Donald Trump said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did “okay” testifying before the Select Committee on Benghazi. “I sort of felt she was going to do okay,” he added.
But while the hearing was still in progress last Wednesday, Trump told radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt he thought she sounded “terrible.”
Trump also told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that the hearing was “very partisan,” and lamented the amount of “hatred” that was on display.
“It was very partisan, and it looked quite partisan,” said Trump. “The level of hatred between Republicans and Democrats was unbelievable.”
The Donald claimed that he had worked with both Democrats and Republicans and always got along with everyone.
But partisanship, he said, “hurts both parties” and “hurts the country” because “nothing can be done.”
It’s interesting that Trump — who is very quick to taunt and insult members of his own party on personal grounds — would be so charitable towards Hillary and damning toward the Republican-led committee.
It’s also interesting that a few days earlier, Trump had a completely different take on Hillary for conservative talk show host Hewitt.
Trump told Hewitt he had only heard part of Clinton’s opening statement because he had rushed off to a business meeting, but what he saw did not impress him.
“I thought her opening remarks really looked bad,” he told Hewitt. “I have not been hearing positive things.”
Hewitt agreed, saying “there are smoking guns all over the place.” He played a clip of Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) grilling Clinton about the 600 security requests.
Trump was astonished by what he heard. “Wow,” he exclaimed. “That’s — not good.” He commented again on Clinton’s opening statement. “She sounded terrible!” he said.
He later noted that she sounded so bad, maybe Biden should have stayed in the race.
By Sunday, however, Trump had changed his mind. Hillary had done “okay” as he always thought she would.
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