On Wednesday’s CBS This Morning, John Dickerson analyzed Hillary Clinton’s performance in her first national television interview and did his best to stress that her overall trustworthiness issues are really not an issue for her 2016 presidential campaign.
The Face the Nation moderator argued that voters only “need to find her trustworthy on the questions of is she going to fight for them. Is she going to have their interests at heart when she’s in office?”
Fill-in host Anthony Mason began by pointing out how Clinton “was also asked about polls that show that the majority of Americans don’t find her trustworthy" before he asked Dickerson "[i]f she's as strong a frontrunner as she is, do they have to find her trustworthy?”
Mason failed to mention that approximately 57% of Americans do not consider Mrs. Clinton honest and trustworthy but Dickerson made sure to downplay the trustworthy factor completely:
The questions of trust that surround her at the moment are related to her e-mail system that she set up privately outside of the State Department and also there have been some questions about the Clinton Foundation and the campaign’s argument is that voters don't have to trust her on those things. They need to just trust her on the bread and butter stuff and we’ll see if that turns out to be true.
Co-host Norah O’Donnell introduced the segment by promoting how in the CNN interview “Clinton slammed Donald Trump and the other Republicans over Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants” before she played a lengthy clip of the Democrat’s attack.
CBS made it clear that their promotion of Mrs. Clinton’s response to Donald Trump would be the focal point of its discussion with Dickerson even though CNN’s Brianna Keilar asked Mrs. Clinton about the public’s inability to trust her well before any discussion of Donald Trump occurred.
See relevant transcript below.
CBS This Morning
July 8, 2015
NORAH O’DONNELL: Hillary Clinton is not campaigning in public this morning. The Democratic front runner made two stops in Iowa Tuesday, home of the first presidential caucuses. Clinton also gave the first major interviews of her campaign with our Cedar Rapids, Iowa affiliate KGAN and other outlets. Speaking with CNN, Clinton slammed Donald Trump and the other Republicans over Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants.
HILLARY CLINTON: I'm very disappointed in those comments and I feel very bad and very disappointed with him and with the Republican Party for not responding immediately and saying enough, stop it. But they are all in the -- you know, in the same general area on immigration, you know. They don't want to provide a path to citizenship. They range across a spectrum of being either grudgingly welcome or hostile toward immigrants.
O’DONNELL: CBS News Political Director and Face the Nation moderator John Dickerson is in Washington. John good morning.
JOHN DICKERSON: Good morning, Norah.
O’DONNELL: We heard Secretary Clinton lump all of the Republicans together on the issue of immigration saying they're on a spectrum of hostility. Is it accurate to lump Donald Trump with Jeb Bush, let's say?
DICKERSON: No, no. She would like to, of course, because Donald Trump is in such hot water for saying the Mexicans that come across the border are rapists and murderers. But Jeb Bush has said something at the totally at the other end of the spectrum. You remember a year ago when talking about why people come to the United States and become undocumented workers. He said they do it for love, to help their families. So they're quite a far distance apart in that regard.
O’DONNELL: Isn't this part of Clinton's strategy?
DICKERSON: Oh, sure. And it's part of any Democratic strategy which is, and the Republicans do a version of this too, which is to paint the entire party by its most extreme member. And that's why you see a number of Republicans trying to get away from Donald Trump and it's taken them a little while to do it. But they're trying to distance themselves from him so they don't get tarred by his comments.
ANTHONY MASON: John, she was also asked about polls that show that the majority of Americans don’t find her trustworthy. If she's as strong a frontrunner as she is, do they have to find her trustworthy?
DICKERSON: Well, not necessarily. They need to find her trustworthy on the questions of is she going to fight for them. Is she going to have their interests at heart when she’s in office? The questions of trust that surround her at the moment are related to her e-mail system that she set up privately outside of the State Department and also there have been some questions about the Clinton Foundation and the campaign’s argument is that voters don't have to trust her on those things. They need to just trust her on the bread and butter stuff and we’ll see if that turns out to be true.
