Fact Check

Did Hillary Clinton Say 'I Would Like to See People Like Donald Trump Run for Office'?

“In fact, when you say businessmen and women, I can’t help but think of a particular one that I would just love to see running for the presidency at some point in the future."

Published Oct. 28, 2016

 (FLICKR)
Image Via FLICKR
Claim:
Hillary Clinton suggested during a 2013 speech that she would like to see Donald Trump run for President.

On 17 October 2016, the now-defunct website The Rightists published an article positing that Hillary Clinton said during a 2013 speech she wanted to see someone like Donald Trump to run for President:

The Rightest was a "hybrid" website that published a mixture of real and fake news:

TheRightists.com is independent News platform That allow People and independent Journalist to bring the news directly to the readers. Readers come to us as a source of independent news that not effected from the big channels.

This is HYBRID site of news and satire. part of our stories already happens, part, not yet. NOT all of our stories are true!

In this case, the "news" portion of the article was a speech Clinton purportedly delivered to Goldman Sachs in 2013. While an excerpt of the speech was published by Wikileaks, the Clinton campaign has refused to verify the documents:

MALE ATTENDEE: My question is, as entrepreneurs, we risk a lot. And Mike Bloomberg had 30 billion other reasons than to take office. Do we need a wholesale change in Washington that has more to do with people that don't need the job than have the job?

SECRETARY CLINTON: That's a really interesting question. You know, I would like to see more successful business people run for office. I really would like to see that because I do think, you know, you don't have to have 30 billion, but you have a certain level of freedom. And there's that memorable phrase from a former member of the Senate: You can be maybe rented but never bought.

And I think it's important to have people with those experiences. And especially now, because many of you in this room are on the cutting edge of technology or health care or some other segment of the economy, so you are people who look over the horizon. And coming into public life and bringing that perspective as well as the success and the insulation that success gives you could really help in a lot of our political situations right now.

The Rightists used the above-quoted speech as the basis of their article, but then they added several fake quotes in relation to Donald Trump:

And then she just had to go on. “In fact, when you say businessmen and women, I can’t help but think of a particular one that I would just love to see running for the presidency at some point in the future,” Clinton added. “I don’t know what it is exactly about him, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but my instinct is almost never wrong. And it’s telling me that Donald Trump would be very successful if he were to venture into politics in the future.”

Asked to elaborate on her statement, the former Secretary of State argued that she thinks that businessmen “can’t be bought” and that they’re “very honest.” “And I think that goes especially for Donald Trump, whose successful projects and business ventures have made him synonymous with big business and, more importantly, creating thousands of jobs. I also think he understands the philanthropic and charitable side of things quite well, which is a crucial skill for any politician,” she praised her current counter-candidate.

The above-displayed quotes, however, do not appear in the transcript of Clinton's alleged 2013 Goldman Sachs speech. These are fictional quotes created by a "hybrid" web site that publishes a mixture of fake news and satire.

In summation, WikiLeaks published an excerpt allegedly from a speech Hillary Clinton delivered to Goldman Sachs in 2013 in which the former secretary of state said that more businessmen should run for office. Clinton did not, however, specifically mention Donald Trump in that speech.

Sources

Keith, Tamara.   "WikiLeaks Claims to Release Hillary Clinton's Goldman Sachs Transcripts."     NPR.   15 October 2016.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.