Hillary: 'Right-Wing Apparatus' to Blame for Troop Comment Firestorm

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton said Sunday that she was right to tell U.S. troops that Americans back home were starting to doubt President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, calling complaints that her comments undermined military morale "the latest flaming charge by the right wing."

"Let me correct the record. It didn't happen," Clinton told CBS's "Face the Nation." "I know that's the latest flaming charge by the right wing, but that's not what happened."

The top Democrat claimed instead that she was merely responding truthfully to a question from a soldier with the 10th Mountain Division when she told him, "There are questions being raised about the administration's policies."

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Clinton blamed a "right-wing apparatus" for the firestorm over her remarks.

"You know, I find it so interesting that this has now become an issue, largely fueled by a lot of the talk shows and the other sort of right-wing apparatus."

"What I said is what I believe," the top Democrat added.

"These young men and women serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, they're on the Internet, they get the media, they know very well there is a debate about our policies," she explained, overlooking persistent reports that troops are concerned over distorted press coverage of their mission in Iraq.

But Sen. Clinton insisted, "From my perspective, it is fully appropriate in talking with our soldiers to have that kind of conversation with them."

Her defense prompted "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert to ask, "But if someone suggests you're undercutting morale by criticizing the commander in chief to these soldiers in Iraq, it doesn't trouble you?"

"Well, I don't think that's what I did," Clinton shot back.

"First of all, from my perspective, answering a direct question by an American soldier who knows very well that in previous conflicts in our country we didn't always support our troops" was the right thing to do.

The top Democrat then accused the Bush administration of not supporting the troops with adequate supplies, complaining, "We haven't given them enough body armor. We didn't give them enough armored Humvees. We didn't do what was necessary to give our men and women on the ground the full support that they deserve."

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