OPINION:
Team Hillary cordoned off reporters this weekend during a campaign trip to New Hampshire, and her top press aide on Monday said that is perfectly OK to do from time to time.
“We try to give as much access as possible, but my view is, it can’t get in the way of her being able to campaign,” Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“I wasn’t there, but I saw some press reports that described it as chaotic, so they put the rope up so that the parade could continue and that she could talk to voters,” the Clinton aide said.
The Clinton campaign has already caught flak for barring a reporter from serving as a “pool” reporter, and the candidate went 40 some days without taking questions from the press. Still, when reporters do get a question, they sometimes just ask what kind of ice cream she likes.
And Mrs. Clinton has yet to sit down with a national media reporter to answer questions, preferring to stick to small regional journalists as she holds tightly controlled campaign events with big-money donors.
“She’s been secretary of state,” Ms. Palmieri said. “For four years, she hadn’t been able to campaign. She wanted to do a lot of one-on-ones, you can’t do that forever in a country of 300 million people, but she really wanted to get that part done before we started talking to the national media.”
The aide added: “The press is important, but they are not as important as voters, but they are an important part of the process and now we are ready to do. She’s been doing a lot of national interviews.”
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