Wednesday’s New York Times Business section was blessed with “Hillary Clinton Starts Podcast On Election as Midterms Near.” The former First Lady, former U.S. Senator, and failed Democratic presidential nominee is forming a new podcast series for Vox Media with surly liberal tech journalist and podcaster Kara Swisher. The online headline came off more excited: “Hillary Clinton Steps to the Podcast Mic as Midterms Approach.” Was Kamala Harris unavailable?
Media reporter Benjamin Mullin is apparently easily impressed:
Hillary Clinton has rarely been far from the spotlight since her 2016 presidential bid. She has written best-selling books, taught at Columbia University and even tried her hand on Broadway as a producer for the Tony Award-winning musical “Suffs.”
Her next act? Podcaster.
With the midterm elections looming, Mrs. Clinton is preparing to make her voice heard on a new podcast series, called “High Stakes,” alongside the well-known technology journalist Kara Swisher. Starting Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Swisher will break down the race to control the House and the Senate in weekly episodes that run through mid-November.
Swisher, an Elon Musk/Jeff Bezos nemesis, is a regular subject at NewsBusters. She and Clinton are well-suited politically: Swisher was even a guest host on The View, temporarily joining the “cackling coven” this summer. But Mullin focused only on Clinton’s political opponents.
“I don’t think the stakes for the country and the world could be any higher,” Mrs. Clinton said in an interview with The New York Times last week. “If we don’t reverse this chaos and corruption and cruelty that is being visited upon us by this administration, we won’t recognize our country.”
….
The idea for the podcast came this spring at the sprawling home of former Atlantic owner David Bradley in Washington’s upscale Kalorama neighborhood. Ms. Swisher turned up to the soireé, which was being held for Mrs. Clinton, wearing a T-shirt and jeans and began peppering the former secretary of state with questions about a variety of topics — from the upcoming midterm elections to the continuing war in Ukraine.
Ms. Swisher said she thought Mrs. Clinton’s answers were concise and intelligible, and Ms. Swisher wondered why Mrs. Clinton had not taken another swing at podcasting after her solo interview show, “You and Me Both With Hillary Clinton,” ended in 2023.
The two got a test-run when Mrs. Clinton filled in for Ms. Swisher’s regular “Pivot” co-host, Scott Galloway, in August. Ms. Swisher wanted to give listeners the version of Mrs. Clinton she saw that evening, and persuaded her to team up.
There’s a distinct “Al Gore is loose and funny in private” feel to Swisher’s unchallenged praise.
“There’s a thing about the secretary, where it’s like, ‘Oh, if you knew her in the room, she’s so funny,’” Ms. Swisher said, adding, “We’re going to try to show you that room.”
After letting Clinton get another dig at Trump by joking she wouldn’t be selling “gold cellphones” on the podcast (“an apparent reference to Trump Mobile, the wireless network pushed by the Trump family”), Mullin nodded vaguely to the radical-left takeover of swathes of the Democratic Party.
Many voters are disenchanted with the Democratic establishment, which Mrs. Clinton still represents in many Americans’ minds. In light of that association, will Ms. Swisher’s audience want to hear from Mrs. Clinton?
“Well, the first thing I’d say is, I’ve been called worse than ‘establishment,’” Mrs. Clinton joked. She added that many Democrats in contested races were now calling upon her to help campaign for votes and raise money. They are also asking her for ideas, she said.
Ideas for losing to Donald Trump?
“One of the things people try to do is split the Democratic Party, and that’s fine,” Mrs. Clinton said. “It’s fine to have differences, and it’s fine to argue. Nobody’s afraid of the argument.”
Except perhaps outlets like the New York Times, which won’t air out those Dem-on-Dem arguments in ways unflattering to the left-wing candidates.
