In Monday stories on World News and Nightline, ABC's Jake Tapper broached a subject few, if any, mainstream journalists have dared: How Senator Hillary Clinton's current claims that her 2002 vote on the Iraq resolution was not an endorsement of war do not match what she said in 2002. In the World News version of his story, Tapper pointed out how "a month before her vote on the Iraq War, she said this:" Viewers then heard Clinton on the September 15, 2002 Meet the Press: "I can support the President. I can support an action against Saddam Hussein because I think it's in the long-term interests of our national security." But, Tapper noted, "Now, she says this:" He ran a clip of her in Berlin, New Hampshire on Saturday: "I gave him authority to send inspectors back in to determine the truth, and I said this is not a vote to authorize preemptive war."
Tapper also recounted an incendiary comment from Senator Barack Obama, a remark not mentioned on Monday's CBS Evening News or NBC Nightly News:
"Obama, new to presidential politics, stumbled, saying troops killed in Iraq died in vain."
Obama, at an event in Ames, Iowa: "Over three thousand lives of the bravest young Americans wasted."
Tapper: "He later expressed regret for that remark."
Tapper's February 11 World News story looked at how Clinton and Obama are handling the Iraq war issue and attacks on their positions. After a clip of anti-war protesters interrupting Obama at a Chicago speech, Tapper pointed out Clinton's contradiction:
Tapper: "Senator Hillary Clinton, too, faced tough questions about Iraq during her first campaign visit to New Hampshire. After all, a month before her vote on the Iraq War, she said this:"
Tapper: "Now, she says this:"
Clinton in Berlin, New Hampshire on Saturday: "I gave him authority to send inspectors back in to determine the truth, and I said this is not a vote to authorize preemptive war."
Man in audience: "I want to know if right here, right now, you can say that that war authorization vote was a mistake?"
Clinton: "I have taken responsibility for my vote. The mistakes were made by this President.”
