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No, the Clintons aren’t responsible for more deaths than the coronavirus
If Your Time is short
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Conspiracies linking the Clintons to various deaths are longstanding and unsubstantiated. We’ve debunked a number of them.
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The novel coronavirus has killed thousands globally and a growing number of people in the United States.
In some corners of the internet, every crisis traces back to Bill and Hillary Clinton. No matter how many times fact-checkers swat down hoaxes faulting them for murders and other mischief, there’s always another conspiracy floating around, or so it seems.
This time, a Facebook post suggests that the political family is responsible for more deaths than the novel coronavirus that’s infected more than 153,000 people worldwide.
"Coronavirus — 22. Clintons — 39," said an image posted to Facebook on March 9, 2020. The post doesn’t specify that the numbers are in reference to alleged death tolls, but comments from the original poster and other social media users make the connection clear.
The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
In reality, there’s no proof that the Clintons have a "body count" or have killed people who have damaging information on them, as hoaxes about the Clintons routinely allege.
These conspiracies are not new. In a 1998 fact-check of a bogus hit list that purported to name dozens of people the Clintons had killed, Snopes wrote that similar rumors had been spreading for decades. Since our start in 2007, we’ve also seen numerous Clinton-related conspiracies.
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We’ve debunked claims alleging the Clintons were behind the celebrity deaths of everyone from Kate Spade to Anthony Bourdain to Kobe Bryant to Paul Walker. We’ve also quashed numerous baseless rumors about the Clintons orchestrating the murders of political leaders and enemies.
Recently, we debunked a Wisconsin state lawmaker’s false claim that "more people have died from knowing Hillary" than the novel coronavirus.
As of March 15, COVID-19 had killed 5,735 people globally and 41 people in the United States, according to the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Protection. More recent news reports have the U.S. death toll topping 70 people as of March 16.
As of March 9 — the date the Facebook post went up — COVID-19 had killed 3,809 people globally and 11 people in the U.S., according to the WHO and the CDC. But those numbers were lagging, as some news reports from March 8 had the U.S. number up to 22 people.
Regardless of where the coronavirus death toll sits, there’s no credible evidence to substantiate the claim that the Clintons are behind the deaths of 39 people.
We rate this post Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Facebook post, March 9, 2020
World Health Organization, "Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report – 55," March 15, 2020
World Health Organization, "Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report – 49," March 9, 2020
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Internet Archive, "Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the U.S.," March 16, 2020
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Internet Archive, "Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the U.S.," March 9, 2020
CBS News, "Coronavirus shutdowns spread across U.S. as death toll tops 70," March 16, 2020
The New York Times, "In U.S., Cases of Coronavirus Cross 500, and Deaths Rise to 22," March 8, 2020
Snopes, "Clinton Body Bags," Jan. 24, 1998
PolitiFact, "Legislator’s "joke": More people died from knowing Hillary Clinton than coronavirus," March 7, 2020
PolitiFact, "Conspiracy theory tries to connect Clintons to Kate Spade’s death," Feb. 18, 2020
PolitiFact, "No evidence to support Paul Walker-Clinton conspiracy theory," Feb. 10, 2020
PolitiFact, "No, Kobe Bryant didn’t tweet about having dirt on Hillary Clinton before his helicopter crashed," Jan. 27, 2020
PolitiFact, "No evidence tying union president, jail guards and Bill and Hillary Clinton to Jeffrey Epstein death," Jan. 14, 2020
PolitiFact, "Another Clinton body count hoax — this one starring JFK Jr. — is wrong," Nov. 8, 2019
PolitiFact, "Decades-old conspiracy theories about Vince Foster and the Clintons are still wrong," Nov. 8, 2019
PolitiFact, "No evidence to support this Clinton body count hoax," Aug. 27, 2019
PolitiFact, "There’s no evidence that the Clintons were involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s death," Aug. 12, 2019
PolitiFact, "Facebook post shares photo of actor and claims he is Chelsea Clinton's 'dead bodyguard,'" March 1, 2019
PolitiFact, "No, a doctor was not murdered after criticizing the Clinton Foundation," Oct. 22, 2018
PolitiFact, "Misleading headline connects Clinton, Abedin to New York woman's death," July 19, 2019
PolitiFact, "No evidence woman who died in home explosion was to testify against Clintons," July 18, 2018
PolitiFact, "Clickbait headline wrongly blames Clintons for Anthony Bourdain's death," June 12, 2018
PolitiFact, "Internet hoax claims that investigators working for Trey Gowdy were found dead," March 29, 2018
PolitiFact, "Fake headline says Donna Brazile knows Seth Rich was murdered by Clintons," Nov. 15, 2017
PolitiFact, "Pete Olson said Bill Clinton basically told Loretta Lynch 'we killed Vince Foster,'" July 5, 2017
PolitiFact, "Blogger falsely ties death of U.N. official to Clintons," June 30, 2017
PolitiFact, "Saga of bodies found in barrels on Clinton property is fake news," June 26, 2017
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More by Bill McCarthy
No, the Clintons aren’t responsible for more deaths than the coronavirus
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