Hillary Clinton held three press conferences this week in rapid-fire succession, her first of the year, but has still stood in front of reporters for just a fraction of the time that Trump has logged so far in 2016.
By the Washington Examiner‘s count, Trump has taken questions from reporters at least 10 times since January, often at the end of a speech. Trump’s Q&A time in front of the press totals 4 hours and 38 minutes this year.
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That’s a little more than seven times Clinton’s time in front of the press corps. Her three press conferences this week clocked in at a combined 38 minutes.
Clinton has also held more structured events that have limited the ability of reporters to ask her questions about some of the controversy that has dogged her campaign. Those include sending and receiving confidential information on her private email server, and notes released by the FBI that show Clinton wasn’t aware of how confidential information was marked in her emails.
For example, two of Clinton’s press events were held in-flight on her campaign airplane, and one of those ended early after she suffered a coughing fit. Her third event, held on the ground, was organized at the last-minute for Thursday, in what many said was an attempt to let her respond to an NBC forum Wednesday night in which Trump had the last word.
Trump has also been more widely available on broadcast, cable and radio shows, where he has also taken questions from reporters and hosts (candidates’ time spent in those formats weren’t counted toward the Examiner‘s totals).
The national media have been critical of Clinton’s aversion to press conferences, which offer multiple reporters from different news outlets to question the candidate spontaneously, as opposed to one-on-one sit-down interviews that are planned in advance.
