KNUS guest falsely asserted Clinton “endorsed” MoveOn.org's “stand against the American military”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Mary Smith, who is a member of Rudy Giuliani's (R) presidential campaign in Colorado, falsely claimed on KNUS 710 AM's Backbone Radio that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) “voted to endorse [the] stand against the American military” by MoveOn.org, which ran an ad in The New York Times critical of Gen. David Petraeus. Clinton in fact voted for an amendment that specifically criticized the MoveOn.org ad as “an unwarranted personal attack.”

Mary Smith, a representative of Republican Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign in Colorado, falsely asserted on the September 23 broadcast of KNUS 710 AM's Backbone Radio that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) “voted to endorse” MoveOn.org's “stand against the American military” -- a reference to the group's controversial full-page advertisement criticizing Gen. David Petraeus that appeared in The New York Times on September 10. In fact, as Media Matters for America has noted, Clinton voted for an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 that specifically criticized the MoveOn.org ad as “an unwarranted personal attack on General Petraeus.” The amendment, proposed by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), also condemned Republican-backed attacks against Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and former Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA).

Speaking with guest host Karen Kataline, president of the Jewish Republicans of Colorado, Smith referred to “this whole garbage about General Petraeus” and cited MoveOn's ad. The ad appeared the same morning that Petraeus, the senior U.S. military commander in Iraq, appeared before the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees to testify about progress in the war in Iraq. The ad bore the headline and subheadline “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?: Cooking the books for the White House.”

From the September 23 broadcast of KNUS 710 AM's Backbone Radio, with guest host Karen Kataline:

KATALINE: I hear from a good many Jewish Democrats that Rudy [Giuliani] is a Republican that they would support, and I have heard that from independents as well, not just Jewish Democrats. Independents like Rudy, and I personally think that he has the best chance to beat Hillary. So I'm sort of going on the record with that; I haven't thrown my full support, but I think that that's something for folks to listen to. One of the things that I've been happy about to see is that Rudy is starting to challenge Hillary directly.

SMITH: Absolutely. Some of Rudy's -- some of Hillary's stance are so outrageous. I mean, this whole garbage about General Petraeus. General Petraeus came back to America after months in the theater in Iraq and came back to give a report about how we're doing. And before hearing about it, before listening to him, before even giving him a chance -- in fact, it must have been weeks before, because the creative was done. They had a whole giant half-page ad in The New York Times mocked up and ready, and in fact in The New York Times on Monday before he could even open his mouth. These are not people who are listening, who are open-minded, who want to learn from a guy who has spent his life on behalf of America and is going to spend a day giving his leadership and his advice about the current state. These are people who've made up their minds. And I'll tell you what: If Hillary Clinton wants to be on the team -- and in fact, now she's voted to endorse their stand against the American military. She has endorsed it. Worse than that is Barack Obama's non-vote.

In saying that Clinton “voted to endorse” the MoveOn ad, Smith apparently was referring to Clinton's vote against an amendment sponsored by Republican Sen. John Cornyn (TX) to “strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all the members of the United States Armed Forces” and “specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Petraeus by the liberal activist group Moveon.org.” Smith, however, ignored Clinton's vote in favor of SA 2947, which, while not specifically mentioning MoveOn, did condemn the “September 10, 2007, ... advertisement in the New York Times” as “an unwarranted personal attack on General Petraeus; who is honorably leading our Armed Forces in Iraq and carrying out the mission assigned to him by the President of the United States.” The Boxer amendment also condemned attacks by any person or organization “on the honor, integrity, and patriotism of any individual who is serving or has served honorably in the United States Armed Forces.”