At the top of her MSNBC show on Tuesday, anchor Andrea Mitchell applauded Hillary Clinton for actually talking to reporters and promoted it as a campaign turning point: “This morning Hillary Clinton boarding her new campaign plane heading to Florida today, continuing her new habit of talking to reporters....Hillary 2.0.”
Minutes later, Mitchell remarked: “So the Clinton campaign avoiding contact with reporters...as I know from being on those rope lines, and she did it yesterday, and it was really rather painless.” She added: “She had to answer some questions, mine among them....but she's back at it today and again talking to reporters...”
“Painless” was certainly the right word to describe Monday’s fawning press gaggle aboard Clinton’s campaign plane, which started with one reporter asking: “How was your Labor Day Weekend?” Mitchell could be heard asking the Democratic nominee: “Are you glad to have all of us with you?...Have you missed us?”
On Tuesday, Mitchell played a clip of her asking Clinton a more substantive question:
ANDREA MITCHELL: Madame Secretary, the FBI report sited several instances, more than nine, where you could not recall key facts about the classification system, about how you were trained when you went in, about what you did when you left office on archiving. Does that, to critics, indicate a casual attitude towards classification and towards the way secrets were kept and protected when you were Secretary of State?
HILLARY CLINTON: No, not at all, Andrea. You know, I went into the State Department understanding classification. I'd been on the Senate Armed Services committee for years before I was Secretary of State. I take classification seriously. The fact I couldn't remember certain meetings, whether or not they had occurred, doesn't in any way affect the commitment that I had and still have to the treatment of classified material.
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Rather than hammer Clinton for that laughable response, Mitchell turned to correspondent Kristen Welker and lamented: “Brooklyn headquarters wants to change the subject from the e-mails, but again today, Citizens United got their monthly dump from the State Department, according to court order, of her calendars. These were from 2011. It doesn't seem as though they can completely escape this issue for the rest of this campaign.”
Welker sympathized: “It doesn't. Her relationship with the Clinton Foundation and the e-mail issue continues to dog her candidacy, there's no doubt about that.” She noted:
But what we are seeing, Andrea – and the fact that you guys were able to ask her so many questions yesterday on the plane – is a little bit of a shift in strategy. A realization that she has to answer some of these very tough questions in order to try to turn around the trust deficit that she's dealing with right now with voters.
In addition to your very tough question that you asked, she also answered questions on the Clinton Foundation, underscoring – defending her – what she says was – there was no wrongdoing or no pay to play between the Clinton Foundation and her State Department.
Welker then highlighted how Clinton dismissed questions about her health: “She said, ‘Look, it's seasonal allergies, it's nothing else.’ She was asked if that would fuel Republican conspiracy theories and she sort of downplayed that, brushed that aside.” Moments later, Mitchell chimed in: “What she said today about her cough and the problems she's been having – we were all having problems frankly on that plane, it was pretty dry – is that she's doubled her antihistamine, so she's hoping not to the have those problems again today.”
One wouldn’t be surprised if Mitchell ran to the pharmacy herself to fetch Clinton some cough drops.
Here is a transcript of Mitchell’s September 6 coverage on MSNBC:
12:00 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: This morning Hillary Clinton boarding her new campaign plane heading to Florida today, continuing her new habit of talking to reporters.
HILLARY CLINTON: Good morning, everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN [REPORTER]: Good morning.
CLINTON: I'm coming back later, Jen has convinced me I need to.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN [REPORTER]: Yesterday wasn't so bad, right?
CLINTON: It was great. It was great. I love having a plane. The plane makes everything so much easier.
MITCHELL: Hillary 2.0.
(...)
12:04 PM ET
MITCHELL: And Kristen Welker in Brooklyn. So the Clinton campaign avoiding contact with reporters, as you know so well, as I know from being on those rope lines, and she did it yesterday, and it was really rather painless. She had to answer some questions, mine among them. Let me play that for you, but she's back at it today and again talking to reporters, as we understand it, on this flight to Tampa. Let me play a little bit the of the exchange.
MITCHELL [TO CLINTON]: Madame Secretary, the FBI report sited several instances, more than nine, where you could not recall key facts about the classification system, about how you were trained when you went in, about what you did when you left office on archiving. Does that, to critics, indicate a casual attitude towards classification and towards the way secrets were kept and protected when you were Secretary of State?
HILLARY CLINTON: No, not at all, Andrea. You know, I went into the State Department understanding classification. I'd been on the Senate Armed Services committee for years before I was Secretary of State. I take classification seriously. The fact I couldn't remember certain meetings, whether or not they had occurred, doesn't in any way affect the commitment that I had and still have to the treatment of classified material.
MITCHELL: Kristen, Brooklyn headquarters wants to change the subject from the e-mails, but again today, Citizens United got their monthly dump from the State Department, according to court order, of her calendars. These were from 2011. It doesn't seem as though they can completely escape this issue for the rest of this campaign.
KRISTEN WELKER: It doesn't. Her relationship with the Clinton Foundation and the e-mail issue continues to dog her candidacy, there's no doubt about that. But what we are seeing, Andrea – and the fact that you guys were able to ask her so many questions yesterday on the plane – is a little bit of a shift in strategy. A realization that she has to answer some of these very tough questions in order to try to turn around the trust deficit that she's dealing with right now with voters.
In addition to your very tough question that you asked, she also answered questions on the Clinton Foundation, underscoring – defending her – what she says was – there was no wrongdoing or no pay to play between the Clinton Foundation and her State Department.
And of course answering questions about her health. She had that coughing fit yesterday, which raised some eyebrows. She said, “Look, it's seasonal allergies, it's nothing else.” She was asked if that would fuel Republican conspiracy theories and she sort of downplayed that, brushed that aside. And I think what you're going to see is Secretary Clinton try to more aggressively get out in front of some of these headlines that have dogged her campaign.
And by the way, she also tried to turn the page during that press gaggle that you had, put the focus on Russia. And she said in her strongest terms yet, Andrea, that she believes that Russia, Vladimir Putin is trying to meddle in this campaign, Andrea.
MITCHELL: That was a really big step forward in terms of what she was saying and it was based – the trigger to that was a Washington Post investigation which had some really troubling, troubling data – and she was keying off on that. What she said today about her cough and the problems she's been having – we were all having problems frankly on that plane, it was pretty dry – is that she's doubled her antihistamine, so she's hoping not to the have those problems again today.
(...)
