Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign has sought to trash allegations made in a new book that she changed her position and turned a supporter of the US-India civil nuclear deal after Indian donations began to flow to her husband’s Clinton Foundation.
“Clinton Cash is attempting to rewrite history to fit a pre-determined partisan narrative,” Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin told ‘Politico’ journal, adding: “It only takes a quick look at Hillary’s actual voting record and statements to see that this conspiracy theory doesn’t even come close to passing the smell test.”
The controversial book, whose full title is “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Help Make Bill and Hillary Rich”, devotes full one chapter to the India nuclear deal, claiming donations and overtures to the foundation to get Hillary to support the deal.
Clinton herself has been dismissive of the book, which is due for release only on May 6 but whose contents have been leaked to major media outlets, At a campaign stop in New Hampshire earlier this month, she termed the book, written by conservative author Peter Schweizer, one of many “distractions and attacks” that she could be facing from the Republicans in the coming months as her campaign gathers momentum.
Excerpts from the chapter on the India nuclear deal, titled, “Indian Nukes: How to Win a Medal by Changing Hillary’s Mind,” have been published by ‘Politico’.
Schweizer himself outlined the chapter on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show on Tuesday, saying: “In 1998 the Indian government conducted nuclear tests, Bill Clinton imposed restrictions on the export of US nuclear technology, because this violated the nonproliferation treaty — Hillary Clinton supported that position.”
He then went on to assert: “In 2005, the Indian government wanted those restrictions lifted. Hillary Clinton at that time supported a killer amendment to stop that from happening. After 2005, a number of Indian interests, including an Indian politician that admits now that his donation to the Clinton Foundation wasn’t even his money, those donations flowed. In 2008, she reverses course, and
supports the export of US nuclear technology.”
‘Politico’ quotes Schweizer as writing in the book that in 2006, “Hillary was still a reluctant and questionable supporter of the bill.” Schweizer also alleges that in 2006 Clinton supported a “‘killer amendment” that would have effectively gutted the bill by capping India’s fissile production.