After interviewing Democratic presidential front-runner Hilary Clinton on Monday, veteran NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell admitted the following day that she couldn’t ask everything she wanted to because she was afraid Clinton would abruptly halt the interview and leave.
On Tuesday, Mitchell told MSNBC’s Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinksi:
We were told we had a 15-minute interview…I asked more than 12 minutes on emails before I felt — out of concern that they would cut it off, obviously — that I had to move on…I couldn’t ask everything that I did want to ask…
Having a presidential candidate cut an interview short because she doesn’t want to answer questions on a scandal that could potentially take down her campaign is the kind of moments TV interviews are made for – Mitchell would be so lucky were that to happen!
Mitchell told Scarborough that Clinton believed she used her email “ethically” and that “she is not going to apologize…she says she did nothing wrong.” The closest thing Mitchell got to an apology was when Clinton said she was sorry for the “confusion” it caused voters.
Clinton was later interviewed by ABC News’s David Muir on Tuesday who got an apology from Clinton. She told him:
I do think I could have and should have done a better job answering questions earlier. I really didn’t perhaps appreciate the need to do that…What I had done was allowed, it was above board. But in retrospect, as I look back at it now, even though it was allowed, I should have used two accounts. One for personal, one for work-related emails. That was a mistake. I’m sorry about that. I take responsibility.
I’m sure now Mitchell wishes she had pressed Clinton on the email scandal. Mitchell’s softball questions and hesitancy to ask Clinton questions on the scandal not only show that contrary to being a tenacious, intrepid reporter, she’s willing to pull her punches for fear of making Hillary look bad
