Acting as a Clinton campaign spokesperson on her Thursday MSNBC show, host Andrea Mitchell spun Hillary Clinton's upcoming testimony before a congressional hearing on the Benghazi and State Department e-mail scandals as exactly what the Democratic presidential candidate wanted: "Well, they are, frankly, very confident about that hearing. They think that at the end of the day, Hillary Clinton can take on that committee, and they're going into it almost welcoming the opportunity, I think, to try to clear the air."
Mitchell's assertion followed Julie Pace of the Associated Press suggesting Clinton should be more contrite before the House committee: "Does she give any ground and say anything differently than when she did that press conference at U.N.? I think that her campaign is gonna have to consider whether they should maybe apologize..."
Noting State Department official Joyce Barr testifying before Congress on Wednesday that Clinton's deletion of e-mails was "not acceptable," Mitchell sympathized: "An uncomfortable position, of course, for any State Department official from – to be testifying on that subject."
Pace observed: "Yeah, and that's not what the Clinton campaign wants people to be saying about this. They want them to be talking about steps that she did take to e-mail her aides on their State Department e-mails."
Here is a transcript of the May 7 exchange:
12:30 PM ET
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ANDREA MITCHELL: I wanted to just return briefly, for both of you, to the testimony yesterday from the State Department official in charge of e-mails. And this is more of what she had to say when she was being questioned by the Senate committee about Hillary Clinton's private server, the e-mails that were deleted, because of course Clinton is going to have to testify, most likely the week of the 18th, before that special Benghazi committee on this very subject.
JOYCE BARR [STATE DEPARTMENT]: I think that the actions that we've taken in the course of recovering these e-mails have made it very clear what people's responsibilities are with regard to record keeping. I think the message is loud and clear that that is not acceptable.
SEN. THOM TILLIS [R-NC]: So it is a completely unacceptable process going forward and it should have been retrospectively?
BARR: Going forward, yes, sir.
MITCHELL: "Going forward," she's not going to say retrospectively. An uncomfortable position, of course, for any State Department official from – to be testifying on that subject. Julie?
JULIE PACE: Yeah, and that's not what the Clinton campaign wants people to be saying about this. They want them to be talking about steps that she did take to e-mail her aides on their State Department e-mails. She's gonna get this same round of questions when she testifies on Benghazi. And what does she say about it? Does she give any ground and say anything differently than when she did that press conference at U.N.? I think that her campaign is gonna have to consider whether they should maybe apologize, maybe take a step further than they did at the U.N.
MITCHELL: Well, they are, frankly, very confident about that hearing. They think that at the end of the day, Hillary Clinton can take on that committee, and they're going into it almost welcoming the opportunity, I think, to try to clear the air.
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