Viral posts on social media claim that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in 1994 that “We can use someone like Donald Trump as president.”
Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee who lost the election to President Donald Trump, never made any such statement. But internet users have been resharing a graphic claiming otherwise.
Some users have shared a variation of that graphic with additional text. “This quote should’ve been all over the internet when he first ran,” it states. “Trump should frame this and put [it] on his wall if he hasn’t already.” It adds, “The only time in history Hillary Clinton has ever been right.”
The quote attributed to Clinton, supposedly given during her time as first lady, is fake. Throughout her years serving as first lady, a U.S. senator from New York, secretary of state, and a presidential candidate, at no point did she publicly state or write that statement. The quote and similar variations have circulated on the internet for years, with some posts claiming she said it in 2013, and it has been debunked repeatedly by fact checkers, including three times by Snopes.
While the quote is entirely fabricated, the photo of Trump and his two children with Clinton is authentic. Trump included the image in the introduction of his 1997 book, Art of the Comeback. “Hillary Clinton, Donny Jr., Eric, and me,” Trump stated in the photo’s caption. “The First Lady is a wonderful woman who has handled pressure incredibly well.”
Trump had flirted with starting a campaign for president years prior in the 1988 election, though ultimately opted against running. In 2000, Trump launched a presidential exploratory committee to run in the Reform Party primaries, a third party whose ultimate nominee in that election, Pat Buchanan, received less than 0.5 percent of the national vote. Clinton did not announce her support, or publicly advocate for a Trump presidency, during either of those instances.
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