Right off the top of NBC’s Today on Wednesday, the focus of Hillary Clinton not being indicted for her private e-mail servers scandal was not on the FBI Director James Comey’s rebuke of her year-long-plus talking points but instead harping on Donald Trump “crying foul” and hoping that Tuesday marked a chance for Clinton to “finally put the controversy behind” her.
Co-host Savannah Guthrie declared in the show’s first tease that Trump naturally expressed his displeasure with the FBI’s outcome: “Crying foul. Donald Trump blasts the FBI’s recommendation not to prosecute Hillary Clinton over her e-mails.”
After a soundbite from Trump’s North Carolina rally railing that the “system is absolutely, totally rigged,” Guthrie mentioned that “House Speaker Paul Ryan threatening new hearings on Capitol Hill” before dropping this old, tired line that the liberal media have been recycling since this scandal came to light in March 2015: “So, can Clinton finally put the controversy behind or will the political fallout only intensify?”
Sunday and weekday 9:00 a.m. Eastern co-host Willie Geist told Guthrie that it was “nothing short of a monumental day in the campaign yesterday” before Guthrie introduced Clinton campaign correspondent Andrea Mitchell’s lead segment on the FBI’s decision to not recommend charges.
Mitchell revealed that she was speaking live from “Atlantic City where Hillary Clinton had hoped to focus on Donald Trump's business empire, including several bankruptcies, but it is Clinton who is on the defensive today over the fallout from that e-mail scandal including the stinging rebuke from the FBI director.”
The MSNBC host eventually highlighted how Comey poked holes in many of Clinton’s talking points (ex. Clinton’s claim she didn’t send or receive classified information), but she spent the entire first half of her three-minute-and-45-second segment on how Trump reacted to the news and his theory that Attorney General Loretta Lynch played a role after her airplane meeting with former President Bill Clinton.
After a thorough back and forth comparison of Clinton’s various defenses over the past year to what Comey revealed on Tuesday, Mitchell circled back to “Clinton trying to turn the page here in Atlantic City, is expected to join striking workers at Trump's former Taj Mahal Casino” who claim to have “lost their pensions because of his business practices.”
>>Find all of the coverage on Hillary Clinton not being indicted on NewsBusters here<<
Guthrie and Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd were a part of the next segment to analyze the bombshell news with Guthrie admitting that while “Clinton World” is pleased that they won’t be facing charges, “if you're saying good thing we weren't indicted today, not a great day on the campaign trail.”
Todd was fairly blunt as he argued that yesterday was “[n]ot something to celebrate” because “they have to sit here and rebut charge after charge” that Comey showed were quite simply lies:
One is I never sent or received any e-mail that was marked classified. James Comey said no, that’s not true. There were some that did and then he said, you know what? Somebody in your position should have known better even on some of the exchanges that were there. Look, she has a credibility problem, it's the head of the FBI that says she has a credibility problem[.]
At the end of the day, however, Todd stated the feelings of some conservatives who remain opposed to Trump that “[o]n any other day against any other candidate, this would be a total and complete disaster, but it's something about Trump that kind of you say, well, she can recover, I guess.”
Over on ABC’s Good Morning America, co-host and Clinton Foundation donor George Stephanopoulos brought the heat in some parts of their coverage, but also argued that “Clinton allies” will not remember this entire scandal by the time Election Day rolls around.
The relevant portions of the transcript from NBC’s Today on July 6 can be found below.
NBC’s Today
July 6, 2016
7:00 a.m. Eastern [TEASE][ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Today’s Top Story; Crying Foul]
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Crying foul. Donald Trump blasts the FBI’s recommendation not to prosecute Hillary Clinton over her e-mails.
DONALD TRUMP: Our system is absolutely, totally rigged. It’s rigged.
GUTHRIE: House Speaker Paul Ryan threatening new hearings on capitol hill. So, can Clinton finally put the controversy behind or will the political fallout only intensify?
(....)
7:01 a.m. Eastern
WILLIE GEIST: A lot to talk about this morning. Nothing short of a monumental day in the campaign yesterday.
GUTHRIE: Yeah, not surprising, politics is our stop story. Donald Trump and other leading Republicans responding to the FBI's recommendation not to pursue criminal charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of a private e-mail server, actual multiple private e-mail servers while she was secretary of state. We have complete coverage of the decision, the reaction, the fallout and let’s start this morning with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. Andrea, good morning to you.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Campaign 2016; Trump Blasts Clinton & “Rigged “ System; Claims Emails Endangered Nation as No Charges Filed]
ANDREA MITCHELL: Good morning, we're here in Atlantic City where Hillary Clinton had hoped to focus on Donald Trump's business empire, including several bankruptcies, but it is Clinton who is on the defensive today over the fallout from that e-mail scandal including the stinging rebuke from the FBI director. Donald Trump in battleground, North Carolina, attacking Hillary Clinton as unfit to be president.
DONALD TRUMP: This is one of the most crooked politicians in history.
MITCHELL: His comments coming after the Director of the FBI Tuesday blasted Clinton's use of a private e-mail address and server while she was secretary of state, but recommending no criminal charges be filed against her or her aides.
TRUMP: Today is the best evidence ever that we've seen that our system is absolutely, totally rigged. It's rigged.
MITCHELL: Trump also teeing off on a New York Times report that Clinton was open to keeping Loretta Lynch as Attorney General, just days after the private meeting with Bll Clinton.
TRUMP: It's a bribe! [SCREEN WIPE] I mean, the attorney general sitting there saying if I get Hillary off the hook, I'm going to have four more years or eight more years. But if she loses, I'm out of a job, it's a bribe!
(....)
MITCHELL: James Comey refuting Clinton's past claims that no e-mails were classified.
CLINTON [on 09/04/15]: I did not send or receive any material marked classified.
COMEY: Any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position or in the position of those with whom she was corresponding about those matters should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.
MITCHELL: And her claim that her private server was safe from hacking.
CLINTON [on 03/10/15]: There were no security breaches.
COMEY: We assessed it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton's personal e-mail account.
(....)
MITCHELL: Clinton trying to turn the page here in Atlantic City, is expected to join striking workers at Trump's former Taj Mahal Casino. They've say that they lost their pensions because of his business practices.
(....)
GUTHRIE: So, let's start with you Chuck and the reaction in Clinton world. I suppose it's relief, on the other hand, if you're saying good thing we weren't indicted today, not a great day on the campaign trail.
CHUCK TODD: Not something to celebrate, but it is a minimal sense of relief, but look, they have to sit here and rebut charge after charge because you know, she had a couple of standard talking points. One is I never sent or received any e-mail that was marked classified. James Comey said no, that’s not true. There were some that did and then he said, you know what? Somebody in your position should have known better even on some of the exchanges that were there. Look, she has a credibility problem, it's the head of the FBI that says she has a credibility problem and I have to say. On any other day against any other candidate, this would be a total and complete disaster, but it's something about Trump that kind of you say, well, she can recover, I guess.
