A spokesman for Hillary Clinton is pushing back on the suggestion that her presidential campaign is avoiding media interviews, and is pointing to a planned sit-down on “The Ellen Degeneres Show” as proof that Clinton is accessible to the press.
Politico reported on Friday that despite promises from the Clinton campaign to “do more press,” she has only participated in one interview with the Spanish-language Univision since her first national interview with CNN in early July.
“Hillary Clinton has been running for president for well over four months now,” the Politico report said. “In that time, she has given just two nationally televised interviews — one in English, one in Spanish — despite promises from both her and her campaign that she intended to do more.”
On social media, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon disputed that Clinton has not been available to news outlets.
“Your premise is dumb,” Fallon said in a Twitter message to the author of the Politico story. “She does press conferences now almost every day she’s on the trail. Plus multiple interviews to locals.”
“If you’re suggesting we don’t mean it that more TV sit-downs are on way, an upcoming one has already leaked,” Fallon said to the Politico reporter, providing a link to an announcement that Clinton will appear on the light daytime TV talk show “The Ellen Degeneres Show” in September.
Clinton has engaged the press in spontaneous scrum-like opportunities for reporters to shout out questions. But she has not, as the Politico report said, participated in longer sit-down interviews with national media since her CNN appearance.
Clinton’s most recent run-in with national media was on Monday when a Fox News reporter asked her about a growing controversy related to her secretive email practices as secretary of state.
During her CNN interview in July, Clinton said, “I’m not running my campaign for the press; I’m running it for the voters.”
