Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace tried to shame Hillary Clinton for not responding to interview requests. He suggested that she was too rude or too arrogant or cowardly to come on his show. But it’s quite possible that Wallace blew his chance when he infuriated Bill Clinton by trying to blame him for 9/11 during a now-famous 2006 interview.
On Sunday, Wallace took time out to hit Hillary Clinton for not coming on the show. From the transcript:
WALLACE: With Bernie Sanders’ appearance here last week, we’ve now sat down with every candidate in the race except Hillary Clinton. As we noted, she was asked recently what she would do as president to bring the country together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I think it’s an important point the president made in his State of the Union. And here’s what I would say. I will go anywhere to meet with anyone at any time to find common ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: But, once again this week, Clinton turned down our request for an interview. We reached out to her campaign officials in charge of this sort of thing, communications director Jennifer Palmieri, and press secretary Nick Merrill. Neither of them had the courtesy to even answer our phone calls and emails.
But Hillary Clinton may well have had in mind that time that Wallace sandbagged Bill Clinton by violating the terms of their interview in order to suggest he had not done enough to capture Osama Bin Laden.
As former NewsHound Judy wrote back then:
Wallace stated in his introduction to the interview that the ground rules called for a 15-minute interview, with half the time devoted to Clinton’s global initiatives and half the time to anything Wallace wanted to ask. Then he innocently told the viewers “that’s not how it turned out.”
Wallace did indeed ask a few questions about the global initiatives conference. Less than four minutes into the interview, however, Wallace shifted the questions to whether Clinton had done enough to try to capture Osama bin Laden. Four minutes is not half of 15 minutes by anybody’s watch.
When Clinton called Wallace on that fact, Wallace dodged by saying most of the questions he had written down had to do with the global initiatives. Then, he returned to the global initiatives conference at the end of the interview, but only after Clinton had shamed him into it by telling the audience what the ground rules were. Would Wallace even have admitted he had agreed to allow Clinton seven and a half minutes to talk about global initiatives had Clinton not brought it up in the interview? Would Wallace have returned to the topic had Clinton not called him on his dishonesty?
The videos below don't include Wallace's introduction but you can read Fox’s complete transcript here.
The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple points out other good reasons Hillary Clinton might think she wouldn’t get a fair shake on Fox. The top three come from Andrea Tantaros, the cohost who asked her radio show listeners to “do me a favor” and punch an Obama supporter “in the face.” One can only imagine what she might ask people to do to a Hillary Clinton supporter.
Speaking of courtesy, it’s safe to say that Fox News’s Andrea Tantaros didn’t exhibit too much when she said the following about Clinton on the the noon show “Outnumbered”: “People are making the comparison that she’s a thoroughbred horse who can’t get over the line. She’s on her way to the glue factory in a real way. It’s true. It’s true,” said Tantaros.
Call that Possible Reason No. 1 that the Clinton camp isn’t returning the messages of “Fox News Sunday.”
For Possible Reason No. 2, let’s go to “Outnumbered” co-host Andrea Tantaros, who last year referred to Clinton as the “most corrupt woman in the history of the world.”
For Possible Reason No. 3, why not try “Outnumbered” co-host Andrea Tantaros? Referencing the Michael Bay-directed film “13 Hours” about the Benghazi attacks of Sept. 11, 2012, she said, “If anyone sees this movie, and everyone should go see it, and goes on to vote for Hillary Clinton they’re a criminal, in my estimation.”
Those are just a few of the many, many smears and jeers that are made against the Clintons on Fox News.
TVNewser reported Monday, “Clinton’s traveling press secretary Nick Merrill responded to the show today. The spokesperson adds, ‘we look forward to having a conversation’ about a potential Hillary Clinton booking on Fox News Sunday.”
Watch Bill Clinton nail Wallace on his bias, below, from the November 24, 2006 Fox News Sunday, via our friend Eyes on Fox.
- is Dean Rusk with 8 full years (He started on 1/21/61 under JFK and left 1/20/69 with Nixon’s inauguration; Rusk also offered his resignation twice—first after Kennedy’s assassination and secondly, after his daughter married a Black man as many Southern politicians considered that to be a “flaw” in Rusk’s character.)
- is George Shultz with 6 1/2 years (He started in July 1982 under Reagan, replacing Alexander Haig, and left in Jan 1989 before George H W Bush took office)
- is John Foster Dulles with 6 years, 2 months (He started a week after Eisenhower became President and resigned in Apr 1959 for medical reasons—he died about 5 weeks after resigning.)
- is William Rogers with a little more than 4 years and 7 months (He assumed office days after Nixon’s 1969 inauguration and resigned in Sept 1973, largely as Nixon began relying more on his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, for foreign policy decisions and operations.)
- is Hillary Clinton with 4 years and about 10 days (She assumed office after Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and left office in Feb 2013.)
What’s most interesting is that Hillary’s length of service exceeded Colin Powell’s service by less than a week, exceeded both her husband’s SoS’s (Warren Christopher and Madeline Albright) by about 2 weeks each and exceeded Condoleeza Rice’s service by 17 days.
Historically, only 17 Secretaries of State—out of 66*—have served for 1461 days or more (1461 days is the total of 3 regular calendar years plus 1 leap year; only John Adams and William McKinley have had Presidential terms that had non-leap year elections—century years, like 1800 and 1900, do not feature a “leap day”—so their Secretaries of State wouldn’t have a 1461-day “full term”).
*Two men served separate terms as Secretary of State: Daniel Webster who served two times (1841-43, 1850-52) and James Blaine who also served two terms (1881, 1889-92). Both men also served under 3 Presidents as the first Presidents for whom they served died in office: Webster served for William Henry Harrison who died from a cold or pneumonia a month after his inauguration; Blaine served for James Garfield who was assassinated 6 months after inauguration (oddly enough, Blaine’s third President was Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of Webster’s first President).
http://www.newshounds.us/fox_s_pirro_acts_as_though_hillary_clinton_did_not_really_win_the_nevada_caucus_022016#reactions
You know, there’s treatment available for “flashbacks” like these — and, thanks to Obamacare, you can’t be refused treatment even if it was a preexisting condition.
.
Under Lord Reagan: Haig & Schultz
Under Bill Clinton: Christopher & Albright
Under GWB: Powell & Rice
But that information kinda screws up whatever your point was, doesn’t it? Funny how the truth can ALWAYS be counted on to make any GOP troll look less than informed, eh?
Hillary is already forced to tolerate nonsense from biased correspondents like Ed Henry on a daily and even hourly basis on the campaign trail. Any event she conducts is likely to have Henry trying desperately to throw in GOP talking points or a cheap shot in the form of a question.
Were she to consent to an interview by Chris Wallace, we can be sure that it would be chock full of attacks, some as direct punches and the others as “some people say” questions. We can be sure that Wallace wouldn’t ask about her positions or her intentions or even her potential platform. But he’d certainly ask her to comment on Benghazi for the umpteenth time, on her emails again, on GOP talking points about the Iran deal, on her health, on GOP rumors about her husband, and even on her thoughts re Kissinger and Nixon. The entire point would be to diminish her candidacy and try to rattle her – if Wallace could get her to explode, as he did with Bill Clinton, the right wing could run that video forever.
Thankfully, Clinton is smart enough to stay out of that muck until after the election. I believe she’ll agree to appear on Fox News at some point in 2017, as a way of being open to the GOP point of view and as a way to reach out. But she would have no reason to bother with them until after November.
If Fox News Sunday treated all their guests this way, no problem. But Chris will only push Republicans he interviews so far. He knows the tolerance level of his right-wing audience. And it won’t much. The Clintons? You can’t beat them hard enough to satiate that crowd.
Not only did Bill have to shame his Fox host into asking about his charitable work, the questions on the topic were pathetic like he’d farmed the task out to an intern.
Politicians lie, it’s part of their chemistry.
I am shocked!! Shocked I tell you!!!
Flashback: Hillary Clinton Under ‘Sniper Fire’ In Bosnia
