"Look, a right-winger hugging Bush": Internet blasts photo of Clinton embracing the Iraq War president

Twitter had a field day when CNN shared a photo of a laughing Hillary hugging George Bush at Nancy Reagan's funeral

Published March 14, 2016 7:25PM (EDT)

 (Twitter)
(Twitter)

Hillary Clinton applauded the Reagans on Friday for "starting a conversation" about AIDS — while, in reality, their administration ignored the epidemic for years and even laughed at what it derisively called the "gay plague," while tens of thousands of Americans died.

Two days later, after Clinton apologized, CNN Political Director David Chalian shared a quaint photo of the Democratic presidential candidate gleefully embracing a laughing George W. Bush at Nancy Reagan's funeral.

The internet exploded, satirizing the photo and adding fake captions. Left-wing Twitter users condemned the many political similarities between the former Republican president and Hillary Clinton — particularly their collaboration in pushing for the Iraq War, which the U.N. explicitly said at the time was illegal, and which led to the deaths of more than 1 million Iraqis.


By Ben Norton

Ben Norton is a politics reporter and staff writer at AlterNet. You can find him on Twitter at @BenjaminNorton.

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George Bush Hillary Clinton Iraq War Nancy Reagan Twitter