Concerns in the Middle East continue to be a big topic of debate for the candidates seeking to be the next President of the United States. A part of that the country of Iran.
During an interview on national television, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Hillary Clinton called President Barack Obama “naïve” for saying he would “sit down and talk to the Iranians” during the 2008 Democratic Primary.
PolitiFact Florida heard the claim and gave it a HALF TRUE rating on the Truth-O-Meter.
PolitiFact writer Joshua Gillin said Clinton did say those words, but there’s a lot of nuance to the claim. During a 2008 Democratic debate, both then-Senator Obama and Clinton said they would be open to sitting down with Iran and other countries the George W. Bush Administration refused to speak with, but Obama said he would do it without pre-conditions.
Hillary Clinton took a different approach.
“Her comment about being naïve came a little later though when she said it would not be right to do this in the first year of the presidency and then just sit down without having sent in envoys and get things going,” Gillin said.
Gillin went on to say President Obama did not sit down with those countries during the first year of his presidency. That actually didn’t happen until 2015.
For that reason, this statement was rated HALF TRUE.
SOURCE: Clinton calls Sen. Obama "naive" over Iran debate statment
- Quad-City Times, "Clinton, Obama trade barbs in Quad-City Times interviews," July 24, 2007
- Associated Press, "Clinton: Obama is ‘naive’ on foreign policy," July 24, 2007
- CNN, "CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate transcript," July 24, 2007
- CNN, "The CNN Democratic presidential debate in Texas," Feb. 21, 2008
- New York Times, "Clinton and Obama Campaigns Spar Over Debate," July 25, 2007
- PolitiFact, "Clinton endorses diplomacy," Feb. 1, 2008
- PolitiFact, "Bush gets Obama wrong on foreign policy," Feb. 12, 2008
- PolitiFact, "He has said it again and again," May 21, 2008
- PolitiFact, "Kissinger and Obama aren't really on the same page," Sept. 27, 2008
- Arms Control Association, "Timeline of Nuclear Diplomacy With Iran," January 2016
- Radio Free Europe, "Iran Nuclear Negotiations: How We Got Here," accessed Jan. 17, 2016
- U.S. Institute of Peace, "Timeline of Iran's Nuclear Activities," accessed Jan. 17, 2016
- Email interview, Sanders spokespeople Michael Briggs and Warren Gunnels, Jan. 17, 2016