In reaction to Hillary Clinton’s press conference on Tuesday addressing her email scandal, CNN host Wolf Blitzer praised the softball question asked by a Turkish reporter about gender playing a role in the media coverage of the scandal as a “good question from Turkish television.”
After expressing approval of the question from Turkish reporter Kahraman Haliscelik, CNN’s chief political analyst Gloria Borger spun for the Clinton camp by predicting that the presser “detoxed” the scandal “a little bit” and defended her deleting of emails by saying she “delete[s] personal emails after I get them very often.”
Not to be outdone, fellow CNN commentator and former Clinton administration adviser David Gergen declared that “[i]t was an extremely interesting press conference” and suggested that everyone should “admire her bravado, the way she went through it with a smile as if she was enjoying herself” since she “hated every minute of it.”
Gergen also added that what took place at the United Nations was “a trust-me press conference” and has resulted in a scenario where “if you believe in what she does and what she represents, I think millions of people are going to give her the benefit of the doubt.”
>> Read the full coverage of the Hillary Clinton email scandal here<<
Prior to Blitzer’s thoughts on Haliscelik’s question, CNN’s The Lead host Jake Tapper explained the reasoning behind why an American reporter was not given the chance to ask the first question:
I'm told that the United Nations, it is customary to have the President of the United Nations' press corps ask the first question. That individual was – is not in the country and asked somebody else from the Board of Directors at the UN press corps to ask the question and that is why that question from Turkish television was first.
In addition to the favorable, pro-Clinton points, Borger further summarized what the former Secretary of State said at the event:
I think the questions that we really didn't get an answer to is why the server and how were these decisions made about which were personal and which were actually State Department decisions. She did say that she had counsel helping her decide, which I don't think is something we've heard before, helping her decide which things went to the State Department and which didn't, but in terms of whether she was going to hand this over to a third party, to the Archives, to some neutral sort of arbiter here, we didn't hear any of that, but again, on the first point, she did say, you know what, if I had to do it all over again, I did this for convenience. That was her explanation.
She concluded by fretting that “[a] lot of people won't buy” what Clinton said “but she said it was for convenience because she didn't want to use two devices. But clearly made it clear if she had to do it all over again, she wouldn't have done it.”
The relevant portions for the transcript from CNN Newsroom on March 10 are transcribed below.
CNN Newsroom
March 10, 2015
3:22 p.m. Eastern
JAKE TAPPER: And just for anybody wondering at home why she called on Turkish television first, I'm told that the United Nations, it is customary to have the President of the United Nations' press corps ask the first question. That individual was – is not in the country and asked somebody else from the Board of Directors at the UN press corps to ask the question and that is why that question from Turkish television was first.
WOLF BLITZER: Good question from Turkish television. Gloria Borger, did she put this crisis, this political uproar to rest, or is it going to continue?
GLORIA BORGER: I think she detoxed it a little bit. We were talking about before about whether Hillary Clinton would just defend, defend, defend as we've known the Clintons to do in the past, in the infamous '90s, as we were talking about. I think what she said today is say, look, if I had it to do all over again, I probably wouldn't have done it this way and she also made it clear that she had decided to either delete or not to release personal emails. I delete personal emails after I get them very often. I think the questions that we really didn't get an answer to is why the server and how were these decisions made about which were personal and which were actually State Department decisions. She did say that she had counsel helping her decide, which I don't think is something we've heard before, helping her decide which things went to the State Department and which didn't, but in terms of whether she was going to hand this over to a third party, to the Archives, to some neutral sort of arbiter here, we didn't hear any of that, but again, on the first point, she did say, you know what, if I had to do it all over again, I did this for convenience. That was her explanation. A lot of people won't buy that, Wolf, a lot of people won’t buy that, but she said it was for convenience because she didn't want to use two devices. But clearly made it clear if she had to do it all over again, she wouldn't have done it.
BLITZER: Let me get David Gergen’s reaction. David, what do you think? How did she do?
DAVID GERGEN: It was an extremely interesting press conference. You have to sort of admire her bravado, the way she went through it with a smile as if she was enjoying herself. You know she hated every minute of it. It was very much a trust-me press conference that if you want to believe Hillary Clinton, if you believe in what she does and what she represents, I think millions of people are going to give her the benefit of the doubt. Look, she basically – get off her back, she's done what she had to do. There are a lot of other people who do not trust her. They're going to read into this something, well, you pulled over another one.
