CBS This Morning co-host Norah O’Donnell appeared irritated at all the talk of Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal at Wednesday’s Commander in Chief forum. O’Donnell on Thursday didn’t mention him by name, but seemed to join in on the slamming of the forum’s host, Matt Lauer. After complaining that other topics weren’t asked, the exasperated CBS journalist complained, “They tried to have a discussion about national security last night. Did that happen? Did we have a good contrast of the two candidates?”
Guest John Heilemann agreed with her, while also allowing that the e-mail scandal is an appropriate issue. He equivocated, “The e-mail issue is a legitimate issue. It took up an awful lot of her time and she was defensive.” Heilemann repeated, “But, it took a lot of her time.”
O’Donnell lamented, “I keep hoping that this campaign is going to be more [than] about Hillary Clinton's e-mails and than about what Donald Trump's position on immigration is from day-to-day."
The Bloomberg journalist argued that the campaign should be about “more than those two things.” Eventually, Heilemann defended time spent on Clinton’s e-mails as simply because she has more to say. (An interesting argument about a woman who went 278 days without a press conference.)
JOHN HEILEMANN: She answers and because she answers in full and she answers in a more lawyerly way, not only did you have that e-mail topic take up a lot of the discussion but she didn't get to cover much ground with her. Trump, you covered a lot of ground but it's mainly because he does not have all of that much to say on a lot of these issues.
A partial transcript of the CBS This Morning segment is below:
CBS This Morning
9/8/16
7:09NORAH O’DONNELL: I keep hoping that this campaign is going to be more about [sic] Hillary Clinton's e-mails and than about what Donald Trump's position on immigration is from day-to-day.
HEILEMANN: More than those two things.
O’DONNELL: Yes. Let's have a discussion about education policy in this country. Let’s have a discussion about economic policy. They tried to have a discussion about national security last night. Did that happen? Did we have a good contrast of the two candidates?
HEILEMANN: The e-mail issue is a legitimate issue. It took up an awful lot of her time and she was defensive. It was brought up by one of the audience members so you can't avoid that. The veteran who brought up that issue and challenged her, put her on the defensive. You can't get around that issue. But, it took a lot of her time.
<<< Please consider helping NewsBusters financially with your tax-deductible contribution today >>>
O’DONNELL: Okay, but not in that forum last night but yesterday. But yesterday Donald Trump said he would end the automatic sequestration cuts to the Defense budget. That’s a big deal.
HEILEMANN: That’s a very big deal and you could and we could and should spend a lot more time on that. It's interesting. Because she answers and because she answers in full and she answers in a more lawyerly way, not only did you have that e-mail topic take up a lot of the discussion but she didn't get to cover much ground with her. Trump, you covered a lot of ground but it’s mainly because he does not have all of that much to say on a lot of these issues. So, his answers are very, very tight. And some of them, many of them, were problematic in a variety of ways. He continues to insist he did not — that he was against the Iraq war from the beginning and ample evidence that he was for the Iraq War when it started.
KING: Is it a preview of the debates, John?
HEILEMANN: We need to keep saying that over and over again because he is lying about it repeatedly.
KING: Are you saying he should be called on that?
HEILEMANN: I think — Yes, of course. I think all politicians should be called when they lie. The other thing, he praised Vladimir Putin and talked about how American generals had been reduced to rubble and said some things that were highly controversial. Both sides will come away with this with more ammunition to attack each other and I can't imagine that a lot of Americans are great, more attacks.
