The journalists on CBS This Morning on Tuesday promoted Hillary Clinton bashing Donald Trump’s “wacky strategy” against her and featured clips of the Democrat on late night TV, something that’s necessary since it’s been 263 days since she’s had a press conference. Nancy Cordes played extensive excerpts of Clinton on an ABC comedy show and then opined, “On Jimmy Kimmel Live, Clinton tackled a Trump lie about her health.”
The journalist then included a clip of Clinton deriding, “It's part of the wacky strategy. Just say all these crazy things and maybe you can get somebody to believe you.” Shifting this attack to another topic, Cordes compared, “Trump used the same approach to go after Clinton's family charity on Monday.”
This uncritical exchange followed:
TRUMP: The Clinton Foundation constitute a clear example of RICO racketeering, influence, corrupt, organization enterprise.
CORDES: He insisted foundation donors got favors from Clinton’s State Department and he called for a special prosecutor.
TRUMP: It’s criminality. Everybody knows it.
CORDES: The State Department said it’s not true.
In a follow-up segment with the New York Times’s Mark Leibovich, co-host Norah O’Donnell mildly wondered if, perhaps, Clinton should actually talk to journalists.
NORAH 'DONNELL: Let's start with the e-mails. It has been been nearly nine months since Hillary Clinton held a press conference. She late night TV to address these new questions. Was that the right way to address it?
MARK LEIBOVICH: Well, they seem to think so. I mean, it's obviously a very safe setting for her. She comes off well. Most people do. As a member of the media, I have a horse in this race and I would love her to do a press conference, like everyone else would.
To his credit, Leibovich attacked Clinton’s avoidance of the press as “glib” and “suspicious.”
Transcripts can be found below:
CBS This Morning
8/23/16
7:03am ETNORAH O’DONNELL: Hillary Clinton faces new pressure on two fronts. Her ties to the Clinton Foundation and the e-mail from her private computer servers while she was Secretary of State. The State Department is now under orders to review and release thousands of messages retrieved during an FBI investigation.
ANTHONY MASON: They are not part of the roughly 30,000 documents the Democratic nominee turned over two years ago. Nancy Cordes has Clinton's late night response to the latest e-mail revelations. Nancy, good morning.
NANCY CORDES: Good morning. Clinton aides say they don’t know what’s in these 15,000 e-mails and documents recovered from her servers by the FBI or how her lawyers missed them when they said they turned over all her work-related e-mail in 2013. On late night TV, she tried to make light of what has become a serious liability.
HILLARY CLINTON: We’ve already released, I don’t know, 30,000 plus. So what's a few more.
CORDES: Clinton tried to use humor to defuse the latest controversy over her e-mails.<<< Please consider helping NewsBusters financially with your tax-deductible contribution today >>>
JIMMY KIMMEL: Have you considered using Face Time instead of e-mail?
CLINTON: Actually, actually, I think that’s really good advice.
CORDES: But in Akron, Ohio, Donald Trump and his supporters didn’t find it that funny.
DONALD TRUMP: Now we learn about another 15,000 e-mails she failed to turn over and they’ve just been discovered.
CORDES: On Jimmy Kimmel Live, Clinton tackled a Trump lie about her health.
CLINTON: Take my pulse while I’m talking to you.
CORDES: Trump and his allies have repeatedly insinuated she’s unwell.
TRUMP: She also lacks the mental and physical stamina.
CORDES: Clinton’s doctors said last year she is in excellent health.
CLINTON: It’s part of the wacky strategy. Just say all these crazy things and maybe you can get somebody to believe you.
CORDES: Trump used the same approach to go after Clinton’s family charity on Monday.
TRUMP: The Clinton Foundation constitute a clear example of RICO racketeering, influence, corrupt, organization enterprise.
CORDES: He insisted foundation donors got favors from Clinton’s State Department and he called for a special prosecutor.
TRUMP: It’s criminality. Everybody knows it.
CORDES: The State Department said it’s not true.
MARK TONER (State Department): We have seen no evidence of any behavior, any relations with the Clinton Foundation that weren’t completely above board.
CORDES: Former President Bill Clinton did announce yesterday that he wills top raising money for the foundation and step down from the board if his wife is elected president. But foundation officials have resisted some calls for them to shut down all together if she wins. They say that would deprive millions of people around the world of life saving medical treatments. Kevin?
7:09am ET
NORAH O’DONNELL: CBS News political contributor Mark Leibovich is the chief national correspondent for New York Times magazine. Mark, good morning.MARK LEIBOVICH: Hi, Norah.
O’DONNELL: Let’s start with the e-mails. It has been been nearly nine months since Hillary Clinton held a press conference. She late night TV to address these new questions. Was that the right way to address it?
MARK LEIBOVICH: Well, they seem to think so. I mean, it’s obviously a very safe setting for her. She comes off well. Most people do. As a member of the media, I have a horse in this race and I would love her to do a press conference, like everyone else would.
O’DONNELL: What questions would you ask? I mean, what’s lingering after this new batch of —
LEIBOVICH: Why is this taking so long? She’s so glib about, “Okay. what's a few more e-mails to release?” Why don’t we see them? Why aren’t they all just there? Why is this so complicated? What else is in there? I mean, she would just — I would be more pointed than that. But it’s just very, very glib to come off and say that in a situation that keeps lingering. It also looks, politically very suspect.
ANTHONY MASON: The State Department says there’s no evidence that there was anything that was not completely above board. But these e-mails, we do know show contact between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department.LEIBOVICH: Yeah.
MASON: Potentially how damaging is this for her?
O’DONNELL: That’s the second batch of e-mails.
LEIBOVICH: Yeah. That’s the second batch. I think it’s very damaging. Well, look, in the context of this it is damaging because it links two ongoing e-mails for her. One, the e-mail scandal. Two, questions about the foundation. It puts two and two together. It’s pretty easy to see. You have possible, not a quid pro quo, certainly the interactions between the two are very, very carefully linked there. Um, this also ensures this is going to linger through October, probably right up until election day and that’s not something any candidate wants.
