Hillary Clinton Campaign Wines & Dines Media at Off-Record Dinners

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, and a half-dozen reporters from CNN  were reportedly among the media elites that attended an off-the-record New York dinner with Hillary Clinton’s advisers on Friday evening ahead of her Sunday campaign announcement.

According to CNN’s Brian Stelter, ABC’s Diane Sawyer, David Muir, and Stephanopoulos, who was Bill Clinton’s White House communications director and originated the “war on women” narrative against Republicans and Mitt Romney during the 2012 campaign, CBS’s Norah O’Donnell, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, who recently asked one-sided questions to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) unlike the softballs she threw at President Barack Obama during a pre-Super Bowl interview, MSNBC’s Scarborough, who relishes every opportunity to bash Republicans to be in the good graces of NYC-DC elites, MSNBC president Phil Griffin, Politico’s Mike Allen, and reporters from CNN, which has been accused of being the “Clinton News Network,” were among those who attended the dinner, which Clinton pollster Joel Benenson reportedly hosted.

Top Hillary Clinton campaign officials also held an off-the-record dinner on Thursday evening with mainstream media reporters in DC at John Podesta’s house, according to a Huffington Post report. Podesta, who was Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, will be Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.

Clinton officials reportedly met with reporters in DC from “The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, McClatchy, Reuters and several major TV networks,” according to the Huffington Post report.

While Hillary Clinton did not attend the dinners, the Huffington Post reported that “Campaign Manager Robby Mook, Chief of Staff Huma Abedin, Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri, Strategic Communications Adviser Karen Finney, Senior Adviser Mandy Grunwald and pollster Joel Benenson” attended the DC dinner.

Clinton’s advisers may feel like they have to woo the press, but mainstream media reporters long accused of being gatekeepers and palace guards for Democrats like Clinton recently gave Clinton a standing ovation–even after she refused to take questions at an event honoring excellence in journalism.