CNN's State of the Union host Jake Tapper scored the lone Sunday morning talk show interview with Hillary Clinton and, unfortunately, Tapper failed to ask her about either Benghazi, the e-mail scandal, or the Clinton Foundation and instead discussed Black Lives Matter protesters, a $15 minimum wage, the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and a contested convention.
In contrast, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace repeatedly questioned President Barack Obama on the matter and beyond that, NBC's Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd snuck in a minute to ask Democratic New York Mayor Bill de Blasio about an investigation into his campaign and a non-profit he was behind.
Going first to Tapper's Clinton interview, the CNN host started with some extended pleasantries about Clinton being able to campaign in her "adopted home state" and how it's hard to "beat that" before wondering if she has any "doubts about what kind of president" her opponent in Bernie Sanders "might make."
Tapper followed up once on that before turning to the heated exchange former President Bill Clinton had with Black Lives Matter protesters last week and how many on the left have condemned his behavior and rhetoric toward them. Summarizing what he said, Tapper simply lobbed to Clinton a softball on what she made "of that whole debate."
After highlighting how the former First Lady's husband was also "want[ing] to defend his legacy," Tapper moved to a line of questioning that sought to corner Clinton on how she hasn't gone along with Sanders and the far left's demand to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour across the country:
TAPPER: Earlier this week, you appeared with Governor Cuomo here in New York at an event where the minimum wage was officially raised to $15 an hour. You support letting the states do that. On a federal level, I believe you support raising it to $12 an hour. Is that right?
CLINTON: Mm-hmm. Yes.
TAPPER: So, Senator Sanders told me that he found it somewhat amusing you did that, given that your position is more nuanced, in the sense that you don't support raising the federal minimum wage to $15, as he does. What do you think of that?
(....)
TAPPER: Why not support $15 nationally? Just because there are some states that you don't think it's necessary because of the cost of living is not as expensive than others?
In the remaining time, Tapper invoked Sanders's more neutral position on the Israelis and Palestinians, how Clinton's foreign policy and war in Iraq vote led to ISIS, and the chances of a contested Democratic convention.
Meanwhile, Fox's Wallace used the precious time that the President gave to appear on Fox News to spend over three and a half minutes on the e-mail scandal. First, Wallace pointed out to the President how he stated in October that "that Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server did not jeopardize national secrets."
"Since then, we’ve learned that over 2,000 of her e-mails contained classified material, 22 of the e-mails had top-secret information. Can you still say flatly that she did not jeopardize America’s secrets," Wallace inquired.
The President predictably tried to sidestep his way through the question by maintaining that he needed "to be careful" because of the ongoing investigation, but somehow also proclaimed that she "was an outstanding Secretary of State" and "never intentionally put America in any kind of jeopardy" since he too "handle[d] a lot of classified information."
Doing the job Tapper didn't fulfill with the person actually at the center of this debate, Wallace pushed back:
Mr. President, when you say what you’ve just said, when Josh Earnest said, as he did -- your spokesman -- in January, the information from the Justice Department is she’s not a target, some people I think are worried whether or not -- the decision whether or not, how to handle the case, will be made on political grounds, not legal grounds. Can you guarantee to the American people, can you direct the Justice Department to say, "Hillary Clinton will be treated -- as the evidence goes, she will not be in any way protected."
Instead of backing off, the President reiterated that he could "guarantee...full stop" that Clinton is being treated like any other citizen and has not spoken to the Attorney General or FBI director about the investigation since "[w]e have a strict line" as per precedent from other presidents.
As for a final instance of solid Sunday morning talk show interviewing, NBC's Todd makes another appearance in this space following his questioning last Sunday of Clinton on abortion and specifically whether an "unborn child" has "constitutional rights."
Talking to Clinton surrogate and far-left Mayor de Blasio, Todd brought up (and followed up twice on) reports about an FBI probe that most viewers are unlikely to have been informed of previously by the media:
Before I let you go, there was a lot of news involving your campaign for mayor a few years ago. The FBI is now probing some campaign fundraising activities as part of an investigation of corruption in the NYPD, but apparently, there's some potential campaign finance irregularities involving your campaign that's part of this investigation. Was --- do you feel confident your campaign followed the law here...And can you say definitively, just one other part of this, was any money from your non-profit, Campaign for One New York, used in your campaign...So you believe you're going to be totally cleared of anything with this?
