While a guest on Monday's MSNBC Live program, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean could barely control his anger when host Kate Snow asked: “Donald Trump is zeroing in” on Hillary Clinton's “use of the term 'short-circuited.' Why is she struggling to answer those questions about her e-mail?”
Dean, who is best known for his “Dean Scream” on January 19, 2004, after suffering a serious loss in his party's presidential primary, responded: “I don't think she's struggling. She's answered” questions on that topic “9,000 times.”
“Look,” the Democratic activist continued, “what you have is an organized hit group led by [former New York City Mayor] Rudy Giuliani and Donald [Trump]. “Of course,” the GOP presidential candidate “couldn't resist getting into this [since the Republicans] want to change the subject.”
Dean offered no proof regarding his bizarre assertion, and Snow then claimed that the problem didn't have “a simple answer" before Trump interrupted her:
Of course there’s not a simple answer. How can it be a simple answer? It’s an incredibly complicated problem. What more do you want?
The director of the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] said she was truthful, and there were no classified e-mails. What more do you want?
He continued: “She was truthful in her testimony to the FBI in answering those questions. What more do you want? What more do you want?”
“Well,” Snow replied, “I think Republicans found that very point to be an over-characterization.”
“Of course they did,” Dean snarled angrily. “We're in the middle of a presidential campaign. The Republicans have nothing to talk about.”
“Donald Trump has had one of the worst two-week periods I've ever seen any candidate in either party have [while] running for office,” he added. “Of course they're going to go back to the only thing they can talk about.”
“Trump has no program. He's totally unfit for office,” Dean continued. “This is all they've got, so they're going to go back to it again and again and again even though the FBI said that Hillary Clinton was truthful, and that there were no classified e-mails. What more do you want?”
“But they think it resonates -- I think -- because of the numbers,” Snow replied. “You look at the polls: 38 percent of registered voters are saying that Hillary Clinton is honest and trustworthy; 59 percent are saying 'No, she's not.'”
“Do you acknowledge that's kind of a hole she's got to dig out of, or is that OK, she just keeps those numbers through November and still wins?” the host asked.
“Look, that is not a hole,” her guest replied before stating: “That is the only thing the Republicans are going to bore in on, and the reason those numbers are the way they are is because that's all the Republicans talk about.”
“Frankly,” he continued: “You all take them seriously, which -- now that she's been cleared by the FBI over the two things that were really serious -- I don't know why you even bother with these people when they talk about this kind of stuff."
Dean then noted:
This is craziness. Let's talk about economics. I can't wait to see Trump's economics plan, which cuts taxes for billionaires and doesn't do anything for working people.
I can't wait to see what Trump's defense policy is. I can't wait to see how he excuses his campaign chief taking money from [the Ukraine's ex-President Viktor] Yanukovych from Vladimir Putin [president of the Russian Federation].
“Those are the kinds of issues, national security, jobs; that's what the American people are interested in,” he stated. “I don't think they're interested in this trumped up [no pun intended] e-mail stuff anymore.”
After viewing that harsh exchange, Larry O'Connor of the Hot Air website described the interview as “an awkward appearance” in which “Dean came dangerously close to repeating his trademark scream from the 2004 campaign as he attempted to bully anchor Kate Snow by repeating and aggressively barking 'What more do you want?' at her.”
“Of course,” O'Connor stated, “the obvious follow-up that never happened is: 'Governor Dean, the question is: Was Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton truthful to the American people?'”
“When you ask ‘What more do we want?’ the answer is that we want nothing more than for you and Secretary Clinton to acknowledge that she lied to the American people over the past year and a half about her e-mail scheme and was only finally truthful when she was interviewed by the FBI,” he replied.
“Now, will the mainstream media catch on?” O'Connor asked. “And will the media continue asking this question until they get an answer? Or will they allow the Howard Deans of the world to bully them off it?”
