On Friday, Hillary Clinton was uncomfortable when asked about her recent comments in an interview with FNC’s Chris Wallace regarding her statements to the FBI and her private server. Clinton gave a less than eloquent defense of her position that her answers to the FBI were “truthful,” and insisted she might have “short-circuited” or that her and Wallace were “probably talking past each other.” Monday’s Morning Joe crew were not impressed with her answers, as co-host Joe Scarborough described it as “the most tortured response I’ve ever seen.”
Both co-host’s were noticeably disturbed by Clinton’s inability to swallow her pride and admit she made a mistake. Brzezinski, an avid Clinton supporter, condemned the “completely inappropriate” behavior of maintaining a private server.
BRZEZINSKI: …But what really worried me is that there's a bigger picture here. That they are— I don't want to say they are covering up because it sounds like completely illegal, I think there was just a self-serving reason to set up the private server that was completely inappropriate, and it was done, whether it's to widen the footprint of the foundation while she was secretary of state or whatever, paranoia.
SCARBOROUGH: Right.
BRZEZINSKI: But, they set up a server. Because they didn’t want it in the State Department. Can we go back to the beginning here and not talk about the five e-mails that weren't marked and were marked? And whether or not she knew they were marked?
Scarborough jumped in to provide a teaching moment for Clinton: say “I am so sorry” and then you can move on.
SCARBOROUGH: That’s the problem. Hillary Clinton needs to say -- Hillary Clinton needs to say. Hillary Clinton needs to say. I made a mistake. I shouldn't have done it. I am so sorry. It was a terrible lapse in judgment. I have learned my lesson. I accept the FBI report. Now, let's get Americans back to work. Boom, that's it. Leave. Stop. Richard, did you see the tortured response? It was the most tortured response I’ve ever seen.
Following the footage from Clinton’s response, Scarborough and the New York Times’ Nick Confessore were equally flabbergasted at the complexities of her answer.
SCARBOROUGH: Now that was only one-half of the answer. We are not going to let you hear the follow up to that. Your face would be in your cereal bowl. Can you imagine diagramming that?
CONFESSORE: No, it would take forever.
SCARBOROUGH: I was like in law school class and you have fact patterns and you would just sit there and you would diagram them for about like forty-five minutes. What’s what. I couldn't really diagram it.
CONFESSORE: It’s a weird hill the campaign wants to die on that, that the, that everything was hunky dory with the e-mails. The server was fine. They were cleared of wrongdoing. That's their spin on this. And nobody believes it.
SCARBOROUGH: It’s just wrong. Nobody in America believes it.
Scarborough and Confessore are right, nobody in America believes it, and Clinton’s convoluted answer on Friday gave no solace to all of the people in America who are skeptical of her and concerned about the direction of this country.
View Full Transcript Here:
08-08-16 MSNBC Morning Joe
08:06:32 AM - 08:11:01 AMBRZEZINSKI: I think there’s a bigger problem. And, there’s a lot of body language in that answer we’ll show it to you, we’ll get to these polls in a second and show it to you. But what really worried me is that there's a bigger picture here. That they are— I don't want to say they are covering up because it sounds like completely illegal, I think there was just a self-serving reason to set up the private server that was completely inappropriate, and it was done, whether it is to widen the footprint of the foundation while she was secretary of state or whatever, paranoia.
SCARBOROUGH: Right.
BRZEZINSKI: But, they set up a server. Because they didn’t want it in the State Department. Can we go back to the beginning here and not talk about the five e-mails that weren't marked and were marked? And whether or not she knew they were marked?
SCARBOROUGH: Whoa, whoa but wait—
NICHOLAS CONFESSORE: But it’s totally the obvious to everybody.
BRZEZINSKI: It was wrong, all of it. All of it. All of it.
SCARBOROUGH: But the thing is. Mika. Everybody knows that.
BRZEZINSKI: No. They don't.
SCARBOROUGH: Yes. They do. Everybody knows that but Hillary Clinton.
BRZEZINSKI: Okay.
SCARBOROUGH: That’s the problem. Hillary Clinton needs to say -- Hillary Clinton needs to say. Hillary Clinton needs to say.
BRZEZINSKI: Because we’re counting on Hillary.
SCARBOROUGH: I made a mistake. I shouldn't have done it. I am so sorry. It was a terrible lapse in judgment. I have learned my lesson. I accept the FBI report. Now, let's get Americans back to work. Boom, that's it. Leave. Stop. Richard, did you see the tortured response? It was the most tortured response I’ve ever seen.
RICHARD HAASS: For two reasons. The structural context to this election is not a good one for Hillary Clinton. If two-thirds of the American people think the country is on the wrong track she is in some ways swimming against the tide. And what we’ve seen already this morning is, you know about whom is this going to be a referendum? And every morning you all and everyone spends talking about Donald Trump's latest comment, that's a good day for Hillary Clinton, but the opposite is also true. Every morning that we spend talking about Hillary Clinton and the emails is a bad day for Hillary Clinton and a good day for Donald Trump. So what you really want to do is get this issue off of the stage.
BRZEZINSKI: Okay.
HAASS: And then we can spend the morning talking a about Donald Trump.
BRZEZINSKI: So, I’ve got to—
SCARBOROUGH: And what is this is by the way, Mika, an answer? That you can write in like four lines.
BRZEZINSKI: I know and she was reading all of this legal stuff. I’m going to show this.
SCARBOROUGH: It was legal mumbo jumbo.
BRZEZINSKI: Because we have to. And then I never want to see it again on so many levels.
SCARBOROUGH: Okay but, but can we go to the polls first?
BRZEZINSKI: Telling the Clinton campaign—no, no. We’ve got to, we’ve been talking about this. When you talk about it you actually have to show the viewers what you’re talking about. So, are you ready, Dan? Here it is.
[Clinton on Friday in Washington, DC]
KRISTEN WELKER: Are you mischaracterizing director Comey's testimony? And, is this not undercutting your efforts to rebuild trust with the American people?
HILLARY CLINTON: I was pointing out in both of those instances that Director Comey said my answers in my FBI interview were truthful. That's really the bottom line here. And I have said during the interview and in many other occasions over the past months, that what I told the FBI, which he said was truthful, is consistent with what I have said publicly. So I may have short circuited it and for that I you know will try to clarify. Because I think Chris Wallace and I were probably talking past each other. Because of course he could only talk to what I had told the FBI. And I appreciated that. But I do think having him say that my answers to the FBI were truthful and then I should quickly add what I said was consistent with what I had said publicly. And that’s really sort of in my view trying to tie both ends together.
SCARBOROUGH: Now that was only one-half of the answer. We are not going to let you hear the follow up to that. Your face would be in your cereal bowl. Can you imagine diagramming that?
CONFESSORE: No, it would take forever.
SCARBOROUGH: I was like in law school class and you have fact patterns and you would just sit there and you would diagram them for about like forty-five minutes. What’s what. I couldn't really diagram it.
CONFESSORE: It’s a weird hill the campaign wants to die on that, that the, that everything was hunky dory with the e-mails. The server was fine. They were cleared of wrongdoing. That's their spin on this. And nobody believes it.
SCARBOROUGH: It’s just wrong. Nobody in America believes it.
