While ABC’s World News Tonight aired on Tuesday David Muir’s exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News soldiered on with full stories on the 2016 campaign boosting the Clinton camp’s “reset” trying to promote the candidate’s “fun side...along with a lighter touch” in an attempt “to match the exuberance surrounding Bernie Sanders.”
NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt turned to Clinton correspondent and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell after explaining that there was “a shake-up in the campaign trail” as “Clinton issu[ed] a new apology about that e-mail controversy” on the heels of reports her “campaign is deploying a new strategy.”
Taking up Clinton’s case, Mitchell told viewers that the Democratic frontrunner will be “rebooting her campaign after complaints from donors about the e-mail controversy and polls now showing Bernie Sanders pulling ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire and possible candidate Joe Biden doing better than Clinton against Donald Trump.”
The MSNBC host then gushed that Clinton was “tonight taping the Ellen show to appear Thursday” and “[i]t's all part of a campaign reset prompted by falling polls and the e-mail controversy, trying to show Clinton's fun side with Ellen along with a lighter touch on the campaign trail.”
Following Mitchell’s segment, correspondent Hallie Jackson had a story of her own on Republican candidate Ben Carson and his recent rise in the polls. Speaking extensively about his background and upbringing, Jackson made a vague reference in her conclusion to “controversial comments” Carson has made in the past briefly harped on his mentioning of tithing in his 2013 speech at the National Prayer Breakfast.
Over on the CBS Evening News, fill-in anchor Norah O’Donnell began the show’s 2016 coverage with a nod to Clinton’s tumbling poll numbers and before turning over to congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes.
After following Mitchell’s lead in playing a clip of Clinton apologizing about her e-mail scandal to ABC’s Muir, Cordes reported that Clinton will spend this week “looking to turn the page and to lighten things up” with appearances on Ellen and NBC’s The Tonight Show. Citing campaign officials, Cordes continued with two appropriate labels for 2016 Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders:
Campaign officials say they’re recalibrating, looking for ways to showcase her humor and heart. They are trying to match the exuberance surrounding Bernie Sanders, whose progressive message has thrilled many Democrats, who don't seem to mind that he calls himself a socialist.
Cordes did spend a portion of her report on the Republican side and featured her speaking with Senator Marco Rubio (Fl.) after a campaign event on Tuesday in New Hampshire. In the clip provided, Cordes told Rubio that “[t]here's clearly an anti-establishment mood out there” and wondered: “How do you convince voters that your kind of experience matters?”
Rubio responded by emphasizing that he’s had to “fight the establishment” because “[t]hey didn't support me in the Senate race and they’re not supporting me in my presidential race.” Shifting gears, Rubio also made a point to state that he believes “the next president needs to be someone who has real solutions.”
