Hillary Clinton's Easy Choice on What to Say About 'Hard Choices'

Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Hillary Clinton appears to have combined answers to tough questions with subtle marketing since the publication of her new memoir Hard Choices.

She manages to work the words “hard choices” into questions that range from Iraq to Benghazi to the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange.

During a Council on Foreign Relations event earlier this month, Clinton was asked for her assessment of the merger between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist organization.

Her response?

“There are a lot of hard choices, to coin a phrase,” she began.

“Coin a phrase, yeah,” the event’s moderator, Council president Richard Haas, interjected to laughter.

She also deployed the line while discussing gun control earlier this month.

“We make hard choices and we balance competing values all the time,” Clinton said in a CNN interview. “And I was disappointed that the Congress did not pass universal background checks after the horrors of the shootings at Sandy Hook.”

It’s a two-word refrain that’s been heard frequently in Clinton’s recent interviews.

May 14 — Speech to the American Jewish Committee:

“I can tell you that hard choices are exactly what it will take to achieve a just and lasting peace, a comprehensive peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”

June 9 — Interview with ABC News on Bowe Bergdahl Deal:

“I think this was a very hard choice, which is why I think my book is aptly named. You look at what the factors were going into the decision, of course there are competing interests and values.”

June 17 — Town Hall with CNN on Whether the U.S. Should Cooperate with Iran on Iraq Crisis:

“It’s a very hard choice. And sitting here, I can’t answer it, except to tell you this, unless you get conditions met and assurances made by [Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki].

On Arming Syrian Rebels:

“Well, I said we should have done it, you know, two plus years ago. But I want to be very clear, these are difficult, hard choices.”

June 17 — Interview with FOX News on Benghazi Attack:

“That is, you know, one of the challenges, why I write about hard choices because information is coming at you from all directions…My responsibility is to do the best job that I can leading a diverse group, relying on security professionals, so that we can be in the hard places to help make the hard choices.”


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