Why Hillary Avoids Press Questions
Despite a busy campaign schedule, Hillary hasn’t said much to reporters since announcing her candidacy. While Carly Fiorina says that she has taken over 300 press questions in the last month and Jeb Bush claims a whopping 900, Hillary has answered a mere 20 questions. But why?
The answer came at a roundtable event in Iowa on Tuesday, May 19th, when Ed Henry of Fox News rudely interrupted proceedings, demanding to know if Hillary would talk to the press.
“I might,” she said. “If I can learn something, I might.”
And there you have it – Hillary has been avoiding the press simply because they are not productive. With the election still 18 months away, there will be plenty of time to talk about the important things, but what sells political news now is either a scandal or gaffe. Hillary does not need exposure from mainstream press to stand out, and as a result, she has no reason to get embroiled in their exhausting and repetitive questions.
Her strategy is a good one, and Jeb Bush stands as proof. While he may have asked over 900 questions in the last 30 days, there is only one that went viral, and only one that everyone will remember. As much as one may agree with 19-year-old Ivy Ziedrich, the college student who asked Jeb Bush to admit that his brother created ISIS, the video of their encounter is uncomfortable to watch. There is absolutely no reason for Hillary to put herself in these types of situations.
Hillary did answer 7 questions on Tuesday, for there was something important she needed to address. The news that the state department may not release her emails until as late as January 2016 was fresh, and she used the opportunity to announce that she wished the process to be expedited. However, other than that, questions were old hat, forcing her to say the same things she’s said a million times over, about her wealth, the Clinton Foundation, and the Iraq War. It’s nothing new, and reading the transcript, one can hardly blame Hillary for avoiding the media.
Paul Waldman of The Week summed things up nicely when he said:
The most useful questions aren’t necessarily the ones that will make the candidate most uncomfortable or are the hardest to answer without making someone mad, they’re the ones that reveal the substance of the candidate’s perspective on the world and what he or she would actually do as president. So by all means, we should keep pressuring Hillary Clinton to answer questions from reporters. Let’s just make sure that when she finally does, the questions we have aren’t so trivial.
So, if you could ask Hillary Clinton anything, what would it be? As president, she will inherit the many problems facing America. Instead of searching for personal digs, let’s ask how she’ll handle the problems we face.