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A meme has been making rounds on the internet recently with a quote attributed to Hillary Clinton:

enter image description here

North Korea requires trained and experienced diplomats. Just sending out tweets won't work.

Is it true that Clinton actually said that in the past?

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JonathanReez
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  • In [this March 2018 interview with Dutch media](https://www.ad.nl/buitenland/trump-jaagt-op-iedereen-hij-leeft-van-chaos~a5685918/) she's quoted as saying "Als je met Kim Jong-un wilt praten over zijn kernwapens, dan heb je daar ervaren diplomaten voor nodig", which Google-translates as "If you want to talk to Kim Jong-un about his nuclear weapons, you need experienced diplomats." Nothing about tweets though. – Nate Eldredge Jun 19 '18 at 03:04
  • [This June 2016 speech](http://time.com/4355797/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-foreign-policy-speech-transcript/) does not use those exact words, but conveys the same concepts. Do you think it might be the source? – Oddthinking Jun 19 '18 at 03:06
  • I went through the transcripts of the debates (as pictured) and while Clinton attacked Trump for tweeting, it wasn't in there. A separate question for Skeptics.SE: Is the second image doctored? – Oddthinking Jun 19 '18 at 03:08
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    And [here](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/hillary-clinton-tweets-won-t-solve-threat-north-korea-n753951), in May 2017: *“Negotiations are critical,” Clinton said of the efforts to achieve peace with the nuclear-armed nation. “But they have to be part of a broader strategy, not just thrown off on a tweet some morning that, ‘Hey, let’s get together, you know, see if we can’t get along and maybe we can, you know, come up with some sort of idea.’ That doesn’t work.”* Summarized in the headline as "Tweets won't work". – Nate Eldredge Jun 19 '18 at 03:08
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    @Oddthinking: one would think she could afford a non-CRT TV by now... – dandavis Jun 19 '18 at 07:22
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    I don't get it -- where's the "notable claim"? Clearly the sentiment is true -- many people have said it, one way or the other. – Daniel R Hicks Jun 19 '18 at 11:28
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    @DanielRHicks: It is a widely shared meme. It is reasonable to believe that a large number of people believe Clinton said this. A short search makes it seem unlikely she used those words. Seems reasonable to me. – Oddthinking Jun 19 '18 at 11:42
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    @Oddthinking - But what's remarkable about it (in both senses)? – Daniel R Hicks Jun 19 '18 at 12:15
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    It doesn't have to be remarkable. It has be widely believed, and for the OP to have some doubts of its veracity. I don't doubt she expressed similar thoughts, but I don't know if she said those words. – Oddthinking Jun 19 '18 at 13:49
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    @Oddthinking - and that's why I am strongly opposed to ALL "did X say Y" questions on Skeptics. They have nothing to do with scientific skepticism, and 9 out of 10 times serve to push/promote someone's pet point of view, since **there's absolutely no difference as to whether the answer is yes or no***. – user5341 Jun 19 '18 at 15:45
  • @user5341 are you suggesting to close [259 existing questions](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/quotes)? – JonathanReez Jun 19 '18 at 16:21
  • @JonathanReez - indubitably. There was a big Meta discussion about them. – user5341 Jun 19 '18 at 16:57
  • @user5341: Yeah, but it's you and me against the world on this one. [User5341's 2011 meta question](https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1244/are-questions-of-the-did-x-say-quote-y-on-topic), [my 2015 meta-question, with two answers from User5341, only upvoted by me](https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3192/should-we-limit-quote-questions), [2016 podcast about them](https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3712/podcast-6-quotes) – Oddthinking Jun 19 '18 at 17:14

1 Answers1

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She has expressed those ideas. But I could not find a reliable source for her saying those exact words together. And she certainly didn't say anything of the sort during the 2016 debates which are pictured in the image, so the image is misleading in that respect. (The transcripts are readily available and can be searched.)

In a March 2018 interview with Dutch media outlet Algemeen Dagblad (published in Dutch), she's quoted as saying:

,,De VS praat niet meer over mensenrechten. Het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken wordt uitgehold. Als je met Kim Jong-un wilt praten over zijn kernwapens, dan heb je daar ervaren diplomaten voor nodig. Mensen die de dossiers en Noord-Korea kennen, de taal spreken. Die mensen zijn weg. Je kunt geen diplomatie hebben zonder diplomaten. Dat gevaar wordt door de regering-Trump niet onderkend.''

Google Translation back into English:

"The US is no longer talking about human rights. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is being eroded. If you want to talk to Kim Jong-un about his nuclear weapons, you need experienced diplomats. People who know the files and North Korea, speak the language. Those people are gone. You can not have diplomacy without diplomats. That danger is not recognized by the Trump government. "

And on May 2, 2017, NBC News quoted her as saying, in a public interview at an event for Women for Women International:

“Negotiations are critical,” Clinton said of the efforts to achieve peace with the nuclear-armed nation. “But they have to be part of a broader strategy, not just thrown off on a tweet some morning that, ‘Hey, let’s get together, you know, see if we can’t get along and maybe we can, you know, come up with some sort of idea.’ That doesn’t work.”

Of course, the image's implication that tweets did work and experienced diplomats were not required, as demonstrated by the June 2018 summit (pictured in the bottom image), is a matter of opinion on many levels. Certainly experienced diplomats were involved in setting up the summit, and it remains to be seen to what extent the summit will improve US-NK relations or lead to North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

Nate Eldredge
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