On Monday evening, mainstream media reporters reportedly gave Hillary Clinton a standing ovation after she joked about her private email scandal and took no questions from the press–at an event honoring excellence in journalism.
According to a National Journal report, Clinton took no questions after her 20-minute speech in Washington, D.C., which prompted the Washington Post‘s Dan Balz, who won this year’s Robin Toner award for excellence in political reporting, to reportedly make Clinton an offer: “I am happy to yield my time back to you if you want to take some questions.” Time reported that “Clinton received a standing ovation” anyway “from the journalist-heavy crowd.”
In her speech, Clinton reportedly cracked jokes about her email scandal, saying she was “all about new beginnings. A new grandchild. A new hairstyle. A new email account. A new relationship with the press. No more secrecy, no more zone of privacy… After all what good did that do for me?”
“Before I go any further, if you look under your chairs, you’ll find a simple non-disclosure agreement. My attorneys drew it up,” she reportedly quipped.
After claiming her “relationship with the press has been at times, shall we say, complicated,” Clinton, according to CBS News, “challenged the journalists in the room to be thorough and measured.
“We need more than ever smart, fair-minded journalists to challenge our assumptions, push us towards new solutions, and hold all of us accountable,” she reportedly told mainstream media reporters who notoriously protect Democrats like Clinton.