Touting Hillary Clinton’s first national television interview since launching her presidential campaign, Matt Lauer began Wednesday’s NBC Today by proclaiming: “Clinton gets candid. Hillary Clinton opens up in her first national interview of the presidential race. On the e-mail scandal...Suggestions that she's not trustworthy...And what she thinks of Donald Trump.”
Introducing a report on the topic minutes later, Lauer again declared: “Hillary Clinton taking on critics and lashing out at Republican rivals in a candid new interview.” White House correspondent Kristen Welker followed: “Clinton touched on a range of topics, from her e-mails to questions about her trustworthiness. And she made a play for those all-important Hispanic voters by trying to link all Republicans to Donald Trump.”
Rather than begin the segment by focusing on Clinton dodging softballs from CNN’s Brianna Kieler about the e-mail and Clinton Foundation scandals, Welker instead promoted the Democratic front-runner bashing the GOP:
Hillary Clinton drawing battle lines over the hot-button issue of immigration in her first national television interview. Speaking from Iowa on Tuesday, Clinton slammed Donald Trump for calling many Mexicans rapists and criminals....And Clinton lumped the entire GOP field in with Trump....Republicans fear Trump's comments will be a drag on the entire party and will cost them crucial Latino voters.
Welker briefly noted Republican push-back: “Jeb Bush, whose wife is from Mexico, fired back, writing ‘Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected and her numerous flip-flops on immigration prove it.’”
When Welker finally got around to Clinton’s response to the scandals, there was no fact-check of 2016 contenders deceitful answers:
WELKER: And Clinton played defense, responding to polls that show a majority of Americans don't trust her.
CLINTON: People should and do trust me.
WELKER: As for her use of a personal e-mail account while secretary of state.
CLINTON: Everything I did was permitted. And I went above and beyond what anybody could have expected in making sure that if the State Department didn't capture something I made a real effort to get it to them.
Welker didn’t bother to cite a June 2 CNN poll showing 57% of Americans do not trust Clinton or point out that the former secretary of state clearly violated procedure by using a private e-mail to conduct government business.
