Hillary Clinton quote about Donald Trump running for office is fabricated

A number of Facebook users have shared an image of a widely debunked claim that former Democratic presidential candidate and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once said she’d “like to see people like Donald Trump run for office."

The image features a picture of Ms Clinton standing next to Mr Trump above text which reads: “Hillary Clinton in 2013: ‘I Would Like To See People Like Donald Trump Run For Office; They’re Honest And Can’t Be Bought.’"

The photograph of the pair was taken at Mr Trump’s 2005 wedding reception, which was attended by both Ms Clinton and her husband. 

Although the actual quote is false, it may be loosely based on a comment Ms Clinton reportedly made during a private Q&A at the Builders and Innovators Summit hosted by the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs on October 29, 2013. An alleged transcript of the appearance was later published by WikiLeaks, though no official version of the transcript was published by Ms Clinton’s team and they did not verify the authenticity of it. 

According to the leaked transcript, Ms Clinton was asked whether a "wholesale change" was needed in Washington in terms of people running for office.

She reportedly said in response: “That's a really interesting question. You know, I would like to see more successful business people run for office. I really would like to see that because I do think, you know, you don't have to have 30 billion, but you have a certain level of freedom. And there's that memorable phrase from a former member of the Senate: You can be maybe rented but never bought."

Ms Clinton does not name Mr Trump at any point in the transcript.

The fabricated version of the quote appeared in 2016 in the headline of an article published on a now-defunct website called therightists.com, which reportedly carried a mixture of real news and satire with the disclaimer that not all the stories it published were true. 

The quote was widely debunked at the time by a number of mainstream media outlets. Despite this, it has periodically reappeared on social media. Other fact checking organisations including Snopes, Factcheck.org, Politifact and Reuters have all found the quote to be false.  

The quote is an example of a “zombie claim”—one that crops up repeatedly over the course of weeks, months or years, even after being repeatedly debunked.

False or misleading claims online have the potential to harm individuals, groups and democratic processes and institutions. Online claims can spread fast and far, and are difficult to contain and correct.