Hillary Clinton Blames Abraham Lincoln for Taking “Private” and “Public” Positions

Hillary Clinton attempted to defend the revelations in the WikiLeaks dump by blaming Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States. Mrs. Clinton told big bankers and donors that she had two policy positions–one she has in private, and one she has in public–but said at the debate on Sunday that she was referring to how President Abraham Lincoln had carefully negotiated with individual lawmakers in Congress during his push for the Thirteenth Amendment.

Mr. Trump fired back.

“So ridiculous. Look, she lied, got caught lying and now she’s blaming the lie on the late great Abraham Lincoln,” he said. “Honest Abe never lied, that’s the difference between Abraham Lincoln and you.”

The entire transcript of the leaked speech via WikiLeaks is below.

*CLINTON SAYS YOU NEED TO HAVE A PRIVATE AND PUBLIC POSITION ON POLICY*

*Clinton: “But If Everybody’s Watching, You Know, All Of The Back Room Discussions And The Deals, You Know, Then People Get A Little Nervous, To Say The Least. So, You Need Both A Public And A Private Position.”*

CLINTON: You just have to sort of figure out how to — getting back to that word, “balance” — how to balance the public and the private efforts that are necessary to be successful, politically, and that’s not just a comment about today. That, I think, has probably been true for all of our history, and if you saw the Spielberg movie, Lincoln, and how he was maneuvering and working to get the 13th Amendment passed, and he called one of my favorite predecessors, Secretary Seward, who had been the governor and senator from New York, ran against Lincoln for president, and he told Seward, I need your help to get this done. And Seward called some of his lobbyist friends who knew how to make a deal, and they just kept going at it.

I mean, politics is like sausage being made. It is unsavory, and it always has been that way, but we usually end up where we need to be.

But if everybody’s watching, you know, all of the back room discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous, to say the least. So, you need both a public and a private position.

And finally, I think — I believe in evidence-based decision making. I want to know what the facts are. I mean, it’s like when you guys go into some kind of a deal, you know, are you going to do that development or not, are you going to do that renovation or not, you know, you look at the numbers. You try to figure out what’s going to work and what’s not going to work. [Clinton Speech For National Multi-Housing Council, 4/24/13]