On Tuesday, CNN International anchor and far-left journalist Christiane Amanpour served up 35 minutes of gushy softball questions to Hillary Clinton, ranging from lashing out at the Trump administration to blaming misogyny and James Comey for her loss.
Amanpour and Clinton appeared at the Women for Women International conference and was so gooey that it reminded this writer of another pathetic display when Charlie Rose read a Maya Angelou poem to Clinton during a 2014 interview.
It began with a question about Women for Women International but then Clinton launched into a series of attacks on the administration. Amanpour aided by delivering this downright falsehood about women in the Trump team:
So then I don't need to ask you. I was going to ask you what you made of the severe proposed cuts to the State Department, to the USAID budget, and to the women's issues and platforms that you started, and what you make of the distinct lack of any women, most women, at the security and defense and peace table of this current administration?
This is false news, plain and simple. Perhaps the most outspoken and vocal member of the Trump administration’s foreign policy arm has been United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. In addition, K.T. McFarland has been on the national security team and Fox News journalist Heather Nauert is the State Department spokeswoman.
After two questions on North Korea and Syria, Amanpour offered a pathetically soft question, stating that sexism and misogyny need to be raised “as a woman and we're dealing obviously with issues that affect women all over the world.”
“What do you imagine your election as the first female president of the United States might have said to the world and to the women of the world who were looking for validation, for somebody to shatter that highest and hardest ceiling,” fretted Amanpour before Clinton responded that “it would have been a really big deal.”
Complaining and attacking voters, Amapour swooned over how Clinton had “just spoken eloquently about the sexism and inequity around the world” and wondered if “it exists here still.”
“And do you think — do you think — were a victim of misogyny and why do you think you lost the majority of the white female vote? The security moms, the people who want to be protected from the kinds of challenges you're talking about right now,” Amanpour continued before Clinton plugged her new book coming out this fall.
Blaming Russia for her election loss, the CNN International host tossed this easy question:
So, just to bring you back to the leader of the foreign country that was not a member of your fan club, what do you make of a journalist who basically said that in fact President Putin hated you so much that it was personal? That he was determined to thwart your ambitions. Do you buy that?
Only minutes later did Amanpour pose the question to Clinton if she and her campaign bore any responsibility for their loss to Donald Trump. Clinton conceded that they weren’t perfect, but largely took the bitter, narcissistic route of blaming anyone but herself.
When Clinton took a few more shots at Trump, bitterly complaining that she lost despite winning the popular vote, Amanpour quipped that she “see[s] a tweet coming” from the President.
Later, Clinton brought up how she’s been spending her time walking around in the woods near her house in Chappaqua. Amanpour interjected to ask if it’s “therapy” for her.
Operating no different than a Democratic Party activist, Amanpour let this serve as the final question:
I could end it there, because that's a good ending, but I'm sure the ladies and gentlemen in this room would want to know one more thing because, obviously, peace, security, women, is about jobs, is about poverty, is about alleviating the worst of the worst that many women have to endure. You mentioned robotics and technology. We're in this massive, political upside down, populists wave right now. People think that jobs will come back by looking inwards. What would you say to women here, men here, there, and everywhere, about actually the reality of the labor market?
It’s easy to see why Clinton and her team selected Amanpour as the interviewer. Amanpour’s been a dedicated liberal journalist on ABC and CNN for years, including this past election. On her eponymous CNN International show back in September, Amanpour sprung to Clinton’s defense following her September 11 health scare.
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from CNN’s Wolf on May 2:
CNN’s Wolf
May 2, 2017
1:25 p.m. Eastern
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Well, thank you all for that great, warm welcome for Hillary Clinton and I know that everybody always wants to hear from her. We're here at women for women international which both of us, in our different ways, have worked with and on behalf of for many, many years. I first knew it when Zainab Salbi and her husband Amjad actually founded it and I say that because, actually, I think it's men and women together who empower women in the sense that you've been working for all our life. So given the structure of this conference and this conversation is about women at the peace table, women being part of the solutions, and women being the change makers to bring peace rather than war. Give me a little bit of your vision about how that could work, particularly in some of the most intractable places that don't attract women, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan.
(....)
AMANPOUR: So then I don't need to ask you. I was going to ask you what you made of the severe proposed cuts to the State Department, to the USAID budget, and to the women's issues and platforms that you started, and what you make of the distinct lack of any women, most women, at the security and defense and peace table of this current administration?
(....)
AMANPOUR: I am sure that everybody in this room, everybody in this country, frankly everybody in the world is really afraid of the crisis with North Korea. So given that that affects everybody, including women, what do you make of President Trump saying that he'd be honored to meet Kim Jong-un? And I ask you that seriously, because the dirty little secret is that it will take, won't it, negotiations with the North Korean regime to actually come to — I want your view on negotiations as a way to forge peace and not as a sign of weakness and appeasement? What do you think? Because your President Bill Clinton was the last person to actually negotiate and cause an arms control agreement that worked with North Korea.
(....)
AMANPOUR: Did the Syria strike work?
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I think it's too soon to really tell.
AMANPOUR: Did you support it?
CLINTON: Yes. I did support it.
(....)
AMANPOUR: I'm going to come back to Russia in a moment because it's obviously vital. But I want to ask you as a woman and we're dealing obviously with issues that affect women all over the world. What do you imagine your election as the first female president of the United States might have said to the world and to the women of the world who were looking for validation, for somebody to shatter that highest and hardest ceiling?
CLINTON: Oh, I think it would have been a really big deal.
(....)
AMANPOUR: Given that, then, I wonder if you could address, you've just spoken eloquently about the sexism and inequity around the world, but do you believe it exists here still? [LAUGHTER] And do you think — do you think — were a victim of misogyny and why do you think you lost the majority of the white female vote? The security moms, the people who want to be protected from the kinds of challenges you're talking about right now.
CLINTON: Well, you know, the book’s coming out in the fall. [LAUGHTER]
(....)
AMANPOUR: So, just to bring you back to the leader of the foreign country that was not a member of your fan club, what do you make of a journalist who basically said that in fact President Putin hated you so much that it was personal? That he was determined to thwart your ambitions. Do you buy that?
(....)
AMANPOUR: It did. Before I ask you whether you would invited President Duterte to Washington or the White House, can I just ask you something? Because again, I think many people in the room, whenever anybody says they're going to speak to Secretary Clinton, you know, there’s a — your supporters are sad, they're devastated, they're disappointed, and some are angry and some say, you know, could it have been different? Could the campaign have been better? Could you have had a better rationale? He had one message, your opponent, and it was a successful message. Make America Great Again. And where was your message? Do you take any personal responsibility?
(....)
AMANPOUR [ON HILLARY TOUTING HER POPULAR VOTE WIN]: I see a tweet coming.
(....)
AMANPOUR: Just briefly, we're going to finish on some other stuff, but once the result was known, did you call President Obama? What did you say to him?
CLINTON: Yeah, I called President Obama and I called — I called Donald Trump. Yeah.
AMANPOUR: So, did you have any message for President Obama?
(....)
AMANPOUR [ON WALKING IN THE WOODS]: Is it therapy?
(....)
AMANPOUR: I could end it there, because that's a good ending, but I'm sure the ladies and gentlemen in this room would want to know one more thing because, obviously, peace, security, women, is about jobs, is about poverty, is about alleviating the worst of the worst that many women have to endure. You mentioned robotics and technology. We're in this massive, political upside down, populists wave right now. People think that jobs will come back by looking inwards. What would you say to women here, men here, there, and everywhere, about actually the reality of the labor market?
