Did Hillary Beat McCain In Drinking Game?

There are lots of great stories about Hillary Clinton and alcohol, and now, we’ve got one more to add to the pile. In an interview posted to her Facebook account, the former secretary of state talked about her experiences with competitive drinking, specifically with fellow politicians. It seems that Clinton played a drinking game with John McCain many years ago, when the two were part of a congressional delegation. According to Clinton, it was a tie — but it’s possible that she’s just being modest.

While it’s not entirely clear, the incident to which Clinton referred may the same one that was reported in The Telegraph back in 2008. According to the Telegraph story, Clinton and McCain had a vodka-drinking contest while on a tour of Estonia in 2004, when both were serving in the U.S. Senate. The details remain fuzzy, but the long and short is that both Senators managed to down four shots, and Clinton ended up the winner. How exactly she won is unclear; she and McCain both reportedly took four shots, raising the possibility that McCain ultimately forfeited the contest, leaving Clinton the victor.

That’s not how she tells it now, though. In the recent interview, Clinton claims that the two of them “agreed to withdraw, in honorable fashion, having, I think, reached the limits that either of us should have had.” When asked if directly if the contest was a tie, Clinton said, with a sly grin on her face, “I consider it a tie, yes.”

We’ll probably never know the precise details of what went down between Clinton and McCain that evening in Estonia. If she did indeed best the Arizona senator in a drinking contest, she may have depicted it as a “tie” to avoid coming off as a braggart. Maybe she misremembered — not totally unlikely, considering they did have four shots of vodka — or perhaps she simply wanted to protect McCain’s own vodka-drinking credentials and avoid publicly embarrassing him.

Clinton’s affinity for recreational drinking is well-documented. According to Terry McAulife, a longtime Clinton ally and the current governor of Virginia, she “likes to throw ‘em down like the rest of us.” During a 2008 campaign stop in Indiana, Clinton took a shot of Royal Crowne whiskey with some restaurant patrons, which “led to a few beers and pizza,” according to CBS. Oh, and no big deal, but she also had a role in inventing wine ice cream.