New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters on Tuesday questioned Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s strategy to be as withdrawn from the national media as possible, even polls show her trustworthiness has recently dropped among the public.
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski cited a CNN poll showing that since March, the number of people who say they consider Clinton “honest and trustworthy” has dropped 8 percent. The decline comes after a series of news reports that raised legal and ethical questions about Clinton’s nonprofit Clinton Foundation and her conduct as head of the State Department.
“What’s really interesting is … she’s really good at answering questions,” Peters said on the show. “Hillary is no slouch when it comes to, you know, putting her on the defensive. That’s what I don’t understand. I don’t understand why the campaign isn’t allowing her to showcase her strengths.”
Nicole Wallace, who served as a communications aide to former President George W. Bush, countered that in an interview last year, Clinton said she was “dead broke,” which struck some as out-of-touch given that the Clintons have long been members of the political elite.
“She has had some major flubs that have done great damage to her brand,” Wallace said.
Since launching her campaign in April, Clinton has rarely made herself available to the national media, aside from one time in May when she spent five minutes taking questions from reporters in Iowa.
