Did former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton state that cash should be banned to combat climate change? No, that's not true: Clinton never made such an assertion during a speech in Gujarat, India, and Lead Stories has not found any proof that she has ever publicly made such a statement.
The claim originated from an article (archived here) published by NewsPunch on February 12, 2023, and titled "Hillary Clinton: 'It's Time to BAN Cash To Fight Climate Change'". The article opened:
Hillary Clinton has declared that it's time to make cash transactions in America illegal in order to "fight climate change."
The article was also posted on Twitter on February 12, 2023 (archived here).
Users on social media saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Hillary Clinton: 'It's Time to BAN Cash To Fight Climate Change' - News Punch
Hillary Clinton has declared that it's time to make cash transactions in America illegal in order to "fight climate change."
Lead Stories did not find any evidence that Clinton has ever publicly said that cash should be banned to fight climate change. A Google search of key phrases used in the claim did not show any credible sources that corroborated the claim. Searches of the two phrases "cash" and "climate change" from the Clinton Foundation and the Office of Hillary Clinton also did not generate any results that resembled the claim. An archive of Department of State material from the time Clinton was in office does not show any results from a search of the phrases "Hillary Clinton", "cash" and "climate change".
While Lead Stories could not locate the full speech that Clinton made on February 6, 2023, while visiting Gujarat, India, no credible news outlets reported that she said that she wanted to ban cash. Rather, she announced that the Clinton Global Initiative will work with the American Indian Foundation, the Self Employed Women's Association and other organizations to establish a $50 million Global Climate Resilience Fund for women.
Lead Stories reached out to the Clinton Global Initiative, which referred us to the Clinton Foundation, for comment on the claim. We will update this story with any response.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims related to Clinton can be found here.
NewsPunch, originally started as Your News Wire, is among the most prolific online publishers of fake news. NewsPunch has published numerous fake news articles in the past, so anything it publishes should be taken with a large grain of salt. Its Facebook page, "The People's Voice", lost its verification checkmark, according to a 2018 report from Media Matters For America.
