Hillary Clinton defended her changing political stances by saying that everyone on the stage at one point in time had done the same thing. Clinton also said that the changes occurred because of new information that had been released.
While Clinton campaigned she was asked about the Keystone XL pipeline; she would defer to her time as secretary of state, where she had launched a review. Clinton said that she did not want to interfere with the ongoing decision making between the president and Secretary of State John Kerry. Clinton finally took a stand on the issue on September 22, saying she was against the pipeline.
"I never took a position on Keystone until I took a position on Keystone," Clinton said.
Clinton defended her stance against the pipeline by saying that she was on the forefront of climate change starting in 2009 and during her time as secretary of state. Before making her stance on Keystone known Clinton faced pushback from green groups for her long-held silence.
When campaigning Clinton has expressed her concern about the "dirty" oil that would be coming in from Canada. She has also said that she does not know why there needs to be another pipeline built when the current pipeliness are crumbling.
At the debate Clinton told the story of how President Obama and she had crashed a secret meeting the Chinese were having and got them to sign the first international agreement to combat global climate change.
"I'm not taking a backseat to anybody on my values, my principles, and the results that I get," Clinton said.