Spin Cycle

The Washington Post Factchecker today blows a big hole in Hillary's claim that she took a harrowing trip to Bosnia, which she has cited as evidence of the central role she played in Clinton administration foreign policy.

Hillary, at GW a week ago: "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

That version has been challenged by the comedian Sinbad, who was on the trip with her and didn't remember it as being particularly dangerous. Now, the Post has unearthed old news footage showing Clinton's arrival in Bosnia that give no hint of sniper fire (you can watch here) and the picture, left. It doesn't exactly look she's racing to a car as bullets whiz by, does it?

The Post:

"Had Hillary Clinton's plane come 'under sniper fire' in March 1996, we would certainly have heard about it long before now. Numerous reporters, including the Washington Post's John Pomfret, covered her trip. A review of nearly 100 news accounts of her visit shows that not a single newspaper or television station reported any security threat to the First Lady. 'As a former AP wire service hack, I can safely say that it would have been in my lead had anything like that happened,' said Pomfret."

Unless there's a difference between "landing under sniper fire" and actually having snipers firing at you .....Isn't this one getting kind of blatant?

Update: We got a statement from Hillary spokesman Jay Carson, but nothing specific on the sniper or greeting ceremony claims: "She was traveling as a representative of the US government and there was a war going on and she was flying on a military plane that made an evasive landing in a war zone."