White House spokesman Josh Earnest refused to comment on a Washington Free Beacon report that Hillary Clinton privately opposed a major U.S. nuclear upgrade supported by President Obama, claiming that the hacked audio of Clinton’s remarks was not verified.
Clinton told a fundraiser in February that she would be "inclined" to cancel the Long Range Stand-Off Missile Program, adding the "last thing we need are sophisticated cruise missiles that are nuclear armed."
The LRSO question came from Andy Weber, a former assistant secretary of defense who oversaw the Pentagon’s nuclear weapons programs. He and William Perry, who served as secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton, called for the cancellation of the LRSO program last year.
"Will you cancel this program if President Obama doesn’t in the next 11 months and lead the world in a ban on this particularly destabilizing, dangerous type of nuclear weapon?" Weber asked at around 39:00 in the recording.
Clinton said she would be "inclined" to do so. "The last thing we need are sophisticated cruise missiles that are nuclear armed," she said.
Her campaign did not respond when asked if her position has changed since then.
Canceling the LRSO program would be a major break from Obama administration policy, which has placed significant emphasis on the missile as a key component of its wide-ranging efforts to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
"I actually have not seen the authenticity of those comments be verified, so I’ll let Secretary Clinton and her team discuss her position on those issues," Earnest said.
Earnest then praised Obama for his work on nuclear security and said future presidents "will need to do their part."
However, the Clinton campaign itself has verified that the audio is authentic. In multiple television appearances since the weekend, Clinton surrogates have been asked about her comments at the same fundraiser describing Bernie Sanders supporters as "living in their parents’ basement."
Regarding the audio, campaign manager Robby Mook said Sunday that Clinton was reflecting on "young people that she’d met who were frustrated that they graduated from college and went into an economy where they couldn’t find the job they wanted." Campaign spokeswoman Karen Finney said Sunday that Clinton was trying to tell supporters they needed to be "patient" with frustrated young voters.