In an interview with Democratic voters from Iowa that first aired Tuesday night on Bloomberg TV, Mark Halperin asked the group whether they could name an accomplishment from Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Not a single person in the panel could name something that the former New York Senator had achieved in that position.
In fact, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough noted that one of the voters later on mentioned Benghazi as a success, “only because that’s all they’d heard” during her tenure. Despite noting this fact, the Morning Joe host implied that Hillary could be a little bit like Bill: “When Bill Clinton was president, mired in one scandal after another scandal after another scandal. The more scandals he got mired in, and the more that he got away with, the more they liked him because they said, you know what, he may be bad, he may not be a good person, but he’s our guy.”
It seems that even Scarborough has found a way to spin Hillary’s troubles into a positive.
With the media gloating over Hillary’s supposedly acceptable answers to questions on Iraq, the Clinton Foundation, and the email scandal, will they report the fact that Democrats – not Republicans – cannot name a single policy success during her tenure?
The relevant transcript is below.
Morning Joe
May 20, 2015
6:13 a.m. Eastern
MARK HALPERIN, Bloomberg: What did she accomplish , that you consider significant, as Secretary of State?
IOWA VOTER: Secretary of State? I really can't name anything off the top of my head.
IOWA VOTER: You want to give me a minute? Give me two minutes to go some place else.
HALPERIN: Can you think of something she accomplished as Secretary of State that impressed you or you think is important?
IOWA VOTER: Um.
HALPERIN: Amanda, anything you’d point to say, this is a good credential?
IOWA VOTER: I honestly can’t say I followed along everything was going on.
[...]
JOE SCARBOROUGH, host: Mark Halperin, this is absolutely fascinating. So many things to unwind. First of all, of course, nobody, nobody, and I've seen a lot of men on the street, women on the street in interviews, nobody can name anything she did at the State department. One person frustratingly said Benghazi, I think she did really well in Benghazi, only because that’s all they’d heard. But more important here for Hillary Clinton and the Clinton team, I am hearing something here that I heard from Democrats when Bill Clinton was president.
One scandal after another scandal after another scandal, the more scandals he got mired in and the more that he got away with, the more they liked him. Because they said, you know what, he may be bad. He may not be a good person, but he's our guy and he always beats those Republicans and if you’re gonna beat Republicans, you got to be a little corrupt. You got to be a little dirty, you gotta be a little tough. You gotta play dirty because they're such dirty low life scumbags. I heard that a lot in '99 and 2000 from my Democratic friends.
