Clinton Healthcare Hit Backfires as Evidence Shows Sanders 'Literally' Right Behind Her

Then Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) standing behind then First Lady Hillary Clinton during a press conference on healthcare reform in 1994. (Photo: Screenshot/C-SPAN)

 

"Where was he when I was trying to get health care in ’93 and ’94?" ... Yeah, the photograph kind of says it all.

by Jon Queally, staff writer

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/03/12/clinton-healthcare-hit-backfires-evidence-shows-sanders-literally-right-behind-her

Another questionable salvo aimed at detracting support from rival Bernie Sanders may have come back to wound Hillary Clinton on Saturday after comments about his stance on healthcare reform efforts in the 1990's was countered by a flood of evidence which revealed exactly "where he was" on the issue.

As political correspondent Amy Chozick first reported for the New York Times:

Mrs. Clinton accused Mr. Sanders of distorting her record and said the Vermont senator, who has made a single-payer health care system a signature part of his campaign, had not always been such an advocate on the issue.

She said she has "a little chuckle to myself" when she thinks about the current debates over health care. "I don’t know," Mrs. Clinton said. "Where was he when I was trying to get health care in ’93 and ’94?"

The answer: “Literally, standing right behind her,” a Sanders spokesman, Mike Casca, said on Twitter, posting a photo from a 1994 news conference that shows Mr. Sanders next to Mrs. Clinton when the then first lady spoke about the White House’s proposed health care overhaul.

Here's the tweet:

http://twitter.com/cascamike/status/708714719675199488/photo/1

https://twitter.com/cascamike/status/708714719675199488?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

And here's video footage from the '94 news conference:

Subsequently, Casca sarcastically tweeted out this photo to Clinton spokesperson Jennifer Palmieri which revealed more evidence about "the mystery" over where Sanders stood (or in this case, sat) during the healthcare reform battles of the era:

http://twitter.com/cascamike/status/708741015184650240/photo/1

"As Clinton has discovered recently," wrote Peter Wade at Esquire on Saturday, "the Internet age means instant fact checking. Whether she is talking about Bernie's record or Nancy Reagan's efforts (or lack thereof) to help those with HIV, the Internet fact checkers have their fingers poised over the keyboard ready to correct any claim."

In this case, writes Wade, Casca "struck gold."