What’s the deal with Elizabeth Warren video?

Did Hillary Clinton flip-flop on the bankruptcy bill?

If you’ve seen the Elizabeth Warren video from 2004, you know that Mrs. Warren described how she educated Hillary Clinton on a dangerous bill in the late-1990s that would have made declaring bankruptcy more difficult for average would. As a result of her lessons, Mrs. Clinton convinced President Bill Clinton to completely reverse course and veto it. Several years later, when Mrs. Clinton was now the Senator from New York, she voted for the same bill. Mrs. Warren believed that she had been “bought” by the special interests that wanted to see the bill passed, and that’s why she “flip-flopped.”

Now, this story is partially true in a technical sense but mostly false in a realistic sense. It is true that Mrs. Clinton voted for the bill when it came before her as a Senator. However, she did so reluctantly, knowing that it would pass either way due to heavy Republican gains that made the vote filibuster-proof. Mrs. Clinton made the tactical choice to attach amendments to improve the bill by protecting child support and alimony payments, even though she couldn’t stop it completely. Eventually, the bill passed the United States Senate by a 83–15 vote.

Here is what Mrs. Clinton had to say in her own words at the time:

“Many of my colleagues may remember that I was a strong critic of the bill that passed out of the 106th Congress. While we have yet to achieve the kind of bankruptcy reform I believe is possible, I have worked with a number of people to make improvements that bring us closer to our goals, particularly when it comes to child support.”

“Let me be very clear — I will not vote for final passage of this bill if it comes back from conference if these kind of reforms are missing. I am voting for this legislation because it is a work in progress, and it is making progress towards reform.”

Indeed, Mrs. Clinton specifically added amendments to protect things like child support and alimony and allow victims of identity theft to declare bankruptcy and protecting trust beneficiaries.

So while Mrs. Clinton may have technically voted for the bill, she did so only because she was unable to stop the bill and doing so allowed her to amend the bill slightly to make it less cumbersome. Finally, it must be noted that in 2013, Mrs. Warren signed a letter asking Mrs. Clinton to run for President of the United States. Clearly, Mrs. Warren understood this video does not define Mrs. Clinton and somehow disqualify her from the presidency.