Appearing as a panel member on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront before the night's Democratic presidential candidate town hall, CNN political commentator and Daily Beast editor-in-chief John Avlon linked Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with both being "progressive" but also with "centrism" as, in a slip of the tongue, the liberal commentator described Hillary as the "son" of former Democratic Leadership Council chairman Bill Clinton. He declared that the Clintons are "associated with centrism" which he claimed "worked well" for the country.
But, a bit later, he responded to news of a court ruling in the Hillary Clinton email server investigation by asserting, because the ruling was made by a Bill Clinton appointee, "she's going to have to answer it tonight, and she's going to have to answer it in a way that's decisive and not simply say it's a result of the right-wing conspiracy because there's a judge appointed by her husband behind it right now."
At 7:22 p.m. ET, during a discussion of socialist Bernie Sanders pulling Hillary Clinton to the left in the nomination process, Avlon declared:
But, I mean, this began as a progressive protest candidacy, and there's no way that Hillary Clinton is going to out-left Bernie Sanders on any issue but guns. That's a fool's errand. And also there's general election implications if she thinks she's going to be the winner. And so the question is, how much can she try to bridge that gap without alienating the center and hurting her in a general.
Accidentally inserting the word "son" instead of "wife," Avlon added:
And she has a lot of progressive bona fides, but she's not a democratic socialist. She is the son of the former head of the Democratic Leadership Council. The Clintons are associated with centrism, and that worked well for them and the country.
At about 7:55 p.m. ET, he commented on what Hillary Clinton's response to the court ruling should be:
The subpoenas coming down today bring up all the bad memories of rough patches in the Clintons' history, and the, you know, the political history of the Clintons is riddled with self-inflicted wounds and subpoenas for aides.
And if this is going to come down today by a Bill Clinton-appointed judge, she's going to have to answer it tonight, and she's going to have to answer it in a way that's decisive and not simply say it's a result of the right-wing conspiracy because there's a judge appointed by her husband behind it right now.
CNN host Erin Burnett added: "Which, again, I think, is important to emphasize, that judge is a Democratic appointee, a Bill Clinton appointee who made that ruling today."
