During an appearance on MSNBC’s All in with Chris Hayes on Wednesday night, former MSNBC host Joy Reid rushed to defend Hillary Clinton from her ongoing e-mail issues and maintained that she’s been “utterly bored with the story to the point where I only recently began to really sort of dig into it.”
The MSNBC correspondent argued that the e-mail scandal was “one of those cases where the trailer is really simple but the movie is kind of too hard to follow... I've never really heard anyone spontaneously bring it up when I’ve been on the trail covering Hillary. So I don't know that the American people are following it with this much detail.”
Host Chris Hayes briefly admitted that there was a “legitimate substantive question” regarding classified information being housed on Clinton’s server but then quickly blasted the media’s entire coverage of the controversy:
[W]atching the way the press corps is going after this and the Watergate comparisons it makes me sympathetic to the perspective of the Clinton campaign which is if it wasn't this, it would be something else.
Because this is how they roll with us. Remember Benghazi and the 17 investigations and all the testimony. That would be the thing that undid Hillary Clinton. And then it was like no, actually it was a horrible tragedy. There were genuine safety and security breakdowns but there was no scandal and no smoking gun. It feels like that again.
Reid even complained that veteran journalists like Bob Woodward would dare compare this to Watergate:
But is this Watergate? It’s absurd to say it’s Watergate. And it’s actually kind of shocking for somebody who broke Watergate to look at those two sets of facts and say, yeah these two things are the same.
The MSNBC reporter concluded her defense of Clinton by wildly asserting that the former Secretary of State might have chosen to use a private server because it was more secure than an official government account:
And by the way, the idea of whether or not the e-mail server was secure. Well, let's talk about whether the government e-mails servers are secure because they've been hacked. So there are a lot of other things...It’s like maybe Hillary Clinton on the cloud was actually somehow safer and more secure than the actual government e-mails? I don't even understand it.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes
August 20, 2015
CHRIS HAYES: Joining me now, joy Reid, national correspondent for MSNBC. Shrug. Okay, where are you on this Joy Reid? Where are you on this?
JOY REID: So, I have been utterly bored with the story to the point where I only recently began to really sort of dig into it.
HAYES: Than you. Keep watching by the way. To the viewers.
REID: The more I look into it, I think it’s one of those cases where the trailer is really simple but the movie is kind of too hard to follow. What I mean by that is the idea that Hillary Clinton shouldn't have had a personal e-mail instead of an official e-mail is simple and that sounds bad. It sounds like you're not supposed to do that. But when you really dig into the question of classification then you find out, well, she could have sent and received e-mails that were then later classified when somebody made a FOIA and then maybe they ended up being classified now but they weren't classified then. Look, I've never really heard anyone spontaneously bring it up when I’ve been on the trail covering Hillary. So I don't know that the American people are following it with this much detail.
HAYES: Okay, so here's where I am. When I first saw it, I was like yeah, I don’t know, this doesn't seem like this is the best -- this doesn't seem like best practice, okay? That was my feeling. As it’s played out, I’ve continued to think, yeah, there is a legitimate substantive question here. But watching the way the press corps is going after this and the Watergate comparisons it makes me sympathetic to the perspective of the Clinton campaign which is if it wasn't this, it would be something else.
Because this is how they roll with us. Remember Benghazi and the 17 investigations and all the testimony. That would be the thing that undid Hillary Clinton. And then it was like no, actually it was a horrible tragedy. There were genuine safety and security breakdowns but there was no scandal and no smoking gun. It feels like that again. And the more that the press is finger wagging about it the more I’m like what is going on here?
REID: It reminds me of Whitewater. Because it has water at the end of it or sounds like Watergate, you’re like, oh that must be good. And then they start to dig into it and you’re like that's it? And I think the problem that the Republicans are going to have with the e-mail story is that it’s going to really, really, really reinforce people who already deeply dislike Hillary Clinton continuing to do so and continuing to say she is an untrustworthy figure. I think that it gets the press core and especially the beltway press exorcized because they have this caustic relationship with the Clintons.
--
REID: But is this Watergate? It’s absurd to say it’s Watergate. And it’s actually kind of shocking for somebody who broke Watergate to look at those two sets of facts and say, yeah these two things are the same.
--REID: And remember the Whitewater, etc. started with just hair cut gate. And then they fired people on the travel office. You can't fire people from the White House -- so it starts with things that don't even sound bad like having Gmail. And by the way, the idea of whether or not the e-mail server was secure. Well, let's talk about whether the government e-mails servers are secure because they've been hacked. So there are a lot of other things-
HAYES: Or like the entire OPM file.
REID: Exactly. It’s like maybe Hillary Clinton on the cloud was actually somehow safer and more secure than the actual government e-mails? I don't even understand it.
