Clinton “refused repeated requests to meet with the Gold Star Mothers.”
She has met with them four times
This rumor started in 2001 after two officials from the Gold Star Mothers, two moms whose children were killed in combat, dropped by Clinton’s new Senate office. They did not have an appointment and Clinton was not in the office.
A story on the conservative Web site NewsMax reported that the women were unhappy with “the outright shabby treatment shown them by the former First Lady… She and her staff simply refused to meet with them.”
That claim was picked up in an
e-mail
that circulated in 2001 and has gotten new life since Clinton became a presidential candidate. The e-mail says that “None other than the Queen herself, Hillary Rotten Clinton … refused repeated requests to meet with the Gold Star Mothers.”
Shirley Jones, the legislative chairman for the group in 2001 and one of the women who stopped by Clinton’s office, says the e-mail is wrong. She said she sent Clinton a letter requesting a meeting and has since met with her four times. Clinton even sponsored a bill on behalf of the Gold Star Mothers.
“As a mother she was very understanding,” Jones says. “I felt she was very supportive — and I’m a Republican.”
The Gold Star Mothers Web site says the allegation in the e-mail is incorrect. “This story passed through several people before being reported by NewsMax on May 26, 2001 and the details were lost … The NewsMax article did not get the story correct and we deeply regret the misunderstanding about Senator Hillary Clinton.”
So we give the e-mail a False.
Our Sources
American Gold Star Mothers, Hillary Rumor Not True
NewsMax.com, Hillary Snubs Gold Star Mothers Mary 26, 2001
BreakTheChain.org, All That Glitters Oct. 17, 2001
The Politico, Untraceable e-mails spread Obama rumor Oct. 15, 2007
Albany Times Union, Clinton smooths out Gold Star flap, Aug. 3, 2001
Clinton news release, Senator Clinton Introduces Legislation to Provide Special Pension to Parents of Servicemen and Servicewomen Killed During War July 2, 2004
Interviews with Philippe Reines, spokesman for Sen. Hillary Clinton; Hamilton McWhorter (by email); Louise McWhorter; Dan Frisa, NewsMax columnist; Stephen Stambough, Political Science professor, Cal State Fullerton; Shirley Jones former national legislative chairman, American Gold Star Mothers; Georgianna Carter-Krell, first vice president, American Gold Star Mothers; John Ratliff, editor, BreakTheChain.org; Chris Lehane, former press secretary to Vice President Gore.
William Safire, Safire's Political Dictionary , Third Edition, Ballantine Books, 1978
Edward J. Larson, A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign, Free Press, 2007
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Packaging the Presidency: A History and Criticism of Presidential Campaign Advertising, Oxford University Press, 1996
National Public Radio, Kenneth C. Davis commentary on history of mudslinging
