One of the heads of Hillary Clinton’s White House transition team said this week she hopes the Democratic nominee holds a press conference soon, and ends a streak that has lasted for more than 250 days.
Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden made the remark during an interview with MSNBC’s Kate Snow.
“It’s simple. Yes or no, will [Clinton] have a press conference?” Snow asked.
“You know, I hope she has a press conference soon,” Tanden replied. “She’s obviously going to be on the plane with the press … starting on Monday she travels with the press.”
Clinton will soon allow reporters to travel on the same plane as her, a campaign aide revealed Thursday.
News that Clinton will reportedly accommodate her traveling press corps marks a major change of pace for a candidate who has up until now insisted on riding separately from media.
“Beginning on Monday — with just 64 days left until the election — the Democratic presidential nominee will replace her small, private jet with a significantly larger aircraft that she will not only share with her campaign staff, but with Secret Service staffers and reporters too,” ABC News reported, citing a campaign aide.
Clinton will start using the press-friendly plane starting on Labor Day, the aide said.
The Democratic nominee has taken a lot of flack recently for her failure to hold a single press conference in 2016.
In contrast, Trump has already held 17 news conferences.
However, the GOP nominee still doesn’t travel on the same plane as his press corps, a point that Snow didn’t let go unmentioned in her interview this week with Tanden.
“That’s a helpful point I was just about to make,” Tanden said. “The Republican nominee is still not doing that. She’ll do that. I am sure the press will be asking her questions about the press conference.”
“But you just said you think she should have a press conference,” Snow said.
“The issue here is, is she talking to the press? Yes,” Tanden added. “She’s held numerous interviews. She had interviews just last week.”
Clinton has indeed participated in dozens of sit-down interviews this year. However, all of these exchanges have been carefully orchestrated affairs involving pre-selected media personalities asking pre-approved questions.
None of these appearances have featured the sort of unscripted, back-and-forth quality that defines traditional press conferences.
