It’s kind of remarkable Hillary Clinton is as horrible a candidate as she is, considering how many people bend over backwards to make her look good. A great deal of the communication contained in the latest batch of Clinton emails released to the public consists of sycophantic throne-sniffers at the State Department and White House competing with each other to see who can compliment Her Regal Majesty the most.
But now we’ve got examples of people actively helping her stage public appearances – including, to no one’s surprise, the media.
Mediaite reports that one of the new emails shows a source within NBC News leaking Hillary questions in advance of a Meet the Press appearance:
In an July 2009 email with the subject line “heads up,” Clinton staffer Lissa Muscatine wrote, “You probably already know this, but I just heard from a friend who is wired at Meet the Press that David Gregory will ask you about David Maziar, the Newsweek journalist arrested in Iran.”
It’s worth noting that if then-Meet the Press host Gregory did intend to ask Clinton about Maziar, he never went through with it. Gregory asked several questions about Iran and about two journalists being held by North Korea, but never Maziar.
Of course, that might also be because Clinton brought up Iran’s treatment of the press on her own. “But clearly, we would hope better for the Iranian people. We would hope that there is more openness, that peaceful demonstrations are respected, that press freedom is respected,” she said.
It’s so much easier to deal with “spontaneous” and “hard-hitting” media interviews when you know what the questions will be in advance!
At least NBC was asking questions instead of inviting Clinton to write the questions herself, as was the case with Senator Barbara Mikulski, who covered Clinton’s ring with a dollop of the usual slobber – “You are missed in the Senate and by me. But you are needed where you are.” – before inviting Clinton to “let me know any questions you want me to ask to help get your needs/message across” at an upcoming Senate hearing.
Even with training wheels the size of tractor tires on her bike, Clinton still can’t drive a straight line through either media appearances or congressional hearings.