Wyatt earp
Diamond Member
- Apr 21, 2012
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Must be taking a page out of Obama's transparency. .
It’s been 263 days since Hillary Clinton last held a press conference. That’s a dangerous precedent.
Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, appeared on "Morning Joe" on Wednesday morning. Former Bush White House communications director Nicolle Wallace asked him about the fact that it had been more than 260 days since the candidate last held a news conference with reporters. Here's the full exchange:
WALLACE: I used to work on campaigns and — and I would look at this as your candidate's number one vulnerability is the fact that, again, someone as flawed as Donald Trump, she has a double-digit deficit on the question of honesty and trustworthiness. Isn't the antidote to this to sit her down today in front of your traveling press corps people like Andrea Mitchell, who certainly can appreciate the contributions of people like Melinda Gates and — and others, and let her take questions until there are no more questions to be answered? MOOK: Well, first of all, Hillary's done over 300 interviews this year alone. WALLACE: I'm not — I didn't talk about — and I know the difference between a three minute ground-ruled interview and a press conference because I — I've put on a couple of each. But why wouldn't you have her do a press conference today just to — you — you have a perception problem on the question of honesty and trustworthiness, why wouldn't you put her out there to your traveling press corps who knows all the intricacies of sort of the defense you laid out, which is — which is legitimate? But this is about the perception.Why wouldn't you put her out there to answer questions that she could certainly handle if — if your defense is true? MOOK: Well, we are — she is out there answering questions. WALLACE: She's going to do a press conference today? MOOK: As I said, she — she's done over 300 interviews this year — and she — she takes questions in a variety of formats and we're going to — we're going to keep looking at that.
A few things:
1. I don't doubt Mook's numbers on how many interviews Clinton has granted over the past year. But as Wallace notes, sitdown, one-on-one interviews aren't the same thing as a free-wheeling press conference. There are lots and lots of ground rules that govern sit-downs — most notably a typically strict time limit that makes pursuing any particular line of questioning in any real depth almost impossible. And then there is the fact that an interview with, say, Jimmy Kimmel, isn't the same thing as a press conference with reporters from The Washington Post, New York Times and the TV networks. Kimmel is a comedian, not a reporter.
It’s been 263 days since Hillary Clinton last held a press conference. That’s a dangerous precedent.
Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, appeared on "Morning Joe" on Wednesday morning. Former Bush White House communications director Nicolle Wallace asked him about the fact that it had been more than 260 days since the candidate last held a news conference with reporters. Here's the full exchange:
WALLACE: I used to work on campaigns and — and I would look at this as your candidate's number one vulnerability is the fact that, again, someone as flawed as Donald Trump, she has a double-digit deficit on the question of honesty and trustworthiness. Isn't the antidote to this to sit her down today in front of your traveling press corps people like Andrea Mitchell, who certainly can appreciate the contributions of people like Melinda Gates and — and others, and let her take questions until there are no more questions to be answered? MOOK: Well, first of all, Hillary's done over 300 interviews this year alone. WALLACE: I'm not — I didn't talk about — and I know the difference between a three minute ground-ruled interview and a press conference because I — I've put on a couple of each. But why wouldn't you have her do a press conference today just to — you — you have a perception problem on the question of honesty and trustworthiness, why wouldn't you put her out there to your traveling press corps who knows all the intricacies of sort of the defense you laid out, which is — which is legitimate? But this is about the perception.Why wouldn't you put her out there to answer questions that she could certainly handle if — if your defense is true? MOOK: Well, we are — she is out there answering questions. WALLACE: She's going to do a press conference today? MOOK: As I said, she — she's done over 300 interviews this year — and she — she takes questions in a variety of formats and we're going to — we're going to keep looking at that.
A few things:
1. I don't doubt Mook's numbers on how many interviews Clinton has granted over the past year. But as Wallace notes, sitdown, one-on-one interviews aren't the same thing as a free-wheeling press conference. There are lots and lots of ground rules that govern sit-downs — most notably a typically strict time limit that makes pursuing any particular line of questioning in any real depth almost impossible. And then there is the fact that an interview with, say, Jimmy Kimmel, isn't the same thing as a press conference with reporters from The Washington Post, New York Times and the TV networks. Kimmel is a comedian, not a reporter.
