Following Hillary Clinton’s decision to take questions from the press for the first time in over three weeks, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC all covered the story on their Tuesday evening newscasts and, once again, were all too happy to spin for the Democratic presidential candidate.
While all three networks mentioned a federal judge’s ruling that her e-mails should be released more quickly than currently projected, they ignored news that she had a second private e-mail address and that Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal advised her on Libya despite the fact that he was banned from working at the State Department.
On NBC Nightly News, correspondent Kristen Welker reported in from Iowa that Clinton chose to go before “the press in Iowa today” following her pattern of “methodically avoiding direct questions from reporters.” Among the topic covered, Welker cited her e-mails as being “once again...at issue.”
Concerning her e-mail scandal, Welker fretted that “Republicans refused to let Clinton put the politically toxic issue to rest” as they “slamm[ed] her for deleting her e-mails she says were personal.” Welker also noted that Clinton “waded into an issue that has tripped up some of her Republican rivals” in the Iraq War.
Welker continued to spin for the former First Lady through the very end as she paraded out some campaign talking points:
Now, Clinton also met with small business owners here in Iowa today and discussed ways to improve economic opportunities for them. Part of her pitch to prove she understands average Americans. Next up? Stops in Chicago and New Hampshire.
Turning to ABC’s World News Tonight, anchor David Muir looked to congratulate the press as he remarked that Hillary Clinton faced “tough new questions” while ignoring the fact that she had not taken any for over three weeks and only eight since she launched her campaign.
Clinton correspondent Cecilia Vega was able to ask one of those rare questions and chose to focus on the wealth of the Clinton family: “You were in the tip-top echelon of earners in this country. How do you expect everyday Americans to relate to you?”
In her report, Vega noted that the $25 million made by Bill and Hillary Clinton in speeches amounts to “almost 500 times more than what the average American worker makes.” Continuing on theme of the press patting itself on the back, Vega explained that they also “peppered” Clinton about her private e-mails.
Later speaking with Vega, Muir wondered if the Clintons wealth “is going to be a problem going forward in the campaign.” Vega responded by citing Republican sources to prove that “they tell me that this will be theme they will be raising over the course of the campaign.”
Over on the CBS Evening News, correspondent Nancy Cordes reported that “Clinton had been avoiding questions about other e-mails she deleted and foreign donations to her family” for some time, but declared that she finally responded after “criticism from her rivals was getting louder.”
At the conclusion of her report, Cordes was the only network correspondent to mention the fact that Clinton only took “about five questions” before she departed to visit “a local bookstore and a café.” She capped things off with this line from the Clinton campaign as to why she’s not done this more often: “Her campaign argues she has been taking questions all along, Scott, just from voters, not journalists.”
After having covered the second e-mail address story on CBS This Morning, the CBS Evening News passed on this element of the Clinton e-mail scandal.
The relevant portions of the transcript from May 19's NBC Nightly News can be found below.
NBC Nightly News
May 19, 2015
7:04 p.m. Eastern
KRISTEN WELKER: After 28 days of methodically avoiding direct questions from reporters, Hillary Clinton finally faced the press in Iowa today and, once again, her State Department e-mails from her private server were at issue.
(....)
WELKER: Late last night, the department said it wouldn't be able to review and release all 55,000 pages of e-mails until January.
CLINTON: I want them out as soon as they can get out.
WELKER: Today, a federal judge ordered State to release the e-mails sooner in a series of batches.
(....)
WELKER: Republicans refused to let Clinton put the politically toxic issue to rest, slamming her for deleting e-mails she says were personal.
(....)
WELKER: Clinton also waded into an issue that has tripped up some of her Republican rivals, Iraq.
(....)
WELKER: Now, Clinton also met with small business owners here in Iowa today and discussed ways to improve economic opportunities for them. Part of her pitch to prove she understands average Americans. Next up? Stops in Chicago and New Hampshire.
A partial transcript of the segment on ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir on May 19 is transcribed below.
ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir
May 19, 2015
6:41 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Hillary Speaks]
DAVID MUIR: Now, to 2016 and tough new questions for Hillary Clinton, in Iowa tonight. One of them from our own reporter. Clinton has been campaigning on income inequality in this country, and then the headline that she and the former president made $25 million on speaking fees and books. Tonight, Cecilia Vega asking about that.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Hillary Speaks Out; New Answers to Tough Questions]
CECILIA VEGA: She's campaigning as a champion of the middle class, but today, on the trail in Iowa –
HILLARY CLINTON [TO PRESS]: Are you all ready?
VEGA: Hillary Clinton facing questions about her own wealth. [TO CLINTON] You were in the tip-top echelon of earners in this country. How do you expect everyday Americans to relate to you?
(.....)
VEGA: The questions didn't end there. Clinton peppered about her State Department e-mails written on a personal account, a judge today ordering batches of those e-mails to be released every two months.
(....)
MUIR: And Cecilia now with us from Iowa tonight. Cecilia, she's made income inequality the centerpiece of her campaign so far, and then, of course, the number, $25 million made by Mrs. Clinton and the former president. You've been talking to your sources on the campaign. Do they think this is going to be a problem going forward?
