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Hillary Clinton Tough on Terrorism
Secretary Clinton Stemming the Tide of Climate Change
ICYMI: Roll Call opinion: Rep. Tim Ryan: “Progressives Are Ready for Hillary”
Hillary Clinton: A Lifetime Champion of the Middle Class
TALKING POINTS: TOUGH ON TERRORISM
BACKGROUND: In a changing and unpredictable world, Hillary Clinton’s leadership on issues of national
security has kept America secure and helped make the world a safer place.
KEY POINTS:
 As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton worked through diplomatic channels to help the United
States fight terrorism and safeguard our national security.
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Secretary Clinton made the case for the raid to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.
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Clinton built relationships with key players in the Middle East and funded
counterterrorism training initiatives.
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Through negotiations with Russia, Clinton successfully worked to reduce the number of
nuclear missile launchers in the world.
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Clinton built and maintained a coalition to enact the toughest sanctions in Iran’s history
in order to encourage Iran to abandon, or at least stall, its nuclear program.
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Clinton negotiated the Gaza cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians, helping avert
an all-out war in Gaza.
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Clinton played a role to end the war in Iraq and begin a transition to civilian society in
Afghanistan.
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Clinton instituted new roles at the State Department to fight terrorism:
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Clinton created the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications to
combat Al-Qaeda’s growing influence online.
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Clinton established the Bureau of Counterterrorism to advance
counterterrorism objectives and our national security.
Clinton identified and led on important issues which affect our national security, such as
the global empowerment of women and climate change.
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Clinton worked to empower women and girls around the world to participate in
their economies. This helps make economies stronger and more stable.
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Clinton prioritized addressing climate change in her time at the State
Department. Weather events caused by climate change can lead to famine and
destroyed infrastructure, which increase instability and unrest.
Serving as a United States Senator representing New York during September 11, 2001, Hillary
Clinton made it a priority to urge the pursuit of justice against Al Qaeda and improve our
nation’s efforts to combat terrorism.
TALKING POINTS: SECRETARY CLINTON STEMMING THE TIDE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
“It took a lot of work by a lot of people to create the problem of climate change over the last centuries.
And it will take our very best efforts to counter it.” – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
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As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton looked to the future, planning for our generation and the
next generation of Americans when she prioritized the fight against climate change as a matter
of foreign policy.
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Secretary Clinton appointed a Special Envoy for Climate Change to serve as an advisor
on international climate change policy.
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She established the Bureau of Energy Resources to address the threat of climate change
posed by the world’s energy consumption.
Secretary Clinton led the way through partnerships and developed incentives to encourage
cooperation and progress toward reducing our footprint on the environment.
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Secretary Clinton helped negotiate an unprecedented agreement between all major
economies to commit to curb carbon emissions through 2020.
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She launched the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, a thirty-seven country partnership
that is making important strides to reduce methane emissions all over the world.
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Recognizing that dirty cookstoves kill nearly 2 million people a year and are harmful to
the environment, Secretary Clinton took action and launched the Global Alliance for
Clean Cookstoves in order to save lives and protect our planet.
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She signed an agreement with Brazil to strengthen cooperation as the U.S. and Brazil
work together to meet the grave challenge of global climate change.
Roll Call opinion: Rep. Tim Ryan: “Progressives Are Ready for Hillary”
By Rep. Tim Ryan
January 8, 2015, 5:00 a.m. EST
The progressive values and policies that Hillary Rodham Clinton represents have Democrats and
Americans across the country more excited than ever. But lately, pundits and some in the media have
attempted to drive a narrative that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is not unified behind
Hillary. As a progressive myself, and one who proudly hails from the ultimate battleground state of Ohio,
this could not be further from the truth. Clinton’s record speaks for itself.
Progressives support Clinton because of her experience and leadership on many of the issues that
matter most. In Arkansas, she expanded childhood education throughout the state. As first lady, she
worked to increase access to health care for every American. As a senator, she repeatedly fought to
increase the minimum wage and extend unemployment benefits. While secretary of State, she worked
to empower women and expand LGBT rights and more recently, through the Clinton Foundation, she
has developed initiatives to help children and low-income families.
Simply put, Clinton understands the importance of investing in the fundamental building blocks that
make America the envy of the world.
As an economic populist, protecting and growing our economy while putting Ohioans back to work is a
consistent priority of mine. Being progressive is about assuring the safety of our citizens and our
economy with a strong manufacturing base, both old-line manufacturing and the newer fields of
advanced and additive manufacturing. I believe we can achieve this by re-establishing the United States
of America as the world’s leading innovator in advanced manufacturing — with my district’s national
additive manufacturing and 3-D printing facility and through the No. 1 ranked university incubator in the
world — both right here in Youngstown, Ohio. These types of ideas and innovation are happening in
places such as Youngstown largely thanks to a long-term vision for our nation and public-private
partnerships, something Clinton has spent a lifetime forging as a first lady, senator and secretary of
State.
I know that Hillary Rodham Clinton shares these same progressive and American values. Throughout her
career, she has consistently worked to advance middle-class families, ensuring that Ohioans and all
Americans can make more money and have the means to support their families.
Democrats have unified behind Clinton in an unprecedented way, in part, because of her advocacy on
these core progressive policies that ensure everyone has a fair shot at success. From the people who
know her best and for those like me who have fought alongside her to ensure that everyone has access
to the American Dream, there is no question that Clinton has the message and vision — and will have
the agenda — to be the Democratic Party’s standard bearer to lead America on the world stage.
I am ready for Hillary. Should she run for president, she would be the best person to lead our country
forward. I believe her progressive and American values can lift up all Americans and I know the people
of Ohio stand ready to assist her should she decide to run.
TALKING POINTS: HILLARY CLINTON: A LIFETIME CHAMPION OF THE MIDDLE CLASS
“With all due respect, it is not rich people who made America great. It is the vast American middle class.
It is the upward mobility of people who thought they could do better than their parents.”
–Hillary Clinton
BACKGROUND: Hillary Clinton has dedicated her life to ensuring that hardworking Americans can
succeed. In uncertain times, families need faith that opportunity for their children and grandchildren is
alive and well. Hillary Clinton wants the American Dream to be a real possibility for every child and
every family across our nation.
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Hillary Clinton knows that tomorrow’s shared success starts with today’s child, and her
dedication to children began long before she ever entered public office. In fact, her first job out
of law school was for the newly-formed Children’s Defense Fund, an organization she would
later chair.
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Hillary Clinton has worked to expand access to early childhood education for children of
lower-income families. As First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary Clinton introduced her husband to the
HIPPY program, which expanded early childhood education to economically disadvantaged
children. In the Senate, Clinton partnered with Kit Bond in an effort to expand voluntary full-day
pre-K for children from low-income families. Today, as part of the Too Small to Fail Initiative to
improve the health and well-being of children five and under, Hillary Clinton is working to close
the “word gap” for kids in low-income families who often have smaller vocabularies than their
classmates.
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Hillary Clinton has worked to increase health coverage for millions of children in low-income
and working families through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a program she
helped created as First Lady. In the Senate, Hillary Clinton looked for ways to strengthen the
program, introducing bills to allow states to expand it.
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Hillary Clinton’s record proves she believes that every American should be able to earn an
equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work. As a Senator, Hillary Clinton introduced the Paycheck
Fairness Act and was an original cosponsor of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
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In the Senate, Hillary Clinton supported increasing the minimum wage and voted repeatedly to
protect and increase it. She was an original cosponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007,
and authored the 2006 and 2007 Standing with Minimum Wage Act to tie Congressional salary
increases to an increase in the minimum wage.
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As a Senator, Hillary Clinton supported progressive tax policies that required millionaires to
pay their fair share. She opposed tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations in 2001
and 2003, and she supported a variety of middle-class tax cuts, including tax credits for student
loan recipients, and keeping in place the tax cuts for those who make under $250,000 a year.
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Clinton has said “that inherited wealth and concentrated wealth is not good for
America,” and she has consistently voted against repealing the estate tax on
millionaires, doing so in 2001, 2002, and 2006.
Hillary Clinton supported working families going through difficult times through no fault of
their own. In the Senate, she was a bipartisan leader on fighting to extend emergency
unemployment benefits.
BOTTOM LINE: Leading the charge for equal pay for equal work, fighting to increase wages, strongly
advocating for progressive tax policies and access to education and healthcare to help middleclass families – Hillary Clinton has fought for an America and a future where everyone can rise to their
potential.
HILLARY CLINTON’S RECENT STATEMENTS ON THE MIDDLE CLASS
In her many public appearances over the past year, Hillary Clinton has continued to advocate for the
middle class by sharing her vision all over the country:
 In a speech to a women-focused event for Democrat Tom Wolf, “Clinton focused on ‘hardworking families’ and restoring America’s luster and a strong middle class with ‘a fresh start.’”
According to Politico, Clinton “gave one of her strongest political speeches since her 2008
campaign ended in June 2008 as she headlined a women-focused event for Democratic
gubernatorial Tom Wolf in Pennsylvania. Clinton focused on ‘hard-working families’ and
restoring America’s luster and a strong middle class with ‘a fresh start,’ as well as women’s pay
equity and her gauzy first days as a new grandmother. For the first time in months, Clinton’s
public talk was neither a dry recitation of public policy nor a self-reflection about her tenure as
secretary of state.” [Politico, 10/9/14]
 Clinton’s language at a women-focused event for Democrat Tom Wolf was “some of her
strongest about rebuilding the middle class.” According to Politico, “The remarks were some of
her strongest about rebuilding the middle class. They came after she was accused of being out
of touch for her comment in June about being ‘dead broke’ when she left the White House, and
for giving paid speeches at exorbitant prices.” [Politico, 10/9/14]
 The theme of Clinton’s speech at an event for Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf
was working families. According to BuzzFeed, “The thread running through Clinton’s message
here in Pennsylvania, the state she won six years ago in a primary against Barack Obama, was
working families — a theme she teased repeatedly throughout her speech with populist
undertones, mentions of her granddaughter, and stories about her own trips as a child to
Scranton, where Clinton’s father, Hugh, was born to a working-class immigrant family.”
[BuzzFeed, 9/9/14]
 In Pennsylvania, Clinton criticized the power of corporations, siding with middle-class families.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Though she and her husband have raised more than $1
billion from U.S. companies and corporate officials over the last two decades, Mrs. Clinton
signaled that she sided with everyday families struggling to pay bills and keep afloat.
Corporations, she said, ‘seem to have all the rights, but none of the responsibilities of people …’
She decried practices that pay women less than men for the same work and took aim at
politicians who’ve belittled women’s rights. ‘A 20th century economy will not work for
21st century families,’ she said.” [Wall Street Journal, 9/9/14]
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Hillary Clinton’s speeches are revealing a theme that she would fight to restore and re-open
the middle class. According to TPM, “The notion of ‘upward mobility’ was central to Clinton's
message to the New American audience in May. She described it as ‘time-tested wisdom’ that
was ‘at the heart of what I believe is the basic bargain of America.’… Here is how Clinton
described that basic bargain of America, as she sees it, in May: ‘No matter who you are or where
you come from, if you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll have the opportunity to build a
good life for yourself and your family.’" [TPM, 9/22/14]
Hillary Clinton’s speeches are revealing a theme that she can address income inequality and
gender inequality. According to TPM, “So income inequality has been a big part of the message.
But it's also been married to inequality between the sexes. At both the New American and CAP
events, the same factoid made an appearance: That three-quarters of jobs that rely on tips -like ‘waiters, bartenders and hairstylists’ as she said on both occasions -- are held by women….
And she said Thursday that these issues should be used to mobilize voters -- in the 2014
midterms and moving forward.” [TPM, 9/22/14]
In recent speeches, Clinton has taken a tougher stance on big business, likely in “an effort to
find the balance between populism and her familiar centrism” she may need in 2016,
according to Reuters. According to Reuters, “Long viewed as an ally by Wall Street, likely 2016
presidential contender Hillary Clinton has increasingly been taking banks and big business to
task while on the campaign trail for Democrats across the country.… This is a change of tone for
the former New York senator, who faced criticism for her Wall Street ties as recently as
September, after appearing with Goldman Sachs (GS.N) chief executive Lloyd Blankfein. Allies
and analysts see it as an effort to find the balance between populism and her familiar centrism
that Clinton may need in order to broaden her appeal in a potential 2016 Democratic primary
contest.” [Reuters, 11/2/14]
During a New Hampshire midterm event, Clinton discussed expanding economic opportunity
and raising the minimum wage. According to the Boston Globe, “Clinton spoke in New
Hampshire about expanding economic opportunity, raising the minimum wage, and protecting
women’s rights. She acknowledged that, across the country, there is ‘a lot of anxiety and
insecurity.’ But the former secretary of state and US senator from New York struck a hopeful
note: She bookended her remarks talking about her new granddaughter and said seeing another
generation in the family focuses the mind on what’s important. Clinton said she and her
husband were raised to believe the American Dream was within your reach if you worked hard.
‘You should not,’ Clinton told a packed gymnasium, ‘have to be the grandchild of a governor or a
senator or a former secretary of state or a former president to believe that the American Dream
is in your reach.’” [Boston Globe, 11/2/14]
In midterm campaign appearances, Clinton has been echoing populist notes. According to
Bloomberg, Clinton “has been sounding more populist notes of late as a campaign-trail advocate
for Democratic candidates who are on the ballot next week. That's an important turn as she
contemplates a run for president in 2016 because Clinton's biggest weakness among Democrats,
and some Republicans, is the perception that she's too close to Wall Street and corporate
America…. And the more anti-corporate tone is pleasing to the ears of liberals who have pined
for Senator Elizabeth Warren, a scourge of Wall Street banks, to challenge Clinton for the
Democratic nomination. And, they say, it's a message Clinton can use against Republicans
because many in the GOP have turned wary of Wall Street and big corporations since the 2008
financial crash.” [Bloomberg, 10/27/14]
During a midterm appearance in New York, Clinton clarified earlier comments about
companies and job creation, while maintaining the same theme: “Clinton’s for the little guy.”
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According to Bloomberg, “Days after Republicans feasted on her claim that corporations don't
create jobs, Hillary Clinton tried Monday to ‘be absolutely clear about what I've been saying for
a couple of decades.’ ‘So-called trickle-down economics has failed,’ Clinton said as she stumped
for Representative Sean Patrick Maloney in New York. ‘Our economy grows when businesses
and entrepreneurs create good-paying jobs here in an America where workers and families are
empowered to build from the bottom up and the middle out–not when we hand out tax breaks
for corporations that outsource jobs or stash their profits overseas.’ While campaigning Friday
for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley, Clinton created a stir–and drew
criticism from Republicans–by saying, ‘Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and
businesses that create jobs.’…The cleaned-up message, though, hits at the same theme:
Clinton's for the little guy.” [Bloomberg, 10/27/14]
While campaigning for Democrats in the midterm election, Clinton frequently tells voters that
“everyone deserves a second chance, a third chance.” According to a CNN, an investigation into
Clinton’s most common lines on the trail found that Clinton frequently tells voters, "‘Everyone
deserves a second chance, a third chance...’ Clinton has focused a great deal on economic
populism on the stump, an issue other Democrats thinking about seeking the presidency in 2016
have started to tweak Clinton on. ‘Everyone deserves a second chance, a third chance to keep
going and to make something of themselves,’ Clinton said in Iowa earlier this year. ‘That was
one of the most important lessons of my life.’ Clinton usually uses the line to encourage
compassion from a crowd, and to show that she has compassion, too.” [CNN, 10/28/14]
In a San Francisco speech, Clinton revealed some of what may be her economic message:
“Who’s on your side?” According to the Washington Post, “Here in San Francisco on Monday,
Clinton gave a spirited call to arms to Democrats as she road-tested what is likely to be her
economic message if she runs again. The November midterms, she said, come down ‘to a simple
question: Who’s on your side?’ She sounded close to her party’s populist marrow when she
decried the erosion of economic security for many working Americans, and a long way from her
tone-deaf remark earlier this year about being ‘dead broke’ when she and Bill Clinton left the
White House in 2000. ‘It’s time to elect leaders who will fight for everyone to get a fair shot at
the American dream,’ Hillary Clinton said.” [Washington Post, 10/21/14]
Hillary Clinton’s speeches are revealing a theme that she could finish the economic recovery
begun by Obama. According to TPM, “Clinton seems to have a handle of the line she wants to
toe: Obama saved us from worse economic struggles (as his defenders have been saying for
years), but the work isn't over. Implicit, of course, is that she -- if she runs -- would finish the job.
‘We haven't seen a full recovery from the economic crash,’ Clinton said Thursday at CAP. ‘When
the president came in, he deserves an enormous amount of credit for staunching the bleeding
and preventing a further deterioration and getting us out of that ditch we were in. But we know
unless we change our policies, a lot of the benefits are not going to be broadly shared.’ ‘It's not
just about more jobs for more people and better paying jobs,’ she said. ‘It's making sure that the
people themselves get to keep those benefits and build that future back that they are so
desperate to see for themselves.’" [TPM, 9/22/14]
In an interview with PBS this summer, Hillary said: “Bill and I have had terrific opportunities,
both of us…have worked hard, but we’ve been grateful for everything that we’ve been able to
achieve, and sadly that’s just not true for most Americans today…It’s important that we all try to
figure out what we’re going to do, and that’s what I’ve done my entire life, fighting for a higher
minimum wage, or family leave…equal pay for equal work…I think my record speaks for itself.”
At a speech at the Aspen Ideas Festival in June, Hillary said: “At the end of the day, we’re all on
the same team. We’re on the American team. And we’ve got to do a better job of getting our
economy growing again and producing results and renewing the American Dream so that
Americans feel that they have a stake in the future and that the economy and the political
system is not stacked against them, because that will erode the trust that is at the basis of our
democracy.”