CNN's Brianna Keilar acknowledged the obvious about Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal on Monday's New Day during a panel discussion on the presidential campaign. Chris Cuomo pointed out Mrs. Clinton's latest "short-circuited" explanation about her debunked claim about FBI Director James Comey's testimony on the issue. Cuomo underlined that she "teed this up" for Donald Trump. Keilar replied, "She didn't stick to what she had been saying all along. And I wonder if part of that is because the explanation still, to this day...is not that great about the e-mails." [video below]
Cuomo introduced the topic with his "teed this up" line about the former secretary of state's answer: "[Trump] had a very bad week. I was on vacation, and even I know that — but 'short- circuited' — 'I short-circuited.' That's like something that you think only the Clinton campaign would come up with. You know, she kind of teed it up for him."
Keilar responded with her "not that great" assessment of Mrs. Clinton's handling of the controversy. She continued by asking Alex Burns of the New York Times, " So, how does she, I guess, manage that?" Burns replied by agreeing with the two CNN anchor about Mrs. Clinton's poor answers on the scandal:
ALEX BURNS, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES: ...[T]he only way to manage this is to try to not talk about it — right? — that if you get into the details of litigating the specific decisions and when they were made and — and why she did them on the e-mails, there are no really good answers for her to give on this — right? I think there are particularly bad answers — and 'short-circuited' might have been one of them.
The guest continued, "I don't want to be just too speculative here — but on some level, Hillary Clinton has always insisted that she truly didn't do anything wrong — right? And when offered the opportunity to, sort of, double down on the idea that no, I didn't do anything wrong." Keilar interrupted before he could complete his answer: "So she's revealing, you think, what she really thinks." Burns retorted that "she has always said that there was nothing in particular that was profoundly inappropriate about what she did. He added that "it can be difficult for a candidate who feels they've been wronged in some way to maintain the kind of self-control that it takes to stop talking about a damaging issue."
The transcript of the relevant portion of the panel discussion segment from the August 8, 2016 edition of CNN's New Day:
CHRIS CUOMO: What did you make of — you know, Clinton teed this up for him [Donald Trump] last week. He had a very bad week. I was on vacation, and even I know that — but 'short- circuited' — 'I short-circuited.' That's like something that you think only the Clinton campaign would come up with—
BRIANNA KEILAR: Yeah—
CUOMO: You know, she kind of teed it up for him.
[CNN Graphic: "Clinton: I May Have 'Short-Circuited' On Email Claims"]
KEILAR: And we keep seeing them both do that. That's the other thing. Remember, it was — she was sitting down with the FBI; and then, the — the Star of David thing came up. And so, the — you're seeing this in the same way. She didn't stick to what she had been saying all along. And I wonder if part of that is because the explanation still, to this day, Alex, is not that great about the e-mails. So, how does she, I guess, manage that?
ALEX BURNS, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES: Well, look, I think as M.J. [Lee] was saying before, the only way to manage this is to try to not talk about it — right? — that if you get into the details of litigating the specific decisions and when they were made and — and why she did them on the e-mails, there are no really good answers for her to give on this — right? I think there are particularly bad answers — and 'short-circuited' might have been one of them — but there are ways of pivoting away from the issue.
I do think that — you know, you do have to wonder, and — and I don't want to be just too speculative here — but on some level, Hillary Clinton has always insisted that she truly didn't do anything wrong — right? And when offered the opportunity to, sort of, double down on the idea that no, I didn't do anything wrong—
KEILAR: So she's revealing, you think, what she really thinks.
BURNS: Well, look, I'm not going to — I'm not going to put the candidate on a couch, but she has always said that there was nothing in particular that was profoundly inappropriate about what she did. And, you know, I think it can be difficult for a candidate who feels they've been wronged in some way to maintain the kind of self-control that it takes to stop talking about a damaging issue.
CUOMO: Especially when you know it's an issue that does resonate with people, and that they have definite feelings about — so now, you're invalidating the voters. That's always a dicey proposition.
