Hillary Clinton continuously referred to herself in her speech Saturday as a “fighter,” but she refused to defend her positions personally Sunday. That job fell to the rest of her campaign team, who blanketed the Sunday morning shows and deflected criticism from the candidate’s many media snafus.
Her husband, former president Bill Clinton, defended criticism of the Clinton Foundation’s foreign contributions during his wife’s tenure at the State Department. “I never saw her study a list of my contributors,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union, adding that he also had “no idea” who was doing business before the State Department.
From the Washington Examiner:
Bill Clinton attacked the narrative that foreign governments had received favors because they gave large donations to the Clinton Foundation, which does international humanitarian work. The organization admitted to not disclosing some of those donations, but Bill brushed that criticism aside. “There is such a trust deficit in America today,” he said.
Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta took heat for the candidate during his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
From the Washington Examiner:
Chuck Todd challenged Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta to defend a long list of Hillary policy flip-flops on same-sex marriage, immigration, NAFTA, the Iraq war, Cuba policy, criminal sentencing.
“How [can] progressives believe these are changes of conviction and not simply changes of convenience because the Democratic electorate has changed?” asked Todd.
“I don’t think there’s anybody who’s been more consistent in her entire career. … [Hillary has] made her priorities clear, her values clear,” said Podesta, before conceding that “You know, times change.”
When Clinton adviser Joel Benenson stood in for Hillary on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, he couldn’t answer whether Hillary supports the controversial trade deal that failed in Congress this week. He tried to dismiss the debate as insider “political jockeying.”
“She wants to see the final deal, she wants to make sure it protects American workers, and that’s what she’s fighting for,” her adviser said.
Hillary is “going to be that tenacious fighter,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday.
Without a hint of irony, Mook said of the conspicuously absent candidate: “I just wish we had a lot more hours in the day to get her out there talking about her vision.”
