--- title: Presidential Debate: Hillary Clinton, ISIS Timeline description: A claim made by Donald Trump during the first presidential debate—that Clinton has been fighting ISIS her entire adult life—is not possible canonical: https://time.com/4508766/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-isis/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-27T01:50:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:27.953Z article:section: History og:title: There's No Way Hillary Clinton Has Been Fighting ISIS Her Entire Adult Life og:description: ISIS is only a few years old og:url: https://time.com/4508766/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-isis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbfe4e3edb082d08/6988a7a1a988ca8fae6b98a7/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-30.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL First Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's No Way Hillary Clinton Has Been Fighting ISIS Her Entire Adult Life twitter:description: ISIS is only a few years old twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbfe4e3edb082d08/6988a7a1a988ca8fae6b98a7/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-30.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There's No Way Hillary Clinton Has Been Fighting ISIS Her Entire Adult Life  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 27, 2016 1:50 AM UTC  Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during the presidential debate with Donald Trump at Hofstra University on Sept. 26, 2016 in Hempstead, New York. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during the presidential debate with Donald Trump at Hofstra University on Sept. 26, 2016 in Hempstead, New York.Joe Raedle—Pool/AFP/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 27, 2016 1:50 AM UTC During the [first presidential debate](http://time.com/4508703/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-hofstra-long-island/?xid=homepage) of the 2016 general election, Republican nominee Donald Trump — in making his case that Hillary Clinton’s approach to fighting ISIS would not work — made the claim that she has been fighting ISIS her entire adult life. That claim, like his [claim](http://time.com/4448218/donald-trump-isis-founder-president-obama-zarqawi/) in August that President Obama was the founder of ISIS, does not mesh with the history of the founding of that group. Hillary Clinton [graduated from college](http://time.com/3502935/life-with-hillary-portraits-of-a-wellesley-grad-1969/) in 1969. ### See Rare Photos of a Young Hillary Clinton  Hillary at Lake Waban on the Wellesley College Campus, 1969. Wellesley College Archives  Hillary, c. 1960. Courtesy William J. Clinton Presidential Library  Hillary at Lake Waban on the Wellesley College Campus, 1969. Courtesy Wellesley College Archives  Hillary as an intern with Congress, Summer 1968. Courtesy William J. Clinton Presidential Library  Hillary joins students and a faculty member at the Wellesley College Alumnae Council Student Panel, 1968. Courtesy Wellesley College Archives  Hillary (center) attends a student rally at Wellesley College, October 8, 1968. Wellesley College Archives  Hillary (center) attends a student rally at Wellesley College, October 8, 1968. Courtesy Wellesley College Archives  Hillary at commencement with Ruth M. Adams, president of Wellesley, and distinguished guests, 1969. Wellesley College Archives  Bill and Hillary at Yale Law School, 1972. Courtesy Clinton Foundation  Hillary (bottom right) and her classmates at Yale, 1973. Courtesy William J. Clinton Presidential Library  Hillary and Bill on their wedding day, October 11, 1975. Courtesy William J. Clinton Presidential Library  Hillary and Bill on their wedding day, October 11, 1975. Courtesy Clinton Foundation  Hillary and Bill playing volleyball, Fayetteville, N.C., 1975. Courtesy William J. Clinton Presidential Library  Hillary, c. 1979. Courtesy Butler Center, Arkansas Studies Institute, Little Rock  Hillary and Bill, c. 1979. Courtesy Butler Center, Arkansas Studies Institute, Little Rock  Hillary and Bill, c. 1979. Courtesy Butler Center, Arkansas Studies Institute, Little Rock  Hillary and Bill, c. 1979. Courtesy Butler Center, Arkansas Studies Institute, Little Rock  Hillary and Bill meeting President Reagan, March 1983. Courtesy William J. Clinton Presidential Library  Hillary, c. 1976 or 1980. Courtesy Butler Center, Arkansas Studies Institute, Little Rock  Bill and Hillary Clinton celebrate victory in the Democratic runoff in Little Rock, Ark. June 8, 1982. AP Meanwhile, though the complicated factors in play in the establishment of ISIS go back for generations and the organization’s founders were operating in the 1990s, it was not until 2013 that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gave the group that name. Late that year, TIME [explained](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2159222,00.html) his reasoning: --- > “” --- [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) **_Read more on TIME.com about how ISIS was founded:_** [_President Obama Is Not the ‘Founder of ISIS.’ Here’s Who Really Started It_](http://time.com/4448218/donald-trump-isis-founder-president-obama-zarqawi/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4508766/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-isis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4508766/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-isis/"},"headline":"There's No Way Hillary Clinton Has Been Fighting ISIS Her Entire Adult Life","datePublished":"2016-09-27T01:50:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:27.953Z","description":"ISIS is only a few years old","url":"https://time.com/4508766/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-isis/","keywords":["politics","presidential debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbfe4e3edb082d08/6988a7a1a988ca8fae6b98a7/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-30.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbfe4e3edb082d08/6988a7a1a988ca8fae6b98a7/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-30.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL First Debate","caption":"US-VOTE-DEBATE","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Pool/AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4508766/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-isis/","name":"There's No Way Hillary Clinton Has Been Fighting ISIS Her Entire Adult Life"}}]}] ```