In 2016, a host asked Hillary Clinton what’s something she always has in her bag. “Hot sauce,” she said. Critics claimed she said this to pander to black voters because of Beyoncé’s “hot sauce in my bag” lyric.

But she has been talking about hot sauce in her bag for 20+ years.

This 2012 Condé Nast article in which HRC talked about hot sauce in her bag—published 4 years before Beyoncé sang about hot sauce in hers—was not the only such article. Others appeared in 2008 and the fact that she had a WH hot sauce collection as First Lady was documented.

In fact, this December 2015 Slate article about Hillary’s love for hot sauce (completely with a photoshop of her preparing to embrace a big bottle of it) was published nearly 2 months before anyone knew Beyoncé would sing about hot sauce; “Formation” released in Feb. 2016.

Hillary Clinton talked about her love of hot sauce and hot peppers so often, she discussed it in an NPR interview a in Jan. 2016 a month after the Slate article—and several weeks before “Formation” released.

The history of Hillary Clinton discussing her love for hot sauce (& that she keeps it in her bag) was pointed out after left-wing (later joined by Fox & Trump) critics said she was pandering to black voters by answering a question about what she keeps in her bag with “hot sauce.”

In the end, the plethora of articles predating Beyoncé’s Formation in which Hillary Clinton discussed a love for hot sauce (2008 ) didn’t matter; the narrative had been set that she made it up in 16 to pander to black voters & critics didn’t relent when shown contrary evidence.

If Hillary Clinton’s claim that she keeps hot sauce in her bag was about wooing black voters who like Beyoncé, it had to part of a decades-long con started in 1992 (when she began carrying it), after which she groomed Beyoncé for stardom so she‘d someday sing about...hot sauce.

Absurd as it sounds, the implication is that, to win over black voters in 2016 (knowing she‘d lose in 2008), First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1997 gushed about hot sauce to @Rosie O’Donnell & was using Destiny’s Child to groom Beyoncé for future solo superstardom.

Neither her @Rosie interview, nor dozens of others (some, like this 1995 Washington Post article, predating not only “Formation,” but even Destiny’s Child) mattered. Many wanted to believe that even Hillary’s love for hot sauce was a cold, calculated political invention for 2016.

The myth persists. After reports this week that Russia used social media to target black voters with disinformation about how to vote and about Hillary Clinton’s record, a common refrain among left and right wing critics online? “Russia didn’t make her talk about hot sauce.”

Even in some serious publications, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 hot sauce comment continues to be cited as evidence of “pandering” or a “gaffe” (as if she made it up after hearing “Formation”), without noting two decades of articles about hot sauce in her bag (like this one from 1994).

The “she said hot sauce to pander” meme seems small. But like everything with Hillary & women like her, things rarely are. We‘re predisposed to distrust women who seek power & cling to narratives that reinforce their every move as cold, calculating & conniving—facts be damned.

Whether Russia succeeded at deterring *any* black voters from voting for Hillary, the “Russia didn’t make her say hot sauce” response to the news shows how impenetrable facts are to false narratives that reinforce bad things we already *want* to believe about powerful women.