Hillary Clinton Campaign Press Release - NAFTA-Gate: False Denials from the Obama Campaign

Over the last few days, the Obama campaign has made a number of false claims about its communication with the Canadian government regarding Sen. Obama's position on NAFTA.

We now find that there is a memo from the Canadian government that makes clear that the Obama campaign did in fact communicate with the government, making assurances to the Canadian government that are different from what he has told voters.

The following is a compilation of the false denials:

2/27/08 – "Earlier Thursday, the Obama campaign insisted that no conversations have taken place with any of its senior ranks and representatives of the Canadian government on the NAFTA issue." [CTV, 2/29/08]

2/28/08 – Burton: "Again, this story is not true. There was no one at any level of our campaign, at any point, anywhere, who said or otherwise implied Obama was backing away from his consistent position on trade." [ABC, < a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/%3Ca%20href%3D"http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/Story?id=4365922&page=1">http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/Story?id=4365922&page=1">2/29/08]

2/28/08 - Rice: "The Canadian ambassador issued a statement that was absolutely false. There had been no contact. There had been no discussions on NAFTA. So we take the Canadians at their word...period." [MSNBC, 2/28/08]

2/29/08: Anchor: "So, completely inaccurate, did not happen, end of discussion." Sen. Obama: "It did not happen." [WKYC TV, 2/29/08]

2/29/08 - Goolsbee: "It is a totally inaccurate story...I did not call these people and I direct you to the press office." [New York Observer, 2/29/08]

2/29/08 – Burton: "There was no one at any level of our campaign, at any point, anywhere, who said or otherwise implied Obama was backing away from his consistent position on trade." [Politico, 2/29/08]