Concord, N.H. — Hillary Clinton hosted her first open press conference of the campaign Monday, months after first announcing she’d run, but fielded mostly softball questions from reporters hand-picked by her staff.
After a rainy-day rally, which was held in an old wooden barn at the Carter Hill orchard in Concord, reporters waited over 45 minutes to catch the rare word with the candidate. Once the campaign set up the podium, only a handful of campaign-selected journalists were able to speak with the former secretary of state.
When asked how her presidency would differ “from a third Obama administration,” Clinton smoothly replied that she wasn’t running for a third term, but her own first term. She also touted the accomplishments of both Barack Obama and her husband Bill Clinton, playing up their shared beliefs.
Clinton emphasized that the debate should not be about her past and her political connections, but rather “it should be about the country and America’s future.”
When later asked by the Boston Globe’s James Pindell what advice she would give Jeb Bush about downplaying his family name in the 2016 race, Clinton flipped the question in her favor.
“I have to say that’s a very tempting answer,” she said to a laughing crowd, but she demurred. “I’m going to let the Republicans decide who their nominee will be. But I’m very proud that I have experience alongside my husband in the White House and serving as secretary of state under Barack Obama that I think will be hopeful as I campaign and eventually serve as president.”
After a series of softballs one question did seem to throw her off: whether her tremendous wealth was contradicted her populist message.
“You make so much more money than most people do in a year,” the reporter began. “Is there a problem with you being so populist yet talking about the hedge fund guys and businessmen when they are your biggest contributors? And you have made so much money through that.”
Some awkward giggles and glances followed by reporters and Clinton alike.
Clinton finally responded that she was very grateful for the successes she and Bill had and that they were “blessed by them,” but the American people care more about her political views than her money and that was the “core” of her campaign.
“I don’t think Americans are against success,” Clinton replied. “I think Americans are against those who climb to the top of the ladder and pull it up so no one else has the same chance that they had and act as if they pulled themselves up by the bootstraps and built a log cabin for themselves. At some point we are all in this together.”
