Fox News’ Ed Henry sidestepped standard media protocol at a roundtable event in Iowa Tuesday afternoon and blurted out an impromptu question at Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — and he wasn’t totally unsuccessful.
Prior to the campaign event, it had been 40,155 minutes since the embattled former secretary of state had answered a question from members of the press, according to the Washington Post.
Likely suspecting that Clinton would respond only to prepared questions, Henry interrupted the event’s Q&A session to note that she had not interacted with the press for quite some time.
He then asked if she would talk to the press.
“Maybe when I finish talking to the people here. How’s that?” she said.
Henry asked again if she would take a question.
“I might,” Clinton responded to laughter. “I’ll have to ponder it. But I will put it on my list for due consideration.”
After the event, when it finally came time for questions, Clinton mostly dodged the few inquiries that were lobbed at her for about a minute. She was first asked if she and her family were simply too wealthy to be considered a champion of the middle class, a title she wants to claim.
Clinton replied by saying she and her family have been “blessed,” and that “we’ve never forgotten where we come from.”
Clinton was then asked if she could be expected to maintain her old friendships with people like Sid Blumenthal, who is expected to be subpoenaed by the House Select Committee on Benghazi. She said politicians should try to meet new people and make sure they are not “in a bubble.”
But she also said, “I have many, many old friends.”
On the scandal surrounding her email, Clinton was asked about her view of the State Department’s plans to release the emails from her personal server as late as next January. A judge has since said that is not an acceptable answer, and has said the emails must be released on a rolling basis.
Clinton repeated her view that State should release her emails as soon as possible.
“Anything that they might do to expedite that process, I heartily support,” she said. But she also noted that the emails are the property of the State Department, and aren’t hers to hand out anymore.
“They’re not mine. They belong to the State Department,” she said.
