Hillary Clinton Snaps at Greenpeace Activist on Fossil Fuel Question, Is Lying

In the video you’ll watch below, taken at a campaign event in Purchase, NY, Hillary Clinton faces a question from a Greenpeace activisit named Eva Resnick-Day that is in no way unusual: “Will you act on your word to reject fossil fuel money in the future in your campaign?” In fact, she’s probably faced it a thousand times already. Her reaction, though, went just slightly off the deep end:

“I don’t have…I have money from people who work for fossil fuel companies,” she began. “I am so sick—I am so sick—of the Sanders campaign lying about that. I’m sick of it.”

Whether Resnick-Day caught Clinton at a bad moment, or whether she’s becoming stressed at the persistence of the Sanders campaign, she snapped (or “went berserk,” per some outlets). It wasn’t a great look for Clinton, and there was immediate fallout.

First, the hashtag #ImSoSick began trending on Twitter, promoted by Sanders supporters using her words to air their own grievances about Clinton. Then came the inevitable fight—Clinton supporters claimed Sanders was running a “negative campaign,” his supporters shot back that “facts aren’t attacks,” and it was eventually revealed that Resnick-Day has no affiliation with Sanders at all.

Then, of course, there was the question of truth. Had Clinton taken money from fossil fuel companies, or was it just, as she claimed, that a few employees from that industry contributed?

Most Popular

Well, according to NPR, an outlet that many (including me) have come to see as a propaganda wing of the Clinton campaign, workers from the fossil fuel industry have given Clinton a “paltry” $307,651 this election season—far less than many other sectors have donated. They left it there, of course, failing to mention a few other facts:

1. Fossil Fuel interests have “pumped $3.25 million into the largest super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.”

2. “Nearly all of the lobbyists bundling contributions for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign have at one time or another worked for the fossil fuel industry.”

3. From a post by Resnick-Day: “Secretary Clinton’s campaign and the Super PAC supporting her have received more than $4.5 million from the fossil fuel industry during the 2016 election cycle. Eleven registered oil and gas industry lobbyists have bundled over 1 million dollars to her campaign.”

4. And finally, a statement from Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver, making many of the same points:

“It is disappointing that Secretary Clinton has leveled an accusation that just isn’t true. It’s very clear from research done by Greenpeace that she’s not just receiving money from ‘individuals’ who happen to work in the oil, coal and gas industry. Fifty-seven lobbyists from the industry have personally given to her campaign and 11 of those lobbyists have bundled more than $1 million to help put her in the White House. If you include money given to super PACs backing Clinton, the fossil fuel industry has given more than $4.5 million in support of Clinton’s bid.

So, if nothing else, we’ve learned a few things. First—opinion alert!—this is confirmation that corporate media outlets like NPR are bought and sold. Second, for someone who apparently wants to fight for climate change, Hillary Clinton takes a ton of money from fossil fuel interested. And third, she appears to be under an enormous amount of strain as she fights to hold off a surging Sanders campaign over the primary’s final stretch.