June 1, 2016

Why doesn't Hillary Clinton ever do a press conference?

Jake Tapper questioned her (after Donald Trump's big press conference yesterday): "You do interviews, and you are calling in right now --we appreciate that-- but it has been pointed out to me that it has been something like five or six months since you have given an actual press conference. Is that something you're going to remedy soon?"

She gave an evasive, garbled answer (replete with laughing, which you can hear in the video clip below): "Oh I'm sure we will, look. I was shocked myself that I've done nearly 300 interviews... But I believe that we do, and we should answer questions, of course I am going to. Many, many different times."



There's an interesting Freudian slip in that video. Hillary is talking about how Trump is "attacking everybody" and "that is a recipe for gridlock in Washington and that's what we've got to break and get away with."

Get away with? Obviously, she meant to say get away from. Why did with intrude itself? [ADDED: The obvious guess is that she often thinks of getting away with things.]

And after Trump had received so much screen time, why did she just do a call-in interview — a call-in interview with bad audio? There's already an issue with her voice. It sounds raspy and makes her seem old or unhealthy and, frankly, brings out the misogyny in some people. Why don't they have the very best audio equipment for her — something that is not only perfectly clear but that sweetens the sound of her voice?

63 comments:

MikeR said...

Can't blame her too much - she isn't a stand-up comedian type like Trump, doesn't feel comfortable with impromptu questions. I'm like that too. But it is a big problem for an important politician.
Too late to pivot to Trump's position: "I'll say whatever I want, most of it will be nonsense so don't worry about it too much!" How did he get away with that?

exhelodrvr1 said...

It was obviously a rhetorical question by Tapper. Hillary has an incredible amount of baggage that she can't discuss without hurting her political prospects.

Curious George said...

"...that sweetens the sound of her voice."

That would be an artificial sweetener.

Dad said...

"With" intruded itself because she couldn't decide, on the fly, between "get away from" and "do away with". So she used bits of both.

Brando said...

It all fits with the usual Clintonite need for secrecy and obfuscation. Why be open when you can just as easily get a pass for hiding?

And if she were quick on the fly or had any natural charisma, the calculation would be different, but for Hillary she has none of that and a press conference (or non-fawning interview) can only hurt her. The Dems are insanely trying to force this bad fit into the White House.

Truthavenger said...

"Why doesn't Hillary ever do a press conference?"

In the immortal words of William F. Buckley, "Why does baloney reject the grinder?"

David Begley said...

Maybe 300 interviews but not one tough one. And Hillary NEVER takes questions from the voters. At least Putin does a yearly call-in show.

traditionalguy said...

She answers vetted soft ball questions. But what is this Press Conference thingee full of free to speak reporters? They can get their own TV show.

Limited blogger said...

Caught that segment by chance. Tapper could have dropped the hammer with a tough question at any time, but threw her open ended stuff about Trump. Bogus, and it showed.

Brando said...

"Maybe 300 interviews but not one tough one."

Yeah, "300" interviews means nothing if they're all with lickspittles. When's the last time she was actually interviewed by someone who pressed her with hard followup questions and did not accept her obfuscations? Likewise, if Trump called in to Hannity a thousand times, it would mean less than one interview with a real journalist.

Frankly, everyone should tune out when a candidate "submits" to friendly questioning. It means nothing, and rewards suckups.

Ann Althouse said...

""With" intruded itself because she couldn't decide, on the fly, between "get away from" and "do away with". So she used bits of both."

What?!

"Get away with" is a very common set of words. Why would you look for a more complicated explanation?!

Wince said...

I'm gathering that she made several of these calls yesterday afternoon. I saw the one with Chris Hayes on CNBC.

While it certainly increased the swath of her message, you have to ask with so many in sequence why she didn't do a video hook-up to all of them instead.

Hayes actually asked a few good questions. I could sense during the interview that she was sitting, bespectacled, at a table with several pages of talking points in front of her, jumping from one canned paragraph to another to issue her non-answer.

The poor phone audio to the delusional Clinton acolytes also probably images a candidate "on the go." Plus they can say the call was dropped in the unlikely event a difficult question passes the lips of a NBC or CNN reporter.

Bill R said...

"...that sweetens the sound of her voice."

What's the phrase?

"All the perfumes of Araby..."

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Cut her some slack. She "did" Ellen, didn't she?

furious_a said...

"...that sweetens the sound of her voice."

They're about ten years yet from the auto-tune that can sweeten the sound of fingernails on a blackboard or blend the crazy out of that cackle.

Is that what you meant by "misogyny"?

Xmas said...

EDH,

Was the CNBC call the one that interrupted the live interview with Gary Johnson and Bill Weld? Or was that a call to MSNBC?

Johnathan Birks said...

I think Hillary would be doing a lot better with the younger voters if she had her voice Auto-Tuned.

pm317 said...

[ADDED: The obvious guess is that she often thinks of getting away with things.]

Or that she thinks Trump is getting away with a lot of things which he is.

furious_a said...

Why would you look for a more complicated explanation?!

Because every time one lies one has to remember what one has said previously.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

She can't.

That's the obvious reason. There are so many spinning plates and stitched together excuses she has made she can't risk the press "going there."

What if they ask why her aids (and herself) did not cooperate in the IG Report after she has repeatedly told us that she and hers are all about cooperating and "getting to the bottom" of the email scandal?

What if a reporter asks why others on her staff also exclusively used her secret server, which no other SoS ever did?

What if someone points out that the Clinton Crime Family Trust -- her main charity of choice -- only spent about 10% of donations in any one year on actual charity?

What if someone asks her to explain why her travel and expense amounted to more spending by the Clinton Fake Fund than they spent on any charity?

What if someone notices that her top aids were employed by the State Dept. and by the Crime Fund at the same time in violation of COI laws? And they again, got more from the International Clinton Slush Fund than any charity ever did?

What if someone points out that every single explanation she gave for the illegal secret server starting from April 2015 to the present revised every prior statement and rendered them void? And the IG report refutes all of them? (For follow up.)

What if someone asks her views on FOIA and whether she has a responsibility to comply with the law?

THAT is why she cannot and will not ever stand in front of a giant crowd of press like Donald did yesterday taking any and all questions for 45 minutes. He is fearless. She is paralyzed by the fear her own words will out her. Because they will. And this is why there are a million questions like this the press will never ask. Because they are largely Democrats with bylines.

Sebastian said...

"It sounds raspy and makes her seem old or unhealthy and, frankly, brings out the misogyny in some people. Why don't they have the very best audio equipment for her?" So that her defenders can dismiss criticism and ridicule as misogyny.

Only yesterday we were told by a law prof that Hill "stands her ground" just like Trump. Yeah: phone-in softball exchange is "standing your ground," "just like" Trump.

JackWayne said...

There's no doubt that once we got the TelePrompTer we should have progressed to auto tuning political voices. As well as filters and CGI to beautify the faces. Nothing yells authentic like sweeting a politician.

Dad said...

Ann, I don't think it is a complicated explanation. She has probably used "get away from" and "do away with" interchangeably for a long time and simply mangled them. I do that kind of thing on a regular basis.

rhhardin said...

brings out the misogyny in some people

A sort of selective misogyny.

Quaestor said...

It sounds raspy and makes her seem old or unhealthy and, frankly, brings out the misogyny in some people.

Dislike of a specific woman is not misogyny. Do you suppose anything other than a vanishingly small number of Anti-Trumpsters oppose him because he's male?

Bob Boyd said...

If she is this reclusive and defensive while she's running for the office can you imagine what it will be like once she's actually in the office?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

That's it Quaestor! I think misandry explains Hillary's behavior and is influencing her supporters. There's more than a wisp of man-hate in the air. One could hardly blame Hillary for acquiring such a condition, but you shouldn't run for president on a platform of hating half the country like she does. Face it, 90% of her objection to Trump is attributable to the fact he is a man.

And he won't sit down and shut up like the feminazis want him to.

Stop the misandry! Oppose Hillary!

Wince said...

Xmas said...
EDH,

Was the CNBC call the one that interrupted the live interview with Gary Johnson and Bill Weld? Or was that a call to MSNBC?


Whoops. Brain fart. It was Hayes' show on MSNBC.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I'm a female. My hatred (yes - hatred - is that allowed?) of Hillary is based, in part, on intuition. She is evil.

My hatred of Hillary is based on the primal protection I feel for my family and my country.

trumpintroublenow said...

Jake did a lousy job. Asked a very general question about emails allowing her to stick to the talking points that everyone did it and they didn't clarify the rules till after she left.

So many questions to ask:

Did you read the report? Every word? How much time did you spend reading the report. Is there anything in the report that you disagree with? After reading the report is it still your position that you did not break any rules or policies. Did your top aids read the report? Have you talked to your staff about the report? Who?

You have said that one reason you used personal email account is your predecessors had done so. How and when did you find out that your predecessors used personal email accounts.

Do you understand the difference between a server and a personal email account" What is it? When and how did you find out? Understand why a private server is more a security risk. What did you do to vett the server provider?

Who on your staff had email address on your server? Emails to and from would not be captured by State, correct. Concerned State business? Concerned the Foundation?

You have said that you should get credit for giving State the emails? They were government property, correct? What right did you have to retain them after you became a private citizen? What right did you have to look at them after you became a private citizen? You understand that you violated the Federal Records Act when you kept those records? You knew this at the time you became a private citizen? correct?


You said on DATE that you would talk to anyone at any time. Was that before or after you refused to talk to the IG? When did you tell the IG that you and your staff would not cooperate Why can't you talk to both IG and FBI? Is is your understanding they are investigating the same thing? When is your FBI interview? Are you going to take the Fifth Did you tell your staff not to cooperate with the IG investigation? Did you tell your staff to cooperate Why not Your website still says that you and your staff will cooperate with all inquiries. That isn't true, is it? Are you going to correct the website?

You knew you had all these problems and yet you decided to run. Don't you think the VP would have a much greater chance of beating Trump than you?


and on and on ... The press is horrible. Now the big story is how trump treated the media. The media loves stories about the media.

Will said...

Hillary is going to do press conferences the way OJ is going to get out there and search for Nicole's killer.

She has a delusional-paranoid fear of the Press and cannot stand them. Furthermore, there is great peril in interacting with the press given Hillary's dozens of scandals.

I would love to get her under oath on a witness stand for 10 minutes

Brando said...

"A sort of selective misogyny."

Exactly--isn't it odd that all these misogynists seem to only have a problem with this particular woman, and seem perfectly fine with far more accomplished women?

"I'm a female. My hatred (yes - hatred - is that allowed?) of Hillary is based, in part, on intuition. She is evil."

Clearly you're one of those self-hating women because as Madeleine Albright noted there's a special place in hell for you.

trumpintroublenow said...

And don't forget --

Trump and Sanders gave no Wall Street speeches. So your preconditions for the release of your speeches have been satisfied, correct? When will you release your speeches?

mccullough said...

The audio equipment came free with the email server

Brando said...

"So your preconditions for the release of your speeches have been satisfied, correct? When will you release your speeches?"

Any real journalist would never let her get away with that crap. They were sort of going there at that one debate, pointing out that if there was nothing bad in her speeches she should be happy to release them unilaterally, but the moderator relented after Hillary repeated her BS a couple times.

The followup should be "what is in there you don't want released?" and accept none of this "well, once Sanders releases video footage of him buying snacks..." crap.

(Though, I could think of one believable, though probably not true, reason to not release the transcripts--Goldman Sachs may have wanted a private, candid speech from Clinton, and would not want it released or else future speakers would see the precedent and be more guarded in their speeches to GS. It's at least somewhat plausible. But I note Hillary never advanced this reasoning, which shows that it is likely not the case, and that Hillary is too dense to come up with that plausible lie)

Constitutional Insurgent said...

Clinton doesn't do pressers, because she cant control the narrative in that format. She will shy away from any interaction with media or unveiled voters, because she doesn't believe that she's accountable to the citizen.

Levi Starks said...

Uhh because Uhh she'd have to Uhh answer Uhh questions?
Or how about people who already consider themselves to have been elected only give press conferences when they feel like it, and she doesn't feel like it.
She'd rather send her minions out to complain about how much free press coverage the Donald gets.

ndspinelli said...

Jake Tapper is one of the few real journalists working.

gspencer said...

". . . sweetens the sound of her voice"

Good one, AA. Only a little coffee spilled on the keyboard.

Frankly that sort of sound equipment is found on the same shelf as the Perpetual Motion Machine.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Like I said on an earlier thread this morning:

Isn't there a 27 year-old media pissant out there who has the time to track and publish a daily running count on the number of questions Trump has answered versus the number Hillary has answered?

Richard Dolan said...

"Why don't they have the very best audio equipment for her — something that is not only perfectly clear but that sweetens the sound of her voice?"

You're going for the 'bug' explanation but it might just as easily be 'feature.' Having Hillary! being 'perfectly clear' has an obvious downside. Among other things, the more people pay attention to her and what she is saying, the better Sanders and Trump seem to do against her. The spinmeisters in Clinton-land may well have concluded, based on the endless data-crunching that is the essence of political campaigns today, that the idea of Hillary! is more salable than the reality.

Michael K said...

"Jake Tapper is one of the few real journalists working."

Yes but he has probably been warned off any serious question of Hillary. Maybe it's in his contract. Maybe it's called "The Vince Foster Clause."

Just kidding.

I didn't read his book but am told it was pretty good.

It's probably a bit like Nazi Germany. Ask the wrong question and be expelled into the cold outside world. Sort of like William Shirer in 1940.

MadisonMan said...

Content Unavailable, Account has been disabled

The Long Arm of Clinton.

geoffb said...

Memory holed now?

Comanche Voter said...

Cankle's voice and shrill yelling has been described by Dennis Miller as, "She sounds like my first ex wife."

But it's not just the tone of Hillary's voice that is offputting to some "misogynist males". It's the utter blather that she babbles. Of course Clinton's opinions and positions are like the weather; just wait a minute and they will change. The only constant in it all is her rather distant relation to the truth.

Gusty Winds said...

The call in interview is a play from the Trump playbook. Clinton and her people are desperate. They are going to try and imitate that playbook, but she's not Trump, and she is no fun to see, or listen to on TV.

PB said...

Interviews are controlled environments, often with flattering lighting and camera focus. Press conferences are real life situations where a candidate can demonstrate leadership skills and command control and focus of the environment. Mrs Clinton performs poorly in these situations because she lacks leadership and presence.

I predict that if Hillary is the nominee she will refuse to debate Trump. It's only a lose-lose proposition for her.

Dan Hossley said...

It's pretty simple really. The more she speaks, the less people like her.

Fernandinande said...

It sounds raspy and makes her seem old or unhealthy and, frankly, brings out the misogyny in some people.

Oh, that poor, dear little old lady suffers so.

DanTheMan said...

>>I would love to get her under oath on a witness stand for 10 minutes

Because that worked so well with Bill "Not technically perjury" Clinton?

Curious George said...

"ndspinelli said...
Jake Tapper is one of the few real journalists working."

No. Not since he went to CNN. He's like all the rest..

FullMoon said...

Dad said...

"With" intruded itself because she couldn't decide, on the fly, between "get away from" and "do away with". So she used bits of both.


Couple of years ago, young Chinese teller at Bank of America mixed up "Have a nice day" with "have a good one" as I was leaving.
She cheerfully,and loudly, exclaimed, "You have a nice one!!"

Without thinking, "Thanks, Was I drunk when I showed it to you?"
People laughed, but even bow, I occasionally regret it.

Brando said...

"Because that worked so well with Bill "Not technically perjury" Clinton?"

In fairness, Paula Jones got a pretty decent settlement out of that, and Clinton's perjury got him the distinction of never being allowed to practice law again (not that a former president needs to practice law, but that's still a remarkable thing for a former president).

Amadeus 48 said...

More cackles from Cankles. They may strike anytime anywhere for any reason or for no reason.

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...

It is only allowed to criticize Republican Blacks and Republican women, so if you value the ability to criticize your Rulers, you should never vote for a Liberal Black or a Liberal woman, else you are a racist and/or a misogynist if you should criticize them.

See Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton versus, say, Clarence Thomas and Sarah Palin, for examples.

In fact, since the Press will not hold Liberals accountable, if we value the role of the Press in the Republic, we must never elect Liberals.

This much seems shockingly clear.

Michael K said...

"I predict that if Hillary is the nominee she will refuse to debate Trump. It's only a lose-lose proposition for her."

I am concerned about Trump's debating skills but, if Hillary is the nominee, he would go after her. I doubt he would allow the press to go after him like they went after Rick Lazio.

I am still about 50% on whether she will be, however.

Yancey Ward said...

She stopped doing press conferences because it is too hard to get the questions submitted prior to the conference. Much easier to do this with an interview.

Gahrie said...

She stopped doing press conferences because she's worried about someone throwing a bucket of water on her.

tim in vermont said...

She has no patience for the whole kabuki of hand feeding the questions to the press one by one, and they keeping track of which planted question to call on next, and there is always the chance that some journalist will remember fondly why he wanted to be a journalist in the first place and ask a serious question, then there will be the whole bother of having that person crossed of everybody's Christmas list.

tim in vermont said...

I have already heard one of her supporters say that she shouldn't lower herself to debate Trump. I am sure that's in the cards. She is to slow on her feet, and she has no possible way to know what he is going to say, unlike McCain and Romney, for example.

Sammy Finkelman said...

Why doesn't Hillary Clinton ever do a press conference?"

There are many many questions she doesn't want to get asked, and not just whether or not she ever had an abortion.

Sammy Finkelman said...

Mike said...6/1/16, 8:43 AM

There are so many spinning plates and stitched together excuses she has made she can't risk the press "going there."

She;s got answers for many questions. They are not ones, and asking and answering them irts her, but she's got answers. It would take real cross examination to take her out of "the book."

What if they ask why her aids (and herself) did not cooperate in the IG Report after she has repeatedly told us that she and hers are all about cooperating and "getting to the bottom" of the email scandal?

Asked and answered. She answered 11 hours worth of questions. If ppresssed, will adnit they were from Congress, and hald her inerrogars weer Democrats trying to help her, and it was about a lot of subjects, and it's a format in which it s hard to ask follow-up questions. Nor did they have the kind of infromation that could enable good questions as to how she set up that server.

What if someone points out that every single explanation she gave for the illegal secret server starting from April 2015 to the present revised every prior statement and rendered them void? And the IG report refutes all of them? (For follow up.)

It's been pointed out in news stories. Her response would likely be some kind of meta question about why should the question be asked.

Her response to being caught in, or at least tolerating lies about the Benghazi attack was "What difference does it make?" (what she said)

What if someone asks her views on FOIA and whether she has a responsibility to comply with the law?

She'll be for it,and say she went beyond the FOIA in requesting that ALL of her work e-mails be made public. And add, that they are probably quite boring but there are some things worth seeing there.


Sammy Finkelman said...

Hillary did do a press conference when the e-mail sory first broke. She probably had to rehearse and prepare quite a bit. These are dangerous moments for her, bi she can probably skate - with effort.