Hillary Clinton does not like talking to the press.
Instead, the newly announced Democratic presidential candidate relies on an army of seasoned politicos — surrogates — to answer reporters’ questions for her.
Clinton’s aversion to talking to reporters has long irked journalists who say they are dismayed by her apparent unwillingness to engage the media, even now that she’s the presumptive Democratic nominee for president in 2016.
But the former secretary of state doesn’t seem to care, and the heavy media coverage she’s managed to attract with only a series of carefully staged public appearances since she announced her candidacy two weeks ago indicates she may continue avoiding serious engagement with reporters for a long time to come.
So rather than waiting to hear from the former first lady, reporters should expect to hear a lot more from these eight Team Hillary surrogates.
1. Lanny Davis
Background: Former special counsel to President Bill Clinton.
Fun fact: In 2010, then-Salon reporter Glenn Greenwald accused Davis, an attorney, of “flacking” for infamous Ivory Coast dictator Laurent Gbagbo.
Since before Clinton even announced her candidacy earlier this month, Davis had his hands full explaining away questions regarding her use of an unauthorized email address and a home server when she was secretary of state. He has also had to address questions about troubling foreign donations made to the Clinton Foundation when during Clinton’s time at Foggy Bottom.
Davis has so far this year accused media of using a “double standard” in its coverage of Clinton many scandals. More recently he declared that he has never “known a moment for dishonesty” in the 45-plus years that he has known the former first family.
2. Howard Dean
Relation: Declared support in a 2014 Politico op-ed
Special talent: Yelling.
It’s no secret that former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is pulling for the former New York senator in 2016, as he declared proudly in 2014 that he was “ready for Hillary,”
“If I have the opportunity, I will cast my vote for Hillary Clinton for President,” he wrote.
More recently, the former DNC chairman has gone to bat for Clinton as reporters continue to question troubling foreign donations that were made to the Clinton Foundation as the former first lady served at the State Department.
Author Peter Schweizer suggested this week foreign entities that donated to the Clinton’s charitable group may have also received preferential treatment from the U.S. government. The New York Times picked up on Schweizer’s work, much to the chagrin of Dean.
“In general the New York Times has been sloppy,” Dean said on MSNBC as he defended Clinton. “Particularly their political writers.”
3. James Carville
Relation: Longtime Clinton consigliere dating back to the 1992 presidential election.
Fun fact: Carville enjoys being on camera so much that he has appeared in numerous television shows, including “Mad About You,” “Spin City” and “30 Rock,” and movies, including “The People vs. Larry Flynt” and “Old School.”
Carville’s loyalty to the Clinton camp dates back to Bill Clinton’s 1992 victory over President George H. W. Bush – and that loyalty has never wavered.
The longtime Democratic strategist left his gig at Fox News in January, with many suspecting his intention was to focus on helping Hillary Clinton put together a second run at the White House.
Since then, the Louisiana-born politico has put his signature Cajun bluntness to work defending the former first lady from questions surrounding her several years at the State Department.
Like Davis, Carville has also accused reporters of inserting “media bias” into their Clinton coverage.
4. Paul Begala
Background: Begala, like Carville, helped the Clintons cruise to presidential victory in the early 1990s.
Trait: Famously foul-mouthed.
Begala came up through the political ranks with his partner James Carville in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The two are credited with helping Bill Clinton beat Bush in 1992.
Like Carville, Begala is known for being brutally blunt when dealing with media. Also like Carville, Begala has been described as fiercely loyal, a rare trait that the Clintons apparently don’t take for granted.
5. Donna Brazile
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Background: Recent Hillary Clinton convert.
Forgotten fact: Released abruptly from the Dukakis campaign in 1988 after she suggested in a discussion with reporters that George H. W. Bush was having an extramarital affair.
Frequent CNN contributor Donna Brazile was not at all excited for candidate Clinton in 2008 when then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., sought the Democratic Party’s nomination.
But Brazile is definitely excited for Hillary Clinton now — and she’s not afraid to say it.
Brazile appears to be excited particularly with the idea of a campaign that focuses almost entirely on the fact that the former New York senator is, in fact, a woman.
“Hillary is now wisely embracing her gender as a way of capturing the same ‘hope and change’ historical quality of Obama’s presidency. Voters always want change,” Brazile wrote in a March CNN op-ed, “electing her president would … represent massive change on a fundamental level,” she wrote.
Brazile has also gone to bat for Clinton several times this year, taking to television, print and social media to defend the Democratic presidential candidate.
6. David Brock
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Background: Clinton enemy-turned-ally
Fun fact: Now the public face of the left-wing, pro-Clinton Media Matters for America, Brock was once a rabid Clinton critic and regular fixture with conservative groups, including the Heritage Foundation and the American Spectator.
As the head of Media Matters, which focuses almost entirely on running defense for the Clintons, Brock has likely been working hardest of all her surrogates to answer media’s many questions.
However, after being panned for his attempts on MSNBC and Bloomberg News to defend Clinton, and in light of Schweizer’s latest allegations, Brock may need to double his efforts to shield the Democratic presidential candidate from uncomfortable questions.
7. Karen Finney
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Background: Career political flack
Fun fact: After putting in five years at the Clinton White House, which included a stint as the Hillary Clinton’s deputy press secretary, Finney reportedly had no intention of continuing a career in politics. But Clinton coaxed her into joining her 2000 U.S. Senate campaign.
A longtime Clinton aide and a former Media Matters consultant, Finney has served Team Hillary since the mid-1990s.
Now, as the strategic communications adviser and senior spokesperson to Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, the frequent MSNBC contributor will continue her multi-decade defense of Camp Clinton as reporters gear up for the many scandals Clinton has already generated — and the many more that history suggests will be coming our way.
Responding specifically to Schweizer’s suggestion this week that the Clinton-run State Department may have had a pay-to-play scheme in place with foreign entities that contributed to the Clinton Foundation, Finney said this week that it’s all old news.
“This whole book is about public disclosures, unprecedented, that the Foundation makes,” she said this week on MSNBC. “So basically they’ve taken publicly available information and kind of rehashed it into this sort of partisan, sort of fantasy, and it’s not necessarily new information.”
8. John Podesta
Background: Once an aide to former President Bill Clinton, Podesta is now the top dog for Team Hillary.
Fun fact: After years of questioning whether world governments have been concealing the truth of alien visitors from the public, Podesta has earned the moniker “UFO advocate.” He also once had to apologize for comparing Republicans to the Jonestown cult.
As Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Podesta will undoubtedly be in the front lines as he and other trustworthy surrogates rush to tamp down media feeding frenzies.
He has been busy recently working to downplay Schweizer’s suggestions, at one point referring to the conservative author’s opposition research as “conspiracy theories.”
“[Schweizer] cherry-picked information that’s been disclosed and woven a bunch of conspiracy theories about it,” Podesta said this week in an interview that sounded remarkably similar to Finney’s line of defense. “The facts, there’s nothing new about. The conspiracy theories we’ll get to judge when we read the book.”
Clinton can also expect to receive a helping hand from current and former members of Congress, many of whom seem eager to underscore the possibility of the former secretary of state becoming the nation’s first female president.
“[Clinton’s] really been a remarkable leader for women, not just in the United States but all around the world,” former Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu said in April.
Democratic Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow added in a separate interview, “I have to say, electing the first woman president would certainly be a big step in the future.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said she doesn’t think “anybody can match [Clinton’s] record.”
