Clinton campaign manager defends lack of press conferences

Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook suggested on Wednesday that he is not completely sold on having the Democratic nominee go out in front of the traveling press corps, even as an Associated Press report on the connections between the Clinton Foundation and her State Department has kicked up another storm of questions.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Mook engaged with former George W. Bush communications chief Nicolle Wallace, who, noting her experience on campaigns, asked why he would not do so given Clinton's "No. 1 vulnerability" of being seen as dishonest and not trustworthy.


"Isn't the antidote to this to sit her down today in front of your traveling press corps, people like [NBC News'] Andrea Mitchell, who certainly can appreciate the contributions of people like Melinda Gates and others, and let her take questions until there are no more questions to be answered?" Wallace inquired.

Mook responded by noting that Clinton "has done over 300 interviews this year alone," as Wallace interrupted, "I know the difference between a three-minute, ground-ruled interview and a press conference, because I've put on a couple of each."

"But why wouldn't you have her do a press conference today?" Wallace asked. "You have a perception problem on the question of honesty and trustworthiness. Why wouldn't you put her out there to your traveling press corps who knows all the intricacies of the sort of defense you laid out, which is legitimate, but this is about the perception. Why wouldn't you put her out there to answer questions that she could certainly handle if your defense is true?"

Mook reiterated that Clinton has done more than 300 interviews, adding that she "takes questions in a variety of formats and we're going to keep looking at that."

"I guess my pushback here is that nobody is asking Donald Trump about his foreign connections, about the people that have direct influence over him," Mook responded.

Pressed again on why he would not hold a press conference for Clinton for the campaign's own benefit, Mook remarked, "We're considering everything every day. She's been answering questions, she's gonna continue to do that."

"I think all we would ask is that people don't cherry-pick, you know, 100-something meetings and then say that half of them were with Clinton Foundation donors at the exclusion of 1,700 other meetings," Mook said, referring to the AP report, which showed that 85 of the 154 people from private interests who met with Clinton or had conversations scheduled with her had donated or pledged commitments to the foundation.