Hillary Clinton Received Debate Questions in Advance-Truth! & Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Hillary Clinton was given a list of questions that would be asked during presidential debates and other campaign events hosted by news networks.
The Truth:
We initially rumors that Hillary Clinton had received debate questions in advances as “fiction” — but we’ve since learned that the rumor is a combination of truth and fiction.
Rumors that Clinton had received the debate questions in advance started after the first presidential debate between Clinton and Trump at Hofstra University in September. That rumor appears to be false.
However, leaked emails have since confirmed that the Clinton’s campaign received questions in advance of two town hall events held during the Democratic primaries in March. CNN contributor and DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile supplied the questions to Clinton’s campaign, Politico reports:
In the first instance, ahead of a March 13 CNN town hall, it appears that guest-moderator Roland Martin from TV One may have shared his contributions to the questions with Brazile. In an email the day before the town hall to senior Clinton staffers, Brazile wrote: “From time to time I get the questions in advance” and included the text of a question about the death penalty. An email later obtained by POLITICO showed that the text of the question Brazile sent to the Clinton campaign was identical to a proposed question Martin had offered CNN. (A similar, though not identical question, was ultimately posed to Clinton at the town hall).
Brazile also tipped off the Clinton campaign that a “woman with a rash” would be asking a question during the town hall held in Flint, Michigan, with Bernie Sanders:
In the newest email, sent one day before the March 6 Democratic primary debate in Flint, Michigan, Brazile tells senior campaign staff that “One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash. Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the ppl of Flint.”
CNN cut ties with Brazile on October 14th in response to the leaked emails, and the network stated that it was “completely uncomfortable” with what had occurred.
So, while it’s true that Clinton received questions in advance of two town hall appearances with Democratic rival Bernie Sanders in March — there’s no proof that she received questions in advance for the three presidential debates with Donald Trump.
The Baltimore Gazette fake news site published the report immediately following the first between Clinton and Donald Trump on September 27th. The story, which appeared under the headline, “Clinton Received Debate Questions Week Before Debate, According to Sources,” reports:
Earlier last week an NBC intern was seen hand delivering a package to Clinton’s campaign headquarters, according to sources. The package was not given to secretarial staff, as would normally happen, but the intern was instead ushered into the personal office of Clinton campaign manager Robert Mook. Members of the Clinton press corps from several media organizations were in attendance at the time, and a reporter from Fox News recognized the intern, but said he was initially confused because the NBC intern was dressed like a Fed Ex employee.
The reporter from Fox questioned campaign staff about the intern, but campaign staff at first claimed ignorance and then claimed that it was just a Fed Ex employee who had already left. No reporters present who had seen the intern dressed as a Fed Ex employee go into Mook’s office saw him leave by the same front entrance. The Fox reporter who recognized the intern also immediately looked outside of the campaign headquarters and noted that there were no Fed Ex vehicles parked outside.
Clinton seemed to have scripted responses ready for every question she was asked at the first debate. She had facts and numbers memorized for specific questions that it is very doubtful she would have had without being furnished the questions beforehand. The entire mainstream media has specifically been trying to portray Trump as a racist and a poor candidate. By furnishing Clinton with the debate questions NBC certainly hoped to make Clinton appear much more knowledgeable and competent than Trump. And though it is unlikely that anyone will be able to conclusively prove that Clinton was given the debate questions, it seems both logical and likely.
Baltimore Gazette states in its “About Us” section that it’s Baltimore’s “oldest news source and one of the longest running daily newspapers published in the United States” — but that description is intentionally misleading.
In reality, the Baltimore Gazette had a 10-year from 1865-1875, records kept by the Library of Congress indicate. Someone recently revived the Gazette and has been publishing a mixture of real and fake local and national news stories that has left many readers confused.
One example is a story about a man that stole Sudafed from a Walgreens on East Fayette Street in Baltimore — a story that sounds real enough, but isn’t. The story includes a description of the suspect and a phone number for readers to call with tips. However, Baltimore’s City Paper learned from police that that theft never occurred:
BPD spokesman T.J. Smith says the story “doesn’t appear to be true” and notes that the phone number listed for anyone with information to contact is not affiliated with the department.
It’s not clear who’s operating the site, but it’s safe to assume that it’s not a reliable source of news. That’s why we’re calling the rumor that Clinton received debate questions in advance “fiction.”