On Monday, New York Times national political correspondent Jonathan Martin took a dig at Republicans and their distaste of Hillary Clinton’s silence toward media by tweeting the following:
All the Rs mounting a high horse now about press access & Hillary will side w the press when an R candidate starts dodging press, right?
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) May 18, 2015
I’m not sure how anyone could accuse Republican presidential candidates or the party itself of being on their “high horse” pertaining to Clinton’s silence toward the media. After all, those nominees are doing what they are supposed to do – answering questions from reporters like Martin. By answering questions, it shows where a nominee stands on important issues, how they distinguish themselves from the rest of the nominees. It also helps build credibility and recognition.
Since the time of Martin’s tweet, Clinton had only taken 8 (or 13) softball questions from the media since announcing her presidential run (more than a month ago, and actually stopped answering questions three weeks ago), but her lack of credibility is doing wonders on helping to distinguish her from the rest.
By the looks of it, Martin is taking a page out of the Clinton handbook. He’s trying to deflect a negative story, a story Clinton has brought on by herself, by pinning Clinton as a “victim” and taking shots at Republicans. It makes a person wonder if Martin is secretly part of the Clinton machine (paging George Stephanopoulos!).
The fact that The Washington Post (of all news outlets) issued a clock to show the amount of time Clinton had last answered a question is a story in itself. On Monday, the clock read over 40,000 minutes. Amazingly enough, it was reset Tuesday when Clinton (sort of) responded to questions that have been hounding her the past month. Don’t get too excited, the questions were basic and her answers elementary.
When asked her thoughts on having the State Department release emails during her time as secretary of state “as soon as possible,” Clinton said, “I want those emails out.”
When asked about the foundation, Clinton gave a cookie cutter response. “"I'm proud of the work it has done and the work it's doing." That’s as general a statement as they come. It’s like asking Miss America what makes America so great, “because I’m proud of my country and what we do for others.” Great answer. Simply mind-blowing.
They allowed Clinton to get away with not answering questions on her wealth.
Clinton has more baggage than an airport and if journalists do their jobs correctly, they will hold her accountable for answering them. For some reason, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
As Clinton would say, “at this point, what difference does it make?”
