Paging Philip Bump at the Washington Post: It’s time to update the Clinton clock.
It appears that Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has deigned to answer some questions from the press. I repeat: Hillary Clinton has answered questions. Reporters traveling with Mrs. Clinton were given the opportunity to ask her some questions at an ice cream parlor in New Hampshire on Friday, and Hillary answered them.
It had been over 20,000 minutes since the last question had been put to her by Nevada reporter John Ralston on June 18.
Given this rare opportunity, what do you suppose the reporters asked? There certainly are a plethora of interesting scandals topics to choose from: her latest emails, Clinton Foundation irregularities, her outrageous speaker fees, airbrushing of IG reports, Blumenthal, Huma, Boko Haram, ambassadors investigated, security struggles, Benghazi, hidden Iran waivers, Congo cash, etc…etc…
Oh boy, I’m on pins and needles…
Here’s a transcript of the question and answer session from the pool report:
Q: Bernie got almost 10,000 people at his recent rally. What does that say about him as a candidate and why aren’t you drawing those crowds.
A: “well, we each run or own campaigns and I always knew this was gonna be competitive, and i want to have a great debate in the primary and caucuses around the country and that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
Q: (exact phrasing inaudible) question about the Clintons’ connection to the state.
A: “You know, that’s really true. We are so fond of and grateful to New Hampshire. We have friends hat we’ve made over the years that we’ve stayed in close touch with. I obviously care deeply about the state and admire so many of the public officials, Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan is a good friend, so I love coming to New Hampshire, and I love going to every part of the state, and I’m happy to be here in the upper valley.”
[at this point, the attendant served Clinton her ice cream. “Is that for me?” she said. “Holy shamoley.”]
Q: you’ve been making a point of thanking your organizers and having them speak at your speeches, how central is that component of your campaign and how is it different from what you did in 2008?
A: “it’s so central. Because one of the things that I certainly learned from the last campaign is how important it is not just to have events, but to organize every single day, including around the events — and that’s why I’m doing a lot of meetings and discussions about specific issues, because I want to hear from people and I also want to connect them to the campaign. And I feel like it’s really working. It is building a campaign here in NH, using the grassroots, and coming up from that, because at the end of the day, I think that wins elections and wins caucuses.”
Q: one of the things Obama did was form his own relationships w volunteers and recruit his own precinct captains. Are you going to be doing that?
A: “Sure, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, I’m already doing that. I’m doing calls and meetings and campaign videos. We’re all just working to pull people into the campaign, get them involved in doing that work of signing people up and the hard work of getting ready for an election or a caucus.”
Apparently, Clinton had asked reporters earlier if they wanted some ice cream and a CNN reporter snarked, “How about instead of some ice cream, a question?” Which prompted Clinton to say, “Awwwww.”
That’s really cute. It humanizes her and shows her wicked sense of humor.
And thanks to these aggressive, hard-boiled reporters covering Clinton’s campaign, we now know that Hillary is “looking forward to” having “a great debate in the primaries and caucuses,” and that she has friends in New Hampshire — a state she “loves coming to,” etc., etc., etc., zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
The good news is — unlike a certain Daily Mail reporter who sometimes asks awkward questions — all of these crack reporters have retained their access to the queen, so we can look forward to many more exciting reports like this one in the weeks and months to come.
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