Hillary Clinton has "plenty of reasons to mistrust the press," that according to a Washington Post columnist. E.J.Dionne appeared on Monday's Last Word to discuss the style of the Democrat's presidential campaign. Dionne equivocated, describing Clinton as cautious. He added, "I think there are moments of joy that I have seen. I saw it in the announcement she made in New York, particularly, when she talked about her family."
He then lectured, "I think she is too cautious with the press to say the least. And, while she got plenty of reason to mistrust the press, that does not do you much good." Given the extremely friendly coverage to both Clinton and Obama, it's hard to imagine what those reasons are.
After all, this was the first question the former Secretary of State faced after it became public that she used a private e-mail server and deleted 30,000 e-mails: "...If you were a man, today, would all of this fuss being made be made?"
Yet, this attitude that the Clintons have a right to be cautious around predatory journalists continues. In March, NBC's Andrea Mitchell insisted that past scandals have made Hillary Clinton wary of answering press questions.
A partial transcript is below:
Last Word
7/13/15
10:36E.J. DIONNE (writer for the Washington Post) : Right. Well, first of all, I think Hillary Clinton is thinking of a general election. And, Bernie, right now, is thinking of the primaries. Secondly, there were more specifics in there. I mean a couple interesting things, she put a heavy emphasis on profit sharing, She talked about overtime. She talked about giving people more control of their schedule. She talked about family leave. I think what she was doing is trying to say that the Republicans want to make this about growth. I am for growth, too, but I am for fairer growth, sustainable growth. And, I think she is challenging them on the basic issue of stagnating wages.
And, so I think if she has her way, she wants this to be a bidding war for the votes of working class and middle class voters. And, the interesting thing is, so many of the problems she seems to have had in the campaign are about image, and, you know, the server and all that. And, she seems to be taking a leaf out of her husband is book, that she is going to give a whole bunch of policy speeches. This is the first of like, ten rollout events in the next couple months, and she will bank on the fact that voters care more about their pocket books than any of this other stuff and we will learn if she is right.
...
O`DONNELL: E.J., you have watched more of these candidates out there on the trail than any of us in both parties. What do you think you are seeing when you watch Hillary Clinton campaigning?
DIONNE: I think you are seeing somebody who is extremely careful and to some degree more careful than she probably should be. I think there are moments of joy that I have seen. I saw it in the announcement she made in New York, particularly , when she talked about her family. But, I do think she needs to show more of that. I think she is too cautious with the press to say the least. And, while she got plenty of reason to mistrust the press, that does not do you much good.
