CNN joined the networks in giving outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a cushy send-off after Clinton's syrupy 60 Minutes interview alongside President Obama. The network gushed over the "chummy" affection between the "political superstars" on Monday morning.
"Well, it's the exit interview everybody is talking about," hyped anchor Soledad O'Brien. "Hillary Clinton, the President, sitting down together, laughing, chummy, chummy," she added. "They really seem to really like each other," said correspondent Brianna Keilar. [Video below the break. Audio here.]
Keilar twice more affirmed their behavior as "genuine affection" and added "It looked like a love fest to me as well." Anchor Suzanne Malveaux swooned, "I have never seen them gush like this."
"Why is it that that seems to remarkable to watch?" wondered anchor Ashleigh Banfield, to which host Wolf Blitzer replied "Probably because both of them are political superstars in their own right, and when you put them both together it doubles the power, if you will." CNN wasn't called the "Clinton News Network" for nothing.
Blitzer continued gushing and speculated over a 2016 Clinton White House run:
"The President of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, and Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, someone who has even greater favorability ratings in the United States right now than he has. So it's just a very strong powerful combination. And all of us, you know, who are political news junkies, we can't help ourselves. They're both absolutely right, we can't help but think down the road to 2016, is she going to try once again to be the Democratic presidential nominee, will she try to be the first woman president of the United States?"
Astonishingly, the dependably liberal anchor Carol Costello played the sceptic. "So, is this sort of a well thought-out plan on the Democratic side to prepare the way for 2016?" she asked of Democratic praise for Clinton.
