ABC’s Faris: How Does Hillary ‘Overcome’ E-mail ‘Distractions?’

September 27th, 2015 10:08 AM

On Sunday’s Good Morning America, ABC’s Paula Faris previewed This Week with fill-in host Martha Raddatz and the two did their best to lament the fact that Hillary Clinton has been unable to overcome the ongoing problems involving her use of a private e-mail server. 

After Faris noted that there’s “more trouble brewing for Hillary Clinton” because the State Department revealed that she used a private e-mail server months earlier than she first claimed, the ABC reporter complained the she “can’t get ahead of this scandal” and sympathetically asked colleague Martha Raddatz “how is she going to overcome these distractions?”

Raddatz bemoaned that the e-mail scandal “is not going away” and argued that Clinton’s solid week on the campaign trail was overshadowed by these latest revelations: 

Just when she seemed to have a pretty clear week on the campaign trail where she was not dogged by the e-mail controversy, it pops up again with old previously undisclosed e-mails with David Petraeus when he was head of central command.     

The ABC reporter proceeded to channel Democratic talking points that Clinton's e-mails were mainly a partisan scandal as she claimed that “Republicans will pounce on that. The Benghazi committee will pounce on that.” Raddatz concluded by once again complaining that the scandal “is not going away” despite Clinton’s best efforts to get past the ongoing problems that have dogged her 2016 presidential campaign.

See relevant transcript below. 

ABC’s Good Morning America

September 27, 2015

PAULA FARIS:  Okay, so there's more trouble brewing for Hillary Clinton. The State Department confirms to ABC News that she was using her private server months earlier than she first claimed. Seems she can’t get ahead of this scandal Martha and now she's going to be testifying about Benghazi in a month. So how is she going to overcome these distractions? 

MARTHA RADDATZ: Well, this is not going to go away. Just when she seemed to have a pretty clear week on the campaign trail where she was not dogged by the e-mail controversy, it pops up again with old previously undisclosed e-mails with David Petraeus when he was head of central command. So, the Republicans will pounce on that. The Benghazi committee will pounce on that. And remember, we have only seen a quarter of the e-mails that the State Department promises to release. So this, as I said, is not going away. 

FARIS: Many more questions than answers about Hillary this morning.