Here’s the good news: Hillary Clinton finally held a press conference and took questions from reporters!
Here’s the bad news: It was held next to her campaign plane and the audio feed was terrible, at least on some networks. (I was trying to listen to her through the NBC News site.) You could more or less make out what Clinton said, if you listened carefully.
She took six questions. The first one was about the polls, “shouldn’t you just be running away with it at this point?”
The second question was whether unequivocally ruling out ground forces in Iraq ignores the U.S. troops on the ground already and does that box herself in if elected.
The third was about criticism from the RNC that Clinton didn’t smile enough during last night’s forum; the questioner concluded, “You suggested there is a double standard. Do you think you’re treated differently because you’re a woman?”
The fourth question was whether she, like Trump, got the impression in her intelligence briefings that “they were not pleased with the decisions the administration has made so far.” She swatted that away with the declaration that she wouldn’t discuss anything from her intelligence briefings.
The fifth question was about whether the media is being too easy on Trump.
A shouted question was about Gary Johnson’s “What is Aleppo” comment; Clinton chuckled, “you can look on a map and find Aleppo.”
Andrea Mitchell of NBC News had to squeeze in the last one, and Clinton laughed at her determination to get one more query in, declaring, “I love you Andrea. You are indefatigable. You’re my kind of woman.” Mitchell asked about a comment from Matt Olsen, former head of the National Counterterrorism Center, contending that ISIS supports the election of Donald Trump.
With questions like these, why were Hillary Clinton’s critics so eager to see another press conference?