What happened: Campaigning for Hillary Clinton in Indiana on Thursday, the former president scolded the media for making too much of his wife's factually incorrect recollection of her 1996 visit to Bosnia. "There was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night, when she was exhausted, misstated, and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995," Clinton said. "... And you would've thought, you know, that she'd robbed a bank the way they carried on about this. And some of them, when they're 60, they'll forget something when they're tired at 11 p.m. at night, too." Bill Clinton went on to say that not since Eleanor Roosevelt had a First Lady gone into a combat zone.

Why that's wrong: Hillary Clinton recounted her version of the Bosnia visit -- that her aircraft had to perform a corkscrew landing to avoid sniper fire -- several times on the campaign trail, day and night. She didn't immediately apologize for the remarks. She said she "misspoke" about the Bosnia trip only after video footage showed her and her entourage calmly walking about the airport tarmac in Bosnia without helmets. The trip occurred in March 1996, not 1995 as Bill Clinton stated. That was after the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords in December 1995, according to FactCheck.org. Also, Pat Nixon traveled to Saigon during the Vietnam War and Barbara Bush went to Saudi Arabia two months before Desert Storm.

Last word: Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer responded Friday by saying, "Senator Clinton appreciates her husband standing up for her, but this was her mistake and she takes responsibility for it."

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