Mook Dodges on Question of Any Contact Between Clinton Camp, Trump’s Accusers

[Vigilante]

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said he was not “aware” if the Clinton campaign had contact with any of the women accusing Donald Trump of sexual misconduct.

Partial transcript as follows:

JAKE TAPPER: Donald Trump says that your campaign or the Democratic National Committee are behind the accusations against him of sexual misconduct. I know Secretary Clinton yesterday said the charges are inaccurate, but let me put it more narrowly. Have any of these women had any contact with your campaign or the DNC?

ROBBY MOOK: These accusations are not coming from our campaign.

TAPPER: But have they had any contact?

MOOK: Not that I’m aware of. I don’t know about any contact. Jake, what’s important to look at here is ...

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...

 

[320 Years of History]

Well, let's just put the whole interview out there, but without the commentary from third parties, without poisoning the well, as it were...

TAPPER: Here with me this morning is Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook.

Robby, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.

ROBBY MOOK, HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Thank you.

TAPPER: So, with two weeks, two days to go until election, you and your allies are putting a lot of effort into red states right now, Arizona, Utah, Georgia, Missouri.

You're doing this even though it's still neck and neck in a lot of the traditional battleground states, Ohio and Iowa, Florida. I hear African-American turnout in North Carolina is lower than it's been in the past. Are you guys getting overconfident?

MOOK: Well, I'm glad you asked this question, because you're exactly right. These battleground states are called that for a reason. They are all going to be incredibly close.

We're -- we don't want to get ahead of skis here, so we're just as focused on Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, other states as we have ever been. There's a special opportunity that popped up late in Arizona, where Donald Trump's divisive rhetoric about Latinos, his shameful remark about Senator John McCain and POWs has put that state into play.

It's possible to win it, but it's going to be razor-thin there. It's going to be tough. It's an uphill climbing. And we have got to stay focused on these other states. We have a very clear message to our supporters. Let's double down, nose to the grindstone, and keep working.

TAPPER: But what about turnout among, for instance, African-Americans in North Carolina? In early voting, I have heard that it's lower than where it was for Obama in 2012.

MOOK: Well, first of all, we're seeing high turnout generally across the country. The voter rolls have reached a high watermark

Over 200 million people for the first time in our history are on the voter rolls. We expect more voters than ever in our history to turn out and participate in this election. North Carolina has only been voting for a few days, so I think we still need to let the data come in.

But, look, we should all assume that there's a mountain of work left to be done there. There is, so we got to stay focused. And what's important to us is, we don't want anybody to wake up after Election Day, this historic event has happened, and they didn't have a chance to participate. So, we want everyone to make a plan to go vote.

TAPPER: Donald Trump says that your campaign or the Democratic National Committee are behind the accusations against him of sexual misconduct.

I know Secretary Clinton yesterday said the charge is inaccurate. But let me put it more narrowly. Have any of these women have any -- had any contact with your campaign or the DNC?

MOOK: These accusations are not coming from our campaign.

TAPPER: But have they had any contact? Have they had any contact?

MOOK: It's not -- not that I'm aware of. I do know about any contact.

But, Jake, I think what's important to look at here is, Donald Trump claimed yesterday he was going to go out and roll out his final plan for the first -- for the campaign, his final message, his plan for the first 100 days.

He spent time attacking his accusers. That's what this campaign is about. His top priority right now is to attack these people who are coming, who are bringing up concerns. We're seeing it across the board. He should just apologize and move on.

But I think this is telling about what kind of president Donald Trump would be, that he's more concerned about himself, that he attacks people who raise legitimate concerns about his behavior. He's not talking about jobs. He's not talking about how he is going to help people afford health care or college. And so this should be an alarm bell to voters.
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[Papageorgio]

So Mook is sort of denying but not really denying.