly didn’t do liberal darling Hillary Clinton any favors this week.

Scott Pelley, anchor of the CBS Evening News asked Clinton what could be one of the simplest questions any reporter could ever ask any political candidate:

Have you always told the truth?

Let me ask a question now: How should a politician answer that question?

How do you think your favorite politician would answer it if he or she were truly being honest?

One more little question: How would you answer it?

Come on, be honest now.

It turns out that Clinton’s response was probably one of the worst responses she could have given:

I’ve always tried to. Always. Always.

Tried to?

Ouch.

Let’s be realistic for a minute: does anyone actually believe any politician “always” tells the truth? I doubt it. But in most cases, when they don’t, it’s either because they’re just dishonest to begin with or because for some important reason — most likely explained away with something vague like “national security” — they may be prevented from telling the whole story.

Telling only a portion of the truth, though at times necessary and even reasonable, will always be regarded by some people as a “lie of omission.” (This is particularly true when the people in question happen to be of the opposite political party of the person concealing information.)

I would imagine Hillary Clinton, like every other politician, was trying to give herself a bit of breathing room for the invariable “examples” of her “lies” that her political foes were lining up to post. Every other candidate has the same foes with the same enthusiasm to demonstrate their “lies” as well.

Pelley even pointed out it sounded like she was trying to give herself “wiggle room,” adding that President Jimmy Carter told the country, “I will never lie to you.”

Clinton’s follow-up response, that she doesn’t believe she has ever lied, and that she doesn’t believe she ever will, made a bad situation worse.

A friend of mine asked how I might answer the question if I were running for president and had political experience in a role that might have put me in a position where I might not have been able to give full details on a situation.

My answer was that I would have acknowledged that very fact.

How would you have answered the question? How should Clinton have answered it?