It’s not surprising but since Hulu is releasing a fawning Hillary Clinton documentary this week, the media is ready and willing to give it free press. But not only did ABC give Clinton a platform to discuss the doc on Good Morning America, they also invited the Democrat’s 2016 presidential nominee to do the DNC’s work in bashing Bernie Sanders.
ABC did not ask Clinton any critical questions. They did not ask her about a federal judge ordering her Monday to sit for a sworn deposition over her private email server scandal.
The network did let former Bill Clinton staffer and GMA anchor George Stephanopoulos sit this one out, even though he normally is the one to do these type of interviews. Instead, correspondent Linsey Davis sat down with Clinton to ask her eager questions about the Hulu series potentially changing the public’s perception of her. Davis was sympathetic from the start asking why Clinton would want to talk about her “personal anguish” over Monica Lewinsky:
“You sat down for 35 hours. Nothing was off-limits and you get really into a lot of personal anguish to talk about Monica Lewinsky. Why subject yourself to that? Why relive all of that again?” she asked.
As you can see in the transcript below, this was just one of many leading questions inviting Clinton to tout how she was opening up and revealing her “authenticity.” It was also an opportunity for Clinton to tout how she was a trailblazer, by claiming “women’s rights are human rights” and proposing a universal health care plan in the 1990s.
Davis kept helping Clinton attempt to rebrand herself:
“You talked about the people's opinions on you. Front and center right off the bat in this documentary they talk about this perception that Hillary Clinton is inauthentic. You talk about your frustrations with that,” she notes before playing a clip from the Hulu docu-series.
The ABC journalist added, “There's a quote early on that says you are one of the most admired and vilified women in American history. Do you agree with that and is part of your hope doing this documentary that it might change people's perceptions about you?”
Clinton was also asked to talk about the 2020 race. On Super Tuesday, ABC invited the former Democrat presidential candidate to attack Bernie Sanders, in a clear effort to help the Democrat establishment’s preferred candidate, Joe Biden.
DAVIS: Really quickly just curious to get your response to hearing that Bernie Sanders said that if he makes it to the convention with the most pledged delegates that he should be the nominee. That's quite a bit of change in his stance from 2016. Your reaction.
.... In the campaign in the documentary you talk about his campaign from 2016 and call it, quote, just baloney and I feel so bad people got sucked into it. Do you still feel that way now?
Clinton ended the interview by touting how the Democrats took over the House in 2018, and could do the same in 2020 if they were “understanding and realistic” about getting a candidate who could beat President Trump.
Read the transcript, below:
3/3/2020
Good Morning America
AMY ROBACH: Welcome back to "GMA." The subject of a new documentary about to debut on Hulu and Linsey Davis is one-on-one right now right now with Secretary Clinton to talk all about it. Linsey.
LINSEY DAVIS: Good morning to you Amy. Yes, we are here with Hillary Clinton, the subject of the four-part docu-series "Hillary." Welcome.
CLINTON: Thank you.
DAVIS: What a news cycle it has been as you well know just in the last 24 hours. Several prominent Democrats have endorsed Vice President Joe Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden, among them Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, I know that you've said you want to let the process play out but just curious if you do plan to endorse and if so what's the advantage in waiting?
CLINTON: Well, look, I think that the process is finally moving forward. You know, only like 4% or 5% of the people whose views that are going to be voted on have actually had a chance to express themselves so there's a long way to go. Today obviously is a big day. So I'm just watching and hoping that we nominate whoever is the strongest candidate to take out the current incumbent. That's the only thing that really matters at the end of the day.
DAVIS: Let's turn now to the documentary. You sat down for 35 hours.
CLINTON: I did.
DAVIS: Nothing was off-limits and you get really into a lot of personal anguish to talk about Monica Lewinsky. Why subject yourself to that? Why relive all of that again?
CLINTON: Well people have a lot of opinions about me as you might know and I thought I'm not running for anything. When they came to me with this idea, you know, why not tell my own story and it's a story not only about me, but really about women's lives, about politics in our country and you can go back 25 years and see how I tried to get universal care for everybody and I got burned in effigy because it was so controversial or what I said in Beijing about women's rights being human rights and you can tell that not only my life but the lives of many, many millions of other women are reflected in this documentary. That's one of the reasons I was excited about participating.
DAVIS: You talked about the people's opinions on you. Front and center right off the bat in this documentary they talk about this perception that Hillary Clinton is inauthentic. You talk about your frustrations with that. We have a clip. Let's take a listen.
CLINTON: Okay.
CLINTON IN DOC: When people say I'm not authentic, what you see is what you get. I mean I'm sorry if I'm not brilliantly charismatic on TV but I am the same person I've always been and going through this gauntlet of unbelievable obstacles, you know, yeah, I mean, you know, you get scarred up a little bit.
DAVIS: Speaking of that idea of getting scarred up a little bit there's a quote early on that says you are one of the most admired and vilified women in American history. Do you agree with that and is part of your hope doing this documentary that it might change people's perceptions about you?
CLINTON: Well, what I hope is that people will see a more comprehensive view of me and not
a snippet here or a snippet there or some rumor or some wild conspiracy theory because I became of age and certainly came into the public eye at a time when there was so much change going on in America. You know, civil rights, womens rights, gay rights, I was thrust into the role of first lady, there had never been anybody with an education like mine with a career like mine so I was put into a kind of position that nobody had ever been before.
There was no guide book like how do you deal with this? And I think what the film does so successfully and I give a big shoutout to the director, who was able to tell a complicated story in a really driving compelling way and I hope that people not only learn more about me but maybe reflect a little bit about their own lives or their mother's lives, their grandmother's lives, what's happening in our country today.
DAVIS: Really quickly just curious to get your response to hearing that Bernie Sanders said that if he makes it to the convention with the most pledged delegates that he should be the nominee. That's quite a bit of change in his stance from 2016. Your reaction.
CLINTON: My reaction is, let's follow the rules. We've got rules. We had rules last time and rules this time and I think it's always a good idea to follow the rules. Everybody knew what they were when you got into it.
DAVIS: In the campaign in the documentary you talk about his campaign from 2016 and call it, quote, just baloney and I feel so bad people got sucked into it. Do you still feel that way now.
CLINTON: Sure, yeah. I mean, that was my authentic opinion then. It's my authentic opinion now. You know, here's one of the saddest things happening right now. The House of Representatives under democratic leadership has passed 400 bills on really important issues from health care to economic security to election security. It just goes on and on. Does anybody know that, Linsey? Of course, not. Nobody knows that. Change is hard. It's not glamorous, it doesn't fit into a sound bite. And yet the people who were elected in 2018 are down there doing the people's work and I just think we ought to be more understanding and realistic about what it takes to get change in this big complicated pluralistic democracy of ours and it's not easy but, boy, is it ever worth it and I want to make sure voters know what can be done if they give the White House back to the Democrats.
DAVIS: Hillary Clinton, thank you so much. The docu-series "Hillary" premieres on Hulu on Friday. We're going to have much more with Mrs. Clinton as we continue the conversation on ABC newslive tonight at 7:00 P.M. And now to Rob.
ROB MARCIANO: Alright Linsey. Another show for us to binge.
