Fact Checker: Fact checking Hillary Clinton’s latest ads

'As first lady, she helped get health care for 8 million kids”

'The senator who made sure the heroes and families of 9/11 got the care they needed.”

Source of claim: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in her Family Strong TV ad, which started airing this week in Eastern Iowa

Analysis

Clinton released two TV ads this week, both 60-second spots highlighting her support of children and families. Family Strong starts with Clinton talking about her mother's tough childhood as motivation for Clinton's advocacy for kids. A narrator then describes Clinton's accomplishments from the time she was First Lady of Arkansas to her tenure as U.S. Secretary of State.

Clinton used variations of the statements when she ran for president in 2008. When asked for sourcing information on these statements, Clinton's Iowa communications director, Lily Adams, provided a dozen citations from media outlets and Clinton's previous news releases going back to the early 2000s.

When Clinton claims she helped obtain health care for 8 million children, she's referring to the Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides federal matching funds to states for health insurance for families with children. There were 8.1 million children enrolled in the program in 2014, according to Medicaid.gov.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, are credited with creating the program, then called SCHIP, in 1997. Kennedy, who died in 2009, told the Associated Press in 2007 the legislation wouldn't have been adopted without pressure from Clinton, who at the time was First Lady.

'The children's health program wouldn't be in existence today if we didn't have Hillary pushing for it from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue,” Kennedy told AP in 2007.

Gene Sperling, a Hillary Clinton campaign adviser who served as one of President Bill Clinton's lead budget negotiators in 1997, told the AP in 2007 Hillary Clinton favored boosting the SCHIP to $24 billion, instead of $16 million proposed as part of a compromise.

'Her office was across from mine, and I knew what her priorities were,” Sperling said. 'I remember her having a lot of influence - you're getting this done because you know the First Lady wants it.”

Clinton was elected the first female senator for New York in 2000. The Family Strong ad claims she used this position to lobby for rescue workers and families of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Similar statements made in 2008 campaign ads were checked by several organizations, including PolitiFact and the New York Times.

Two days after the attack, Clinton introduced a bill to expedite payment of benefits to public safety officers killed or injured in connection with the attack. The bill became law Sept. 18, 2001.

Clinton was among Democratic senators who put holds on the nomination of Mike Leavitt to be administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2003 until President George W. Bush agreed to reexamine the environmental effects of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, the Washington Post reported.

The New York Daily News reported in 2005 Clinton and Rep. John McHugh, R-NY, got the Pentagon to fully recognize the service of National Guard soldiers at ground zero.

Conclusion

As a second-time U.S. presidential candidate, it is not surprising Clinton would recycle some of the same claims. The campaign was ready to defend the truthfulness of the recent TV ads with multiple sources, which are credible and nonpartisan.

For the two verifiable claims in the Family Strong ad, we give Clinton an A.

Criteria

The Fact Checker team checks statements made by an Iowa political candidate/office holder or by a national candidate/office holder about Iowa, or in advertisements that appear in our local market. Claims must be independently verifiable. We give statements grades from A to F based on the accuracy and context.

If you spot a claim you think needs checking, email us at factchecker@sourcemedia.net.

' This Fact Checker was researched and reported by Erin Jordan. Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com