It’s now been 256 days since Hillary Clinton has done a formal press conference and the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward is wondering about the Democrat’s potential “transparency” as President. Woodward appeared on CBS This Morning, Tuesday, to offer some critiques of Clinton. But the famous Watergate journalist was sometimes mild in his assessments. He wondered, “I think people say if she became president, are we going to have some kind of transparency?”
Again, her last press conference was on December 4, 2015. Generally, past behavior is a good indicator of future actions. Yet, Woodward speculated, “Is there going to be a culture of straight talk, rather than a culture of concealment?”
To be fair, the Post journalist did say of Clinton: “Let's face it, Hillary Clinton just did not come totally clean on this. And she would serve herself well if she would do that.” After co-host Charlie Rose wondered if the Democrat should do more press conferences, Woodward eventually concluded with some advice for the politician:
WOODWARD: Well, I mean, it's not about press conferences. It should be — she should certainly should have them. But she should do serious interviews with serious people who really want to look at all of this. You can't do it on the fly. And she tried to do it on the fly. And it is a giant mistake. Look, the people, the average voter is asking not just what somebody might do as president, but who they are. And who she is her past. And she needs to kind of just sit down and say, "look, on the e-mail thing, I made a serious mistake" and kind of to let it roll out.
Missing was any of Woodward's Nixon/Watergate comparisons. He has made them in the past to Hillary, but not here.
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A transcript of the August 16 segment is below:
CBS TM
8/16/16
8:03:16 to 8:08:47
5 minutes and 31 secondsCHARLIE ROSE: Bob Woodward associate editor of the Washington Post. He's with us now from Washington. Bob, good morning.
BOB WOODWARD: Morning.
ROSE: So assess Trump's speech on foreign policy and ISIS for us.
WOODWARD: Well, it's a hodgepodge. To Trump's credit, he trying to seriously assess and come up with some policies and ideas. But if you step back, after 9/11, terrorism has defined so much the world’s history, America's history. Trump is trying to frame it somewhat as a border security problem, which it's not. It is an intelligence and military problem which the Obama administration really is addressing in a pretty serious, effective, but not perfect way.
ROSE: Yet, Bloomberg Politics poll says Trump polls higher than she does, on the question who is best prepared to combat terror.
WOODWARD: Well, you know, he sounds tough. And there is a tough component in all of this. But as the fact-checker Glenn Kessler at the Post went through the speech, there are lots things that he said that are just are not true. And you can’t take the ISIS problem, the Islamic State problem and dump it all on Obama and Hillary Clinton. It's got a long history going back to the Bush administration.
ROSE: What is — Go ahead, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we keep hearing about this idea of ideological tests going back to cold war-era type screening. What does that mean? Is it the idea here that terrorists will tell the truth if you ask if they want to hurt America?
WOODWARD: Well, that's a good question. This notion of extreme vetting, I don't think it's practical at all. I mean — As you say, what would you do? Stand there at the airports and have somebody say, do you believe in the Constitution? Do you believe in American values? It just wouldn't work. And again, it's a mis-focus of the problem, at least now.
GAYLE KING: It's been reported, Bob, that Congress is soon going to receive the notes from Hillary Clinton's e-mails. What should we be looking for there?
WOODWARD: God knows. I mean, there are thousands of e-mails. The FBI said that they uncovered that were not turned over. I mean, take anyone's e-mails, thousands of them, there could be something there, maybe not.
KING: What effect could it have? I guess it depends, of course, what they find? But do you see this being a serious issue?
WOODWARD: Very serious issue. So many unanswered questions. You know, let's face it, Hillary Clinton just did not come totally clean on this. And she would serve herself well if she would do that.
ROSE: Bob, why do you think she hasn't?
WOODWARD: Habit of secrecy. The whole idea of the private server was so no one would know. And it's a very bad habit. And you really, I mean, I think people say if she became president, are we going to have some kind of transparency? Is there going to be a culture of straight talk, rather than a culture of concealment?
ROSE: She has not many press conferences either. Should the press be demanding more access?
WOODWARD: Well, I mean, it's not about press conferences. It should be — she should certainly should have them. But she should do serious interviews with serious people who really want to look at all of this. You can't do it on the fly. And she tried to do it on the fly. And it is a giant mistake. Look, the people, the average voter is asking not just what somebody might do as president, but who they are. And who she is her past. And she needs to kind of just sit down and say, “look, on the e-mail thing, I made a serious mistake” and kind of to let it roll out.
ROSE: But she has said that. She said she made a mistake.
KING: On the other hand, you have Donald Trump who has had many dealings with the press who is now blaming the press for some of his stumblings. He's not the first politician to blame the press when things don't go their way. Do you think this strategy is effective for him?
WOODWARD: Well, I want to hear more answers from him about what he might do as president. I mean, somebody was saying Hillary Clinton said she made a mistake. She did. But it's a kind of like, you know, “I slipped when I was coming off the stage.” This is a serious issue. The thousands of e-mails that we don't know about, what do they have? You know, people are going to want to see. And as you get closer to the October surprise era, something could come out that could get — be significant or get overblown.
