H4A News Clips 6.16.15

From:aphillips@hillaryclinton.com To: aphillips@hillaryclinton.com BCC: hrcrapid@hillaryclinton.com Date: 2015-06-16 09:15 Subject: H4A News Clips 6.16.15

*H4A News Clips* *June 16, 2015* *LAST NIGHTS EVENING NEWS* All network programs covered Jeb Bush's campaign announcement. ABC reported that Bush took direct aim at Hillary Clinton and said she has left a legacy of crisis all over the world. Hillary Clinton addressed age at her own campaign launch, and that she would be the first grandmother president, as well. NBC stated that immigration reform will be one of Bush’s primary issues. Bush indirectly attacked Democratic candidates. CBS' Nancy Cordes said Bush said he should be the nominee not because of his name but despite it; reported Bush pointed to his executive experience as his qualifier as a nominee; reported Bush’s fundraising efforts didn’t scare off other candidates. *LAST NIGHTS EVENING NEWS......................................................................... **1* *TODAY’S KEY STORIES..................................................................................... **5* *Hillary Clinton Pushes to Expand Access to Pre-Kindergarten* // NYT // Amy Chozick & Jess Bidgood – June 15, 2015........................................................................................................................................... 5 *Clinton says she has connected with voters in early stages of campaign* // WMUR – June 15, 2015.. 7 *Hillary Clinton on the issues: Six questions on the campaign trail* // The Concord Monitor // Casey McDermott – June 15, 2015.............................................................................................................................. 8 *SOCIAL MEDIA................................................................................................ **10* *Dan Merica (6/15/15, 9:13 am)* - Bernie Sanders headlines a meeting in Denver on Saturday. https://go.berniesanders.com/page/event/detail/townmeeting/w3j … Campaign says 2,500 ppl have RSVPd (not all will show)...................................................................................................................... 10 *Jason Noble (6/15/15, 10:21 am)* - Here's your @DMRegister clips on relative Clinton/Obama crowd counts 10 *Gabriela Domenzain* (6/15/15, 11:16 am) - PERFECT: on 1st day on @GovernorOMalley's team we get to THANK #DREAMers/all New Americans for #DACA :) #DACAworks........................................................ 10 *Trent Spiner (6/15/15, 1:26 pm)* - Responding to @HillaryClinton early ed program, @GovernorOMalley slams her plan: "We can't afford the same old talk." #FITN #nhpolitics........................................................ 11 *Zeke Miller (6/15/15, 3:32 pm)* - .@Lis_Smith/@GovernorOMalley blast Clinton on TPP............... 11 *David Martosko (6/15/15, 7:01 pm)* - Statement from the travel pool of journalists covering @HillaryClinton - endorsed by 13 news orgs........................................................................................................... 11 *Zeke Miller (6/15/15, 8:23 pm)* - Like @HillaryClinton, @JebBush's website only lists a few states. Unlike Hillary, it excludes his home state.......................................................................................................... 11 *HRC NATIONAL COVERAGE............................................................................ **11* *Hillary Clinton’s Vows to ‘Fight’ Evoke a Populist Appeal and a Contrast With Obama* // NYT // Amy Chozick & Patrick Healy – June 15, 2015..................................................................................................... 11 *Sidney Blumenthal, Hillary Clinton’s Confidant, Turns Over Memos on Libya* // NYT // Michael Schmidt – June 15, 2015..................................................................................................................................... 14 *Why It Matters That Hillary Clinton Wore Ralph Lauren* // NYT // Vanessa Friedman – June 15, 2015 15 *Hillary signals aggressive attack on Republicans over Obamacare lawsuit* // WaPo // Greg Sargent – June 15, 2015.......................................................................................................................................... 16 *Hillary Clinton finally figured out how to talk about being a woman in presidential politics* // Chris Cillizza – June 15, 2015.................................................................................................................................... 18 *Hillary Clinton balancing on the thin line between party and president* // WaPo // Dan Balz – June 15, 2015................................................................................................................................................. 19 *Why Hillary is asking America to see her candidacy as ‘historic’* // WaPo // Greg Sargent – June 15, 2015 21 *Bill Clinton’s claim that Hillary did economic diplomacy because there was no Commerce Secretary* // WaPo // Glenn Kessler – June 15, 2015.................................................................................................... 23 *Clinton says her wealth is 'secondary' concern for voters* // AP // Lisa Lerer – June 15, 2015......... 25 *Clinton campaign denies access to pool reporter* // Politico // Dylan Byers – June 15, 2015........... 27 *Hillary Clinton’s super PAC nabs 2 veteran pollsters* // Politico // Annie Karni – June 15, 2015..... 29 *Some of Hillary Clinton’s Libya emails said to be withheld from Benghazi Committee* // Politico // Rachel Bade – June 15, 2015............................................................................................................................ 29 *Hillary Clinton dismisses trade authority as ‘process issue’* // Politico // Gabriel Debenedetti – June 15, 2015................................................................................................................................................ 30 *Clinton campaign kicks off amid boiling press frustrations* // Politico // Dylan Byers – June 15, 2015 32 *Hillary Clinton = Jeb Bush?* // Politico // Annie Karni & Gabriel Debenedetti – June 15, 2015....... 33 *Hillary Clinton Proposes More Funding for Early Childhood Education* // Bloomberg News // Jennifer Epstein – June 15, 2015............................................................................................................................ 35 *Hillary Clinton Backs Fast-Track on Obama's Trade Deals* // HuffPo // Eric Zuesse – June 15, 2015 36 *45 times Secretary Clinton pushed the trade bill she now opposes* // CNN // Jake Tapper – June 15, 2015 40 *How Hillary Clinton Gets Around Answering Questions About Fast-Track* // The National Journal // Emma Roller – June 15, 2015.......................................................................................................................... 51 *If Hillary Clinton wants to fix income inequality, here’s how to do it* // Yahoo News // Rick Newman – June 15, 2015......................................................................................................................................... 52 *Clinton urges tax cuts to help families pay for child care* // Reuters – June 15, 2015...................... 53 *Clinton, in NH, calls for universal preschool, chides GOP* // Union Leader // Dan Tuohy – June 15, 2015 54 *Hillary Clinton Offers Obama-Like Vision for America* // NBC News // Perry Bacon Jr. – June 15, 2015 55 *Ex-Obama Advisor: In the Game of Dynasties, House Clinton Will Always Crush House Bush* // Mediaite // Josh Feldman – June 15, 2015........................................................................................................... 57 *Sunday Spin from Clinton Surrogates* // FactCheck.org // D’Angelo Gore & Eugene Kiely – June 15, 2015 57 *Hillary Clinton, the center-left's champion* // Newsday // Stephen Stromberg – June 15, 2015..... 60 *Hillary and Bill Clinton: Campaign Speech Twinsies* // TIME // Nell Scovell – June 15, 2015......... 61 *The Critical Missing Sentence From Hillary Clinton's Roosevelt Island Speech* // Forbes // Rick Ungar – June 15, 2015......................................................................................................................................... 63 *Hillary Clinton has always been to Obama's left on economics* // VOX // Matthew Iglesias – June 15, 2015 64 *Hillary Clinton Calls Trade Stalemate 'a Process Issue'* // Bloomberg News // Ali Elkin – June 15, 2015 66 *Clinton campaign bans national pool reporter from N.H. events* // The Boston Globe // Annie Linskey – June 15, 2015......................................................................................................................................... 67 *Hillary Clinton Again Avoids Taking A Position On Trade Deal* // NBC News // Leigh Ann Caldwell – June 15, 2015......................................................................................................................................... 69 *De Blasio says Hillary Clinton lacks 'vision'* // Marisa Schultz and Michael Gartland – June 15, 2015 69 *Hillary Clinton Is Taking Sides in Obama's Trade Fight With Liberal Democrats* // Mic // Gregory Krieg – June 15, 2015.......................................................................................................................................... 71 *Top hedge fund managers make more than all kindergarten teachers combined* // Politifact // Lauren Carroll – June 15, 2015............................................................................................................................ 72 *How Hollywood Helped Hillary Clinton* // CBS News // Rebecca Kaplan – June 15, 2015.............. 74 *Bill Clinton: ‘You can’t have people walking around with guns’* // The Washington Times // Jessica Chasmar – June 15, 2015............................................................................................................................ 75 *Clinton: I never saw Hillary 'study a list of my contributors'* // The Hill // Cory Bennett – June 15, 2015 76 *Clinton camp shuts out foreign reporter* // The Hill // Ben Kamisar – June 15, 2015..................... 77 *EXCLUSIVE: The day Hillary’s team booted me off the bus: ‘The Clinton's campaign wants to control which reporters can come along for the ride. Today it was supposed to be me - but at the last minute I was shut out. That's NOT okay'* // The Daily Mail // David Martokso – June 15, 2015........................................ 78 *Longtime Hillary Clinton Confidant to Testify About Benghazi Emails* // VOA News - June 16, 2015 82 *Hillary Clinton's campaign isn't about populist ideals. It's about Hillary Clinton.* // The Week // Edward Morrissey - June 16, 2015.......................................................................................................... 83 *2016 Is the Latest Bump in the Long Clinton-Bush Friendship* // NY Mag // Margaret Hartmann – June 16, 2015................................................................................................................................................ 85 *OTHER DEMOCRATS NATIONAL COVERAGE................................................. **88* *O’MALLEY.................................................................................................. **88* *Martin O’Malley pins hope on Iowa caucuses* // The Boston Globe // Annie Linskey – June 15, 2015 88 *SANDERS..................................................................................................... **91* *Meet the people coming to see Bernie Sanders in Iowa* // WaPo // John Wagner – June 15, 2015.. 91 *Early-state polls hint at Bernie Sanders surge* // Politico // Nick Gass – June 15, 2015.................. 94 *Bernie Sanders Is Building an Army to Take D.C.* // The Daily Beast // Eleanor Chift – June 15, 2015 94 *Bernie Sanders Can Win the Iowa Caucus* // The Observer // Brent Budowsky – June 15, 2015..... 96 *Poll: Sanders Gains on Clinton in New Hampshire* // Real Clear Politics // Matthew Disler – June 15, 2015 98 *Sanders: I won’t wage personal attacks on Hillary Clinton* // MSNBC // John O’Brien – June 15, 2015 99 *Why Bernie Sanders wins the crowds* // CNN // Julian Zelizer – June 15, 2015........................... 100 *Bernie Sanders says a black male baby born today has 1-in-3 chance of prison* // Politifact // Louis Jacobson – June 15, 2015.......................................................................................................................... 102 *WEBB........................................................................................................ **103* *Jim Webb to decide on presidential campaign in next two weeks* // WaPo // Rachel Weiner – June 15, 2015 103 *OTHER...................................................................................................... **104* *Labor buys ‘thank you’ ads for lawmakers who blocked Obama trade pact* // WaPo // David Nakamura – June 15, 2015........................................................................................................................................ 104 *Immigration 2016: Dems Try to out-DACA Each Other, While Mitt Admitting Mistake Gives GOP ‘Chance to Win’* // PJ Media // Bridget Johnson – June 15, 2015........................................................................ 105 *GOP............................................................................................................... **106* *BUSH......................................................................................................... **106* *Jeb Bush’s Surprising Struggle With Moderates* // NYT // Nate Cohn – June 15, 2015................. 106 *Jeb Bush Announces White House Bid, Saying ‘America Deserves Better.’* // NYT // Michael Barbaro and Jonathan Martin – June 15, 2015.............................................................................................. 109 *Jeb Bush on the Issues* // NYT // Gerry Mullany – June 15, 2015................................................ 113 *Jeb Bush Shows Loyalty to a Logo Derided by Some* // NYT // Alan Rappeport – June 15, 2015... 114 *Jeb Bush Is Still the Favorite, the Markets Say* // NYT // David Leonhardt – June 15, 2015......... 115 *Jeb Bush repackages his brother’s ‘compassionate conservatism’* // WaPo // Paul Waldman – June 15, 2015 116 *For Jeb Bush, a moment to refocus* // WaPo // Dan Balz – June 15, 2015.................................... 117 *Meet the people who will try to get Jeb Bush elected president* // WaPo // Ed O’Keefe – June 15, 2015 119 *Stressing his experience as governor of Fla., Jeb Bush enters 2016 race* // WaPo // Ed O’Keefe & Philip Rucker – June 15, 2015........................................................................................................................... 126 *Jeb Bush’s K Street connections* // WaPo // Catherine Ho – June 15, 2015.................................. 129 *Jeb Bush Says He Will Run as a Political Outsider* // WSJ // Beth Reinhard – June 15, 2015....... 131 *Jeb Bush’s Chance for Takeoff* // WSJ // Gerald Seib – June 15, 2015.......................................... 132 *Jeb Bush vows to stay true to beliefs in opening '16 race that will test his conservatism* // AP // Steve Peoples & Brendan Farrington – June 15, 2015......................................................................................... 134 *Jeb Bush makes it official: 'I will run to win'* // Politico // Eli Stokols – June 15, 2015.................. 136 *Jeb Bush says he doesn’t need dynasty to win* // Politico // Roger Simon – June 15, 2015........... 138 *Jeb Bush’s Campaign Launch to be Featured on Snapchat* // TIME // Sam Frizell – June 15, 2015 140 *Jeb Bush Starts 2016 Campaign Trying to Calm Skittish Conservatives* // TIME // Philip Elliott – June 15, 2015............................................................................................................................................... 141 *Jeb Bush Seeks a Bigger Tent at Campaign Launch* // TIME // Philip Elliott – June 15, 2015....... 142 *Jeb Bush Invokes Baltimore Protests In Presidential Campaign Kickoff* // HuffPo // Amanda Terkel – June 15, 2015........................................................................................................................................ 144 *Jeb Bush Once Cut Funding to His Campaign Launch Site* // TIME // Zeke Miller – June 15, 2015 145 *Bush takes on immigration -- but at hecklers' request* // CNN // Thedore Schleifer – June 15, 2015 145 *Jeb Bush strikes softer tone at start of White House run* // Reuters // Steve Holland – June 15, 2015 146 *Jeb Bush’s announcement speech made me bullish on Marco Rubio* // VOX // Ezra Klein – June 15, 2015 148 *Jeb Bush’s path more like dad than brother* // The Miami Herald – June 15, 2015...................... 150 *Jeb Bush Borrows Hillary Clinton Strategy, Uses Snapchat to Launch Presidential Campaign* // The Wrap // Kathy Zerbib – June 15, 2015................................................................................................... 152 *Jeb Bush Goes Off Script To Promise Immigration Reform* // HuffPo // Elise Foley – June 15, 2015 152 *Laura Ingraham: 'Welcome to the race, Jeb --- now drop out'* // The Washington Examiner // Paul Bedard – June 15, 2015................................................................................................................................... 154 *If Jeb wants 4 percent growth, he'll have to ask Bill Clinton how to do it* // VOX // Matthew Iglesias – June 15, 2015........................................................................................................................................ 154 *Snappy start: Jeb goes tech with launch* // CNN // Ashley Codiani – June 15, 2015..................... 155 *5 Policy Issues that Show Why Jeb Bush Will Lose the Latino Vote* // Latino Decisions // Matt Barreto & Gary Segura – June 15, 2015............................................................................................................. 156 *RUBIO........................................................................................................ **159* *Marco Rubio sent praising note to Jeb Bush ahead of his announcement* // Fox News // Serafin Gomez – June 15, 2015........................................................................................................................................ 159 *Sen. Marco Rubio: Under Obama the World Has Become a More Dangerous Place* // TIME // Marco Rubio – June 15, 2015................................................................................................................................... 160 *PAUL.......................................................................................................... **162* *Rand Paul: Obamatrade Tax Hikes on Small Businesses Mean Republicans Should Oppose Revival Efforts* // Breitbart // Matthew Boyle – June 15, 2015.............................................................................. 162 *WALKER................................................................................................... **163* *UK’s David Cameron fact-checks Scott Walker* // MSNBC // Steve Benen – June 15, 2015............ 163 *Supreme Court shuts down Scott Walker: Today’s ultrasound decision is a big defeat for anti-choice warriors* // Salon // Katie McDonough – June 15, 2015............................................................................... 164 *Scott Walker Already Failing At Diplomacy* // Blue Nation Review // Jesse Berney – June 15, 2015 166 *CRUZ.......................................................................................................... **166* *Ted Cruz courts Houston business elite at private luncheon* // CNN // Theodore Schleifer – June 15, 2015 166 *Jeb Bush’s Son Once Called Ted Cruz The “Future Of The Republican Party”* // Buzzfeed // Megan Apper – June 15, 2015................................................................................................................................... 167 *CHRISTIE.................................................................................................. **168* *New Jersey Lawmakers’ Plan To Circumvent Chris Christie, Start Automatic Voter Registration* // Think Progress // Kira Lerner – June 15, 2015.................................................................................................. 168 *Chris Christie Used a Phrase to Describe the Fight Against ISIS That Brings George W. Bush to Mind* // IJ Review // Mallory Shelbourne – June 15, 2015...................................................................................... 169 *PERRY....................................................................................................... **170* *Perry inexplicably blasts Obama’s ‘lack of executive experience’* // MSNBC // Steve Benen – June 15, 2015 170 *Perry, Rubio mock Hillary Clinton in new campaign ads* // Yahoo News // Caitlin Dickson – June 15, 2015 171 *Rick Perry rates himself against Bush, Cruz* // Dallas Daily News – June 15, 2015....................... 172 *GRAHAM................................................................................................... **174* *Lindsey Graham telling it like it is* // WaPo // Jennifer Rubin – June 15, 2015............................ 174 *The power players behind Lindsey Graham's campaign* // Politico // Katie Glueck – June 15, 2015 176 *Are Rumors About Lindsey Graham’s Sexuality** Hurting His Presidential Chances?* // Slate // Mark Joseph Stern – June 15, 2015........................................................................................................................ 177 *SANTORUM............................................................................................... **178* *Rick Santorum vs Marriage* // HuffPo // Matt Baume – June 15, 2015........................................ 178 *HUCKABEE............................................................................................... **179* *GOP hopeful Huckabee: My beliefs won't trip me up* // CNBC // Matthew Belvedere – June 15, 2015 179 *CARSON.................................................................................................... **180* *Ben Carson leads crowded GOP field in latest poll* // The Detroit Free Press // Alicia Secord – June 15, 2015 180 *TRUMP....................................................................................................... **181* *EXCLUSIVE: Trump will declare $9 billion net worth as he reveals 2016 plans* // WaPo // Robert Costa & Matea Gold – June 15, 2015................................................................................................................ 181 *Donald Trump plans an announcement, and GOP wonders: Presidency or reality TV?* // LA Times // Kathleen Hennessey - June 16, 2015....................................................................................................... 183 *OTHER...................................................................................................... **185* *2016 elections: GOP looks to train now, campaign later* // CNN // Mark Preston - June 16, 2015.. 185 *Republicans start to throw some elbows at each other* // MSNBC // Steve Benen – June 15, 2015 186 *TOP NEWS..................................................................................................... **187* *DOMESTIC................................................................................................. **187* *Goldman to Move Into Online Consumer Lending* // NYT // Michael Corkery & Nathaniel Popper – June 15, 2015............................................................................................................................................... 187 *In A.I.G. Case, Surprise Ruling That Could End All Bailouts* // NYT // Andrew Sorkin – June 15, 2015 190 *Obama Administration Seeks to Reassure Allies After Trade Rebuke* // WSJ // William Mauldin – June 15, 2015............................................................................................................................................... 192 *'No One Will Be Negotiating With Leader Pelosi On A Path Forward'* // HuffPo // Ryan Grim & Jennifer Bendery – June 15, 2015........................................................................................................................... 193 *INTERNATIONAL...................................................................................... **195* *Uncertainty over US strike against al-Qaida leader in Libya* // AP // Sarah El Deeb And Maggie Michael – June 15, 2015................................................................................................................................... 195 *Pope's climate change encyclical leaks* // The Hill // Devin Henry – June 15, 2015..................... 198 *OPINIONS/EDITORIALS/BLOGS................................................................... **199* *Hillary Clinton’s first ‘hard choice’ on trade * // WaPo // The Editorial Board – June 15, 2015....... 199 *How Obama Abandoned Israel* // WSJ // Michael Oren – June 15, 2015.................................... 200 *Hillary Clinton is owning the joke about her fashion choices — and it’s working* // WaPo // Robin Givhan - June 16, 2015.................................................................................................................................. 203 *Why Jim Webb Is the Most Interesting Candidate in the Democratic Primary* // The Observer // Jimmy Soni – June 15, 2015.......................................................................................................................... 205 *TODAY’S KEY STORIES* *Hillary Clinton Pushes to Expand Access to Pre-Kindergarten <http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/06/15/hillary-clinton-pushes-to-expand-access-to-pre-kindergarten/> // NYT // Amy Chozick & Jess Bidgood – June 15, 2015 * Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday pushed to broaden President Obama’s efforts to expand access to pre-kindergarten, proposing more federal money for states to provide preschool to children from moderate and low-income families. The proposal is the first policy proposal Mrs. Clinton has put forth since she officially kicked off her campaign with a speech on Saturday that was heavy on talk of lifting the middle class but light on specifics. That changed on Monday when she said she would “invest in our most important assets, our children” and laid out a plan that would give incentives to states to provide public preschool to children whose family incomes are below 200 percent of the federal poverty line. The plan would be directed at the half of the country’s 8.1 million 3- and 4-year-olds who are not currently enrolled in pre-kindergarten, her campaign said. Mrs. Clinton also proposed doubling funding for the early Head Start program, as well as a middle-class tax cut that could “go towards helping parents pay for quality child care.” Speaking on the day that Jeb Bush officially entered the race for the Republican nomination, Mrs. Clinton sought to distinguish her position on early childhood education with that of her potential Republican rivals. “Republicans aren’t just missing the boat on early childhood education — they’re trying to sink it,” Mrs. Clinton said at a Y.M.C.A. in Rochester, N.H., where she read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to a room of young children. Of all the issues Mrs. Clinton could have delved into, early childhood education is perhaps the most obvious and among the safest. Liberal Democrats have criticized Mrs. Clinton for not addressing Wall Street regulation, financial reform and trade in her Saturday address, the most wide-ranging of her campaign so far. Policies affecting children fit comfortably into Mrs. Clinton’s broader biographical message. As a candidate this time around, she has emphasized her background advocating for children, including at the Children’s Defense Fund in the 1970s, and as first lady and a senator. At the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, Mrs. Clinton started “Too Small to Fail,” an initiative aimed at educating young children. Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton continued Monday to avoid taking a firm position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal currently being debated in Washington. “I will judge what’s in the final agreement, but I hope it can be made better,” Mrs. Clinton said as she answered questions from reporters in a packed barn on an apple orchard in Concord, N.H., during her second campaign stop of the day. One Democratic rival, Martin O’Malley, was quick to criticize Mrs. Clinton for calling the “fast track” portion of Mr. Obama’s trade deal a “process issue” in her New Hampshire remarks. Giving the president such “fast trade” powers would allow him to strike a deal with limited congressional oversight. “For thousands of American workers whose jobs are on the line with T.P.P., fast track is not a ‘process issue,'” said Lis Smith, O’Malley’s deputy campaign manager. “It’s a straightforward vote on their future and their livelihood.” *Clinton says she has connected with voters in early stages of campaign <http://www.wmur.com/politics/hillary-clinton-to-speak-at-launch-party-in-concord/33583988> // WMUR – June 15, 2015 * Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Monday that she has used her first few months on the campaign trail to connect with voters. Clinton gave her first one-on-one television interview since announcing her candidacy when she spoke with News 9's Josh McElveen. She has taken some heat from the media during the first months of her campaign for keeping the press at arm's length and holding closed events, but she said there was a reason for that. "I hadn't been in politics since I became secretary of state," Clinton said. "I had certainly followed closely what was happening in our country because of the Great Recession, but I wanted that touch and that feel that you can only get by sitting and talking and looking at somebody." Clinton didn't apologize for the initial soft launch of her campaign and said she is now happy to take on any question she gets, be it her plan for the economy or questions surrounding foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation while she was secretary of state. "I don't know if we have enough time in this interview to debunk all of the allegations that were made by people who were wielding the partisan ax," Clinton said. Clinton said she should be evaluated on her record and her plans for the future. "I say judge me on my whole record, and in fact what people in New Hampshire talk to me about is the cost of child care, about their student loans, about how they can start and grow a new business," she said. Clinton also said she isn't sold on the Trans Pacific Partnership deal President Barack Obama wants but failed to get through Congress last week. "I'm still going to judge the deal at the end of the day with whether I think it's good for America," Clinton said, saying she thinks it needs work. "I think the questions that were raised are ones that have to be answered." Clinton said she will continue to answer questions that have been raised over the past couple months, and she said voters in New Hampshire will see plenty of her moving forward. Clinton also held several packed-house events in New Hampshire on Monday. She began with a roundtable discussion on early childhood education in Rochester. Later, Clinton gave a speech before a large gathering at a midday “Launch Party” at the Carter Hill Orchard in Concord. Click to watch raw video of Clinton's speech at the party. At 6:30 p.m., Clinton is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Manchester City Democratic Committee’s Flag Day Dinner at the Puritan Backroom Conference Center. Challenging Clinton on the Democratic side are U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee. *Hillary Clinton on the issues: Six questions on the campaign trail <http://mobile.concordmonitor.com/home/17338947-108/hillary-clinton-on-the-issues-six-questions-on-the-campaign-trail> // The Concord Monitor // Casey McDermott – June 15, 2015 * Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton returned to New Hampshire this week, several days after what her campaign is dubbing its official “launch.” During a stop at Carter Hill Orchard in Concord, where she spoke about her goals as president and rallied several hundred supporters, Clinton sat down for interview with the Monitor — one of the first she’s done during this campaign. A recap of that conversation, which lasted just under 10 minutes, appears below. How do you plan, if elected, to bridge the gap with Republican politicians — or even with Republican voters who might like the ideas of the other party? Well the first thing I would do is what I did as Senator and Secretary of State, where I worked across the aisle all the time... I will do whatever it takes to reach out to anybody, anytime, anywhere in pursuit of common ground on issues that I think are important for the country — but I will also stand my ground. So I think the first thing is, I know how important it is to build relationships and be constantly working on congressional outreach and informational meetings and all that goes into having a receptive audience when you say ‘We’re going to have to do some hard work here, I need you on my side.’ Secondly, I’m going to try to be producing an agenda that I hope can draw Republican voters and Republican members of congress. I’m well aware that the party on the other side has gone very far toward the Tea Party side, but I think there are still a lot of Republicans that understand that we’ve got to do things for our country — we have to make progress, and we’ve got to get results. So I will be presenting an agenda. A lot of which, unless they are going to say ‘no’ just because of extreme partisanship, should be attractive to them on behalf of our country. I will in my campaign try to elect more Democrats. More Democrats in the Senate, more Democrats in the House so that we get back to a better balance. Can you identify any Republican politicians who you think you would work well with or have worked well with? I have worked well. Now, we’ll go through the political season, and they’ll be cringing when I say I worked well with them. But my co-sponsor on health care for the national guard and reserves was Lindsey Graham. And he may not want to be reminded of it, but we worked really hard to get that done. I have worked until the political winds changed with John McCain on climate change. And I think that maybe we can get back to trying to find common ground there. So those are just two examples. You have been making an effort to learn more about the substance abuse epidemic in New Hampshire. Do you have any specific ideas about how to combat that issue, here or elsewhere? I will be rolling it out, but I have to say that it is such an issue here in New Hampshire, I can’t escape it. This morning, at our early childhood event, a grandmother stood up and was saying how she is taking care of her grandchildren because her daughter has an addiction problem. And when I talked about it, heads were nodding and people were looking at each other. So I’ve had an ongoing process to reach out and my policy team has been talking to experts here in New Hampshire because I want to gather the best advice. What may work in one community might not work in another community. We do under the Affordable Care Act, as you know, include mental health coverage but we don’t have enough personnel, resources, programs so that it really means what it should — both in substance abuse and in mental health. So I’m going to be rolling out policies in the campaign to talk about what more I need to be doing. But three really quick things: You can’t cut health care for vulnerable people like extended Medicaid and deal with these problems, you can’t cut community resources that are public-private partnerships and deal with this problem, you can’t close the remaining few facilities that will take care of low-income vulnerable people and deal with this problem. So some states are doing better on certain categories than others, but we’ve got to have some national attention paid to this, try to remove the stigma, pull it into the spotlight so that families are not suffering alone and we do have more opportunities. You’ve talked a lot about the fights you’re aiming to wage on behalf of “everyday Americans.” Some voters, even within the Democratic party, seem to think you embody the establishment more than the everyday citizen. How do you plan to overcome that? I’ve been fighting for progressive causes my entire adult life, and I’ve outlined some of the work I’ve done in the past along those lines in my speech on Saturday. But I think if you look at my record in the Senate, and you look at what I fought for, what I supported, I think it’s fair to say that I was the leader in going after the home foreclosure problem, that I called for regulating derivatives, that I called for ending the carried interest income loophole for hedge fund managers and others. I have a long record. Now, I was Secretary of State for four years and I was out of the political arena, so I haven’t been talking about everything I’ve done and everything that I’m building on to do in the future. But I think that by the time this campaign is really in full swing people will know that I have a tried and true record. I’m not a person who’s come lately to these issues, and I also care very much about getting things done. So I want to come up with solutions that I, number one, think will work — but also that, number two, politically we can keep driving until we actually implement them. Do you have any thoughts on how the federal government could be more transparent or any steps you would take to make it more open or more accessible to the public? That’s a good question because in my four fights, the fourth one is reforming government and the campaign finance system since Citizens United blew it up. And I think part of the challenge is to get the United States government into the 21st century using technology so that it can be more open and transparent. It is still very heavily dependent upon paper, it is woefully behind in frankly computerization of records, and it’s hard to — it’s such a big organization, it’s hard to move it. But I think it’s important because when I was Secretary of State, I said I want to put all of the dollars we spend in foreign aid on the web so everybody can see them. And you know it took a couple of years because you have to gather them all up and you have to put them in the right format and you have to design the site — but we got it done. So I will go into the White House with the same commitment: More openness, more transparency, aided and abetted by better technology. You talk a lot about how much New Hampshire means to you. Is there a particular memory from your time here that has informed your approach as a candidate? Well, there’s so many. But my first trip to New Hampshire in 1991 occurred around my birthday. So when I landed in Keene, New Hampshire, I started celebrating my birthday across New Hampshire. I mean, people were doing cakes and cupcakes — and I just felt immediately at home. And it’s been that way ever since. And I’ve made such good, close friends here. Of course, when I came here after the caucus in Iowa and was basically counted out and the people of New Hampshire opened their hearts and their homes to me, and voted for me, it was such an incredibly moving, heartwarming experience. I just like coming here, I like the feel for New Hampshire and I have gotten to know a lot of the people here. *SOCIAL MEDIA* *Dan Merica (6/15/15, 9:13 am)* <https://twitter.com/danmericaCNN/status/610434968062423041>* - Bernie Sanders headlines a meeting in Denver on Saturday. https://go.berniesanders.com/page/event/detail/townmeeting/w3j <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/event/detail/townmeeting/w3j> … Campaign says 2,500 ppl have RSVPd (not all will show).* *Jason Noble (6/15/15, 10:21 am)* <https://twitter.com/jasonnobleDMR/status/610452128767844353>* - Here's your @DMRegister clips on relative Clinton/Obama crowd counts* *Gabriela Domenzain* <https://twitter.com/GabiDomenzain/status/610465996932055042/photo/1>* (6/15/15, 11:16 am) - PERFECT: on 1st day on @GovernorOMalley's team we get to THANK #DREAMers/all New Americans for #DACA :) #DACAworks* *Trent Spiner (6/15/15, 1:26 pm)* <https://twitter.com/TrentSpiner/status/610498532693438465>* - Responding to @HillaryClinton early ed program, @GovernorOMalley slams her plan: "We can't afford the same old talk." #FITN #nhpolitics* *Zeke Miller (6/15/15, 3:32 pm)* <https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/610530301337583616>* - .@Lis_Smith/@GovernorOMalley blast Clinton on TPP* *David Martosko (6/15/15, 7:01 pm)* <https://twitter.com/dmartosko/status/610583016667279360/photo/1>* - Statement from the travel pool of journalists covering @HillaryClinton - endorsed by 13 news orgs* *Zeke Miller (6/15/15, 8:23 pm)* <https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/610603656799502336>* - Like @HillaryClinton, @JebBush's website only lists a few states. Unlike Hillary, it excludes his home state* *HRC** NATIONAL COVERAGE* *Hillary Clinton’s Vows to ‘Fight’ Evoke a Populist Appeal and a Contrast With Obama <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/us/politics/hillary-clintons-vows-to-fight-suggest-a-contrast-with-obama.html?gwh=8500CAC7CFF7B0CBFE72D462C917B2AA&gwt=pay> // NYT // Amy Chozick & Patrick Healy – June 15, 2015 * In a roughly 45-minute speech on Saturday, Hillary Rodham Clinton made 14 references to herself as a fighter. She said she would “fight” back against Republicans, “fight” climate change, “fight” to “strengthen America’s families” and “fight” to “harness all of America’s power.” She used the verb in many of the same ways at her first major rally in Des Moines on Sunday, adding that she would “fight” for Midwestern values. The presidential campaign’s effort to define Mrs. Clinton as a fighter is, on the surface, a way to persuade middle-class voters that she is on their side. But it is also helping to convey a more subtle message: When it comes to political combat and perseverance, Mrs. Clinton is not President Obama. The theme is emerging just as Mr. Obama has suffered a major setback on trade, one that many in Congress say reflects his weaknesses, namely his standoffishness and his inability to forge coalitions to push through an agenda. During her campaign swing in Iowa on Sunday, Mrs. Clinton said no one would be a “tougher negotiator” on trade than she would. She offered her most explicit remarks yet on the president’s handling of the issue, challenging him to work with Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, and other congressional Democrats to improve the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. “My view is the White House should call Nancy and a few other of the Democrats to say, ‘What would it take to get an agreement that would be better and not worse for American workers?’” Mrs. Clinton said. She added: “What I want to see is a concerted effort to see how far we can push the agreement.” In the early months of her campaign, Mrs. Clinton has worked to highlight her connection to, and respect for, the president she served for four years as secretary of state. She has appealed to Mr. Obama’s coalition of young and African-American voters with sweeping speeches on voting rights and civil rights. And even as liberal Democrats urged her to speak out against Mr. Obama’s troubled trade deal, Mrs. Clinton had for the most part remained mum. But now that Democrats in Congress have rebuffed Mr. Obama in a public and embarrassing way, Mrs. Clinton faces heightened pressure to present to voters how she would be a different kind of leader, in style if not in substance. At the same time, Clinton aides believe that if they can make the “tenacious fighter” image stick with voters, “ultimately she will win this election,” the campaign manager, Robby Mook, said Friday at a question-and-answer session hosted by Politico. A new biographical video released by the campaign, titled “Fighter,” opens with a silhouette of Mrs. Clinton as a voice says: “What is a fighter? To me, a fighter is someone who won’t give up.” Persistence is another emphasis. In the video and on the stump, Mrs. Clinton talks about her unsuccessful attempt to overhaul the health care system as first lady and how she continued to work and eventually got the Children’s Health Insurance Program passed. The inevitable contrast with Mr. Obama’s leadership style that such language draws is not lost on Democrats in early nominating states. “Her years in Arkansas, as first lady, as a losing candidate in 2008 and as secretary of state — all of that taught her to be tough and to keep on going,” said Marti Anderson, an Iowa state representative who has a 2008 Obama campaign sticker on the front door of her Des Moines home. “Obama’s quiet, a studious person, a wonk, a constitutional lawyer. Hillary is more of an activist,” Mrs. Anderson said. “And you need an activist when you have, for instance, a Congress that puts obstacles in your way. An activist doesn’t stop trying.” Mrs. Clinton’s efforts to draw a contrast must be subtle, lest she alienate the Democratic base of voters who supported Mr. Obama. When asked whether the positioning of Mrs. Clinton is a strategy to distance her from Mr. Obama, a campaign spokesman reiterated that she is a “tenacious, dogged fighter” and that the description would be “front and center” in the campaign. It helps that she has also earned an image in the public eye of not giving up, said Kiki McLean, a former aide to Mrs. Clinton. “It’s her Methodist Midwestern stick-to-itiveness,” Ms. McLean said. “I don’t think it’s a strategic adoption” to contrast her with Mr. Obama, she added, “but they are definitely different personalities.” At her speech in New York on Saturday, the biggest rally of her presidential campaign, Mrs. Clinton said she was devoting her candidacy to “everyone who’s ever been knocked down but refused to be knocked out.” Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” blared from the outdoor speakers. After the speech, supporters seemed satisfied to have seen Mrs. Clinton showcase her own temperament and style. They could not help but compare them with those of the sitting president. “What you can see today and what you can see all the time is that Hillary loves people,” Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a prominent backer of Democrats and Mrs. Clinton, said after the speech. “And even people who really like Barack Obama have said to me that is not the case with him.” Those differences were apparent to some of the Iowans who helped catapult Mr. Obama to victory in the 2008 caucuses. On Saturday night, the Clinton campaign organized a house party at Mrs. Anderson’s home in the Beaverdale neighborhood, which some Democrats nicknamed “Obamadale” during the 2008 caucuses because of the strong support there for Mr. Obama. Several attendees said they were attracted to Mrs. Clinton’s doggedness after having been disappointed by Mr. Obama’s occasional lack of gumption. “I think Hillary knows how to fight, and she certainly saw how to deal with Republicans when Bill Clinton was in the White House,’’ said Jay Peterson, a librarian for the State of Iowa who backed Mr. Obama in the 2008 caucuses. A spokesman for the White House declined to comment, though Mr. Obama’s supporters point out that he has been criticized for being too combative, especially on issues like immigration and health care. The Clinton campaign decided early on not to distance itself from the Obama administration; instead, Mrs. Clinton often praises the economic progress Mr. Obama has made. On Saturday, she said Mr. Obama had brought the country “back from the brink of depression,” but“we face new challenges in our economy and our democracy.” At the same time, polls show a growing frustration not just with Mr. Obama but also with Congress and Washington generally, indicating that Mrs. Clinton must convince voters she can bring something fresh to the White House. Just 32 percent of Americans said they would prefer a presidential candidate whose political experience was mostly in the government in Washington, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll released May 5. “The issue isn’t that Washington isn’t fighting. The issue is that people feel like there’s no one in Washington fighting for them,” said Guy Cecil, a co-chairman of Priorities USA Action, the pro-Clinton “super PAC.” Mrs. Clinton’s message adds to the heat felt by Mr. Obama at a time when he is struggling to save his trade bill and avoid being incapacitated by his lame-duck status. Bob Meddaugh, an activist who supported Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the 2008 caucuses and then embraced Mr. Obama, is hopeful that Mrs. Clinton can be more successful in building coalitions. “I think she may be a little more direct and confrontational with individual people, compared to the way the president has been more standoffish with Republicans and even some Democrats,” he said. *Sidney Blumenthal, Hillary Clinton’s Confidant, Turns Over Memos on Libya <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/us/politics/sidney-blumenthal-hillary-clintons-confidant-turns-over-memos-on-libya.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0> // NYT // Michael Schmidt – June 15, 2015 * A close confidant of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s, Sidney Blumenthal, has provided the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, with dozens of pages of emails between him and Mrs. Clinton about Libya that were not included in the trove of emails that the State Department gave to the panel, according to people briefed on the matter. The emails are similar to others that were provided to the committee by the State Department in February, the people said. Those emails included information about Libya that Mr. Blumenthal was passing along. Mrs. Clinton often forwarded the memos to her deputies to seek their feedback. The committee had issued a subpoena to Mr. Blumenthal for any emails he had exchanged with Mrs. Clinton. It is not clear whether Mr. Blumenthal’s emails were among the 30,000 pages of emails from Mrs. Clinton’s personal account that she provided to the State Department last year. Senior State Department officials have repeatedly said that they had fully complied with the committee’s requests for the emails, while the committee’s chairman, Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, had harshly criticized the department for not providing documents to the panel. Alec Gerlach, a spokesman for the State Department, said, “We provided the committee with a subset of documents that matched its request and will continue to work with them going forward.” Secretary of State John Kerry “has been clear that the State Department will be both transparent and thorough in its obligations to the public on this matter,” he added. An official for the committee declined to comment. Mrs. Clinton said that after she provided the 30,000 emails to the State Department, she deleted roughly the same number of emails from the account, which, she said, were personal and not related to her work as secretary of state. Mr. Blumenthal is scheduled to appear Tuesday before the committee for a deposition. Mr. Gowdy wants to question Mr. Blumenthal about where he was receiving his information about Libya and who was paying him to produce the memos. At the time that Mr. Blumenthal was sending the memos to Mrs. Clinton, he was being paid by the Clinton Foundation. Among Mr. Blumenthal’s responsibilities was to help with research, “message guidance” and the planning of commemorative events, according to foundation officials. At the same time, Mr. Blumenthal, a former aide to President Bill Clinton, was a paid consultant to Media Matters for America and American Bridge, organizations that conduct research and answer attacks against Mrs. Clinton. *Why It Matters That Hillary Clinton Wore Ralph Lauren <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/fashion/why-it-matters-that-hillary-clinton-wore-ralph-lauren.html> // NYT // Vanessa Friedman – June 15, 2015 * At her campaign opening rally on Roosevelt Island on Saturday (to be distinguished from her campaign announcement, in April), Hillary Rodham Clinton donned her now-signature look: a bright blue pantsuit with a matching bright blue shirt underneath. She stuck out a mile, matched her H campaign logo — which was also the design of her stage — and looked appropriately patriotic, especially when standing next to Bill Clinton in his red polo. So far, so expected, especially given her debut Instagram post: a series of red, white or blue pantsuits hanging in a row with the caption “Hard choices.” Mrs. Clinton has been extremely clever at co-opting the whole fashion-in-politics thing, defanging it and using it to demonstrate her quite developed sense of humor. It’s a tool for her these days, and not just when it comes to image. Vanessa Friedman writes about news happening in the fashion industry, from business decisions to designer moves. Which is why it is worth thinking about. She is clearly considering it, as are her advisers, and using it to manipulate perception. As are all her competitors. Clothes are a political tool like any other. And that is why it was interesting to learn that the pantsuit she wore at her Roosevelt Island rally had been made by Ralph Lauren. On the one hand, this is a clever choice: Mrs. Clinton’s de facto dresser for the last few years had been Oscar de la Renta, and his death in October left her without a go-to label. She has known Mr. Lauren for a while: She presented him with the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal last June for his $13 million donation to help restore the Betsy Ross flag, and wore another blue Ralph Lauren pantsuit to do so. And his personal narrative — Bronx boy made good — pretty much embodies the American dream. The clothes he sells are, in part, based on the aesthetics of that dream: the West, and the Gatsby version of Long Island. He understands sartorial stagecraft as well as any designer on the New York Fashion Week calendar, if not better. Yet there’s a possible weak spot in the relationship. Because for a candidate who has been pushing her connection to, and understanding of, the middle class — and whose speech while wearing the pantsuit was largely about closing the income gap — Ralph Lauren is a relatively inaccessible brand. It is also one often worn by and beloved of that sector of the population, the chief executives and financial wizards, she somewhat disavowed. An average Ralph Lauren Women’s Collection pantsuit, which this was — not, in other words, a style from the more accessible line, Lauren Ralph Lauren — is a few thousand dollars (a pinstriped wool jacket alone, for example, is $2,450 at the online store). That is out of reach for most voters. It might not matter, given that voters also want their candidates to look presidential, which generally means good. Except that one of the story lines surrounding Mrs. Clinton has been how she is out-of-touch with those she claims to represent. It seems to me that working with a famous and high-end designer could provide ammunition for the opposition. And why even take that chance? But maybe the fashion issue, with its potential sexism charges, is just too touchy for anyone, except fashion people like me, to go there. Personally, if I were working out sartorial strategy on her team, I might suggest the issue be avoided entirely by opting for a contemporary label like Theory, which is known for its pantsuits, professional dressing — and anonymity. Its chief executive, Andrew Rosen, is a fashion mogul who has made something of a personal mission out of saving the New York garment district. But that’s me. And to be honest, I would not be surprised if, in the end, Ralph Lauren does become a Clinton wardrobe mainstay. If the campaign can avoid elitism charges, the brand will make her look confident, and absolutely convincing on the global stage. According to a spokesman, the designer already works with the candidate “regularly.” *Hillary signals aggressive attack on Republicans over Obamacare lawsuit <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/06/15/morning-plum-hillary-signals-aggressive-attack-on-republicans-over-obamacare-lawsuit/> // WaPo // Greg Sargent – June 15, 2015 * Hillary Clinton gave the “official” kick-off speech of her presidential candidacy on Saturday. Jeb Bush will give the “official” kick-off speech of his presidential candidacy today. The presidential race is underway in earnest. And we may have our first major policy battle of the 2016 race within weeks, or even days — one all about Obamacare. In an interview with the Des Moines Register, Clinton signaled that if the Supreme Court guts subsidies for millions in three dozen states, she will respond with a plan to avert all the chaos that would result. And she sharply dismissed the legal arguments being made by the challengers: Asked about the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, Clinton said that no matter which way the U.S. Supreme Court rules on federal subsidies, “I will be prepared to set forth what I would do.” Clinton said that if the court does what she thinks it should do based on the law and the facts, “that would mean it would not rule in favor of the very contorted argument that is being made by the opponents to blow up the Affordable Care Act’s guarantee of coverage.” That suggests Clinton may be preparing to go on offense against Republicans if the Court rules for the challengers. She is dismissing the lawsuit as a cynical effort to undermine the ACA’s basic coverage guarantee — telegraphing a very critical response to such a ruling — and signaling aggressive engagement if and when the debate turns to what should happen next. Republicans appear divided over how to respond if the Court guts subsidies. Some Congressional Republicans are floating plans that would temporarily extend subsidies. But they are now saying they won’t produce any consensus plan until after the Court rules. Meanwhile, it’s not clear that Republicans can pass any such consensus plan, because conservatives may revolt at doing anything to keep Obamacare going. It’s also unclear whether GOP leaders would want to buck conservatives and pass a temporary fix with the help of a lot of Democrats. Beyond all this, the GOP fix plans appear likely to do more harm to Obamacare than good. Clinton says she will offer a fix of her own — probably some kind of simple rewrite of the disputed legislative language — while calling for the universal coverage guarantee to be restored. In other words, she would actually fix the problem created by the Court ruling. This could contrast sharply with the GOP post-King approach, which, judging by recent GOP rhetoric, will likely be saddled with a tortured, incoherent storyline: Republicans will blame the loss of coverage for millions on Obamacare itself, while pledging to fix the problem even as their “solution” undermines the law further. This is another sign that the post-King battle could spill into the presidential race. The states with the largest numbers of people also happen to be the top presidential battleground states. The GOP candidates will likely be asked to take a position on what should be done for all those people. Scott Walker is already signaling that he’ll demand that the federal government — i.e., Congressional Republicans — fix the problem. To my knowledge, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have not meaningfully weighed on on what should come next, which might not be easy: conservative base voters might want Republicans to do nothing, but doing nothing might alienate swing voters. What’s more, Bush and Rubio both come from Florida, which is home to the greatest number of people who stand to lose subsidies — 1.3 million — so they might be under more pressure to support a solution of sorts. If Republicans do prove divided over what should be done to keep millions from losing coverage and to prevent insurance markets from melting down across the country, it will be interesting to see if Clinton tries to use the post-King battle to exacerbate those divisions. *Hillary Clinton finally figured out how to talk about being a woman in presidential politics <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/15/hillary-clinton-finally-figured-out-how-to-talk-about-being-a-woman-in-presidential-politics/> // Chris Cillizza – June 15, 2015 * Here's Hillary Clinton in an interview Sunday with the Des Moines Register's Jennifer Jacobs: "I expect to be judged on my merits, and the historic nature of my candidacy is one of the merits that I hope people take into account." That's a sentence she never dared utter during her 2008 campaign when her gender -- and her historic chance to be the first woman to be the presidential nominee of either party -- seemed to be swept under the rug by a deeply misguided campaign strategy. The idea -- I guess -- was that if Clinton put her gender at the forefront of the campaign, voters (especially male voters) would wonder if she was "up" to the job. (Whatever the heck that means.) That judgment, blamed on strategist Mark Penn but ultimately followed by Hillary, led to a Democratic primary campaign in which she was cast as the status quo while then-Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois was the change agent. And you know how that turned out. What's amazing about that decision was that as far back as 2007, Clinton's most appealing trait to voters was the fact that she would have been the first woman ever elected president; in Gallup polling at the time, 22 percent said the historic nature of her candidacy was the single most appealing part of her bid -- more than double the share who named any other character trait. Seven years later, the story was the same. Roughly one in five voters (18 percent) told Gallup in 2014 that Clinton's potential status as the first female president was the most attractive trait about her. As Gallup's Frank Newport wrote at the time: Clearly Clinton's "unique selling proposition" is that she would be the first woman president. Nearly one in five Americans mention this historic possibility as a positive, including 22% of women, 27% of 18- to 29-year-olds, and 30% of Democrats. Regardless of why they screwed it up last time, this version of the Clinton campaign appears to have figured out what had been staring them directly in the face for the last seven-plus years. From the emphasis on her status as a grandmother to the centrality of her own mother's struggles in her kickoff speech, Clinton is putting her gender at the core of this campaign. That's of critical import not solely because it shows she learned the right lessons from the 2008 campaign but also because her gender (and the historic nature of her candidacy) provides Clinton her best possible response to the already underway Republican attack that she represents the past. That hit has the potential to do severe damage to Clinton's chances of winning the White House next November. As we've written before in this space, presidential elections are almost always about the future and the candidate best able to present himself or herself as the right choice to lead the country into that future. Hillary's problem is that so much of who she is -- and so much of the strengths she carries as a candidate -- are rooted in the past. If and when she, at 67 and having spent the last two decades in the national spotlight, has to run against someone like Marco Rubio (age 43), it is going to be a real challenge for her to win the "future vs. past" argument. Unless, that is, Clinton can show voters how electing her would be the biggest change the presidency has ever seen: After 43 men in the job, she would be the first woman. "I may not be the youngest candidate in this race," Clinton said in her (re)announcement speech on Saturday in New York. "But I will be the youngest woman president in the history of the United States! And the first grandmother as well." That's the exact right message for Clinton. It only took most of the past decade for her to find it. *Hillary Clinton balancing on the thin line between party and president <http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clinton-balancing-on-the-thin-line-between-party-and-president/2015/06/15/cd23714a-136d-11e5-8457-4b431bf7ed4c_story.html> // WaPo // Dan Balz – June 15, 2015 * The Sunday dust-up over trade between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was a clash waiting to happen — and a revealing look at how the two candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination are likely to be circling one another in the coming months. Where Sanders stands on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement has long been clear. He is plainly and simply against it. Clinton’s current position is ambiguous. She is skeptical but wants to see a completed agreement before she’ll decided whether it’s good or bad. Where Sanders stands on giving the president fast-track authority also has been clear. He opposes it, as he opposes the trade deal itself. Where Clinton stands on that is no more clear after her Sunday comments. She had more to say on Sunday than she’s said before. She has allied herself with Democrats who currently oppose the treaty without committing herself to oppose the treaty herself. Ultimately, she could end up standing with President Obama, who has been abandoned by his own party on this, or with those who want to sink the deal. Clinton had remained silent on trade as long as she could, probably longer. By claiming, correctly, that there was not a deal to support or oppose, she was looking for the maximum space to let the politics of the issue ripen or perhaps for the divisions within her party to lessen in some way. When the fast-track legislation began to make its way through Congress, she was unwilling to say where she stood. Her advisers repeatedly said that fast-track was merely a process issue, not a substantive one, something for Congress to deal with but not one that she needed to weigh in on. The big issue, they said, was the trade agreement itself and that was still in negotiations. Clinton had promoted an Asian trade deal as secretary of state — or at least the idea of it. She saw merit in trying to negotiate such a pact as part of the larger U.S. policy under Obama of paying more attention than previous administrations to the challenges of the rising power of China and the opportunities of deepening alliances with other Asian nations. And backing free trade agreements runs in the family. Former president Bill Clinton had successfully campaigned for and won approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) despite strong opposition within his party. As the political wars over the trade deal heated up, Clinton found what she thought a safe political haven in the space between concept and execution, between the meritorious idea of the 12-nation TPP and the specific details contained in a final agreement. Until those details were known — and it’s not clear when the administration will complete the negotiations — she felt comfortable reserving her options. Two things intruded on that safe haven. One was the arrival of Sanders as an energized presidential candidate with a following on the left of the Democratic Party. He’s not the only one among Clinton’s opponents who wants to sink the trade deal. Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley has the same position. But Sanders is getting the attention and drawing the crowds. His increasingly pointed criticism of Clinton has made her posture far less tenable. Before he returned to Iowa for a weekend of campaigning, Sanders appeared at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. He was asked to offer criticisms of Clinton. He prefaced his answer by saying that, while he liked and respected Clinton, the two had serious disagreements that should be debated during the campaign. “You know my view on the TPP,” he said. “Trade policies have been disastrous. Secretary Clinton, if she’s against this, we need her to speak out. Right now. Right now. And I don’t understand how any candidate, Democrat, Republican, is not speaking out on that issue.” There was more, however, from Clinton’s positions on the Keystone XL pipeline and the USA Patriot Act to his attacks on what he calls “the billionaire class” and what her policies are to deal with them. “What is the secretary’s position?” he asked about each. The other big change was the rebellion by House Democrats on Friday against the pact, a vote that has vastly complicated the administration’s hopes of winning approval for fast-track authority and puts the entire trade deal in jeopardy. When Clinton showed up in Des Moines on Sunday, she was forced by events and circumstances to take up the issue. What she did was tie herself to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democrats in the House. She urged Obama to listen to the concerns of Pelosi and others and use them as leverage in the negotiations over the trade agreement. As before, she said if the ultimate agreement falls short of her measuring sticks, she would oppose it. Clinton is in a unique position. If she were to come out against the TPP now, it’s likely that her opposition would scuttle it. Obama probably could not overcome the combined opposition from organized labor, many Democratic elected officials and his former secretary of state. But supporting it even in general terms provides a bigger opening for Sanders and others on the left. Clinton isn’t prepared to do either, at least not yet. At some point, she will have to signal up or down. For now she is trying to bridge the divide in her party, and the strains are showing. *Why Hillary is asking America to see her candidacy as ‘historic’ <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/06/15/why-hillary-is-asking-america-to-see-her-candidacy-as-historic/http:/www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/06/15/why-hillary-is-asking-america-to-see-her-candidacy-as-historic/> // WaPo // Greg Sargent – June 15, 2015 * In her presidential campaign kick-off speech and in a subsequent interview with Iowa media, Hillary Clinton leaned pretty hard into the notion that electing her president would represent a major historic breakthrough. Obviously this is about galvanizing female and younger voters who might be energized by the prospect of being swept up in a movement that elects the first female president. But there may be another strategic goal here. The repeated emphasis on the historical nature of her candidacy could also be intended as a shield against seemingly unrelated GOP attacks that could prove potent: Republican suggestions that her age, generation and status as wife of a former president render her a candidate of the past, in contrast to the younger GOP White House hopefuls. Here’s Clinton, in an interview with the Des Moines Register: Clinton said just the fact that she’s running “is also very historic.” “I expect to be judged on my merits,” she said, “and the historic nature of my candidacy is one of the merits that I hope people take into account.” In her speech on Saturday, Clinton stressed that her mother had been born before women had the right to vote, adding: “I may not be the youngest candidate in this race. But I will be the youngest woman President in the history of the United States! And the first grandmother as well. And one additional advantage: You’re won’t see my hair turn white in the White House. I’ve been coloring it for years!” I don’t have any inside confirmation of this. But it probably isn’t an accident that she noted that she’d be the first female president as a direct response to the fact that other candidates running for the White House are younger than she is. That’s what the argument will be, either explicitly or not: Even if it’s true that Clinton comes from an older generation of politicians than some of her Republican and Democratic rivals, the election of a female president itself represents change. Celinda Lake, a pollster who is widely respected among Democrats, tells me that focus groups she has conducted show this has the potential to be an effective rebuttal — particularly among the voter groups it appears intended for. “The two cohorts who feel most strongly that it’s time for a woman president, and appreciate the historical nature of this, are baby boomer females and their millennial daughters,” says Lake, who has been doing research for the non-partisan Barbara Lee Family Foundation for years on how voters perceive female candidates for executive office. “We’ve learned that the inherent idea that this would be the first woman president in and of itself communicates ‘change’ to people,” Lake says. The question of which candidates — and which party — represent the future and which represent the past is already a major flashpoint in the race. In her speech, Clinton said even the younger GOP candidates were in thrall to a hidebound vision, arguing that “they’re all singing the same old song – a song called ‘Yesterday.'” Republicans have stressed that Clinton is a leader of the past who would represent a third term of Obama. In response to Clinton’s speech, Marco Rubio released a video mocking Clinton’s reference to the Beatles song, arguing that America cannot author the next chapter in its history “by going back to the leaders and the ideas of the past.” Scott Walker has been sounding a similar generational note (one that also appears aimed at Jeb Bush). And in the Democratic Primary, Martin O’Malley has been suggesting he can speak to a younger generation of Democratic voters more effectively than Clinton can. As Chris Cillizza notes, many of Clinton’s strengths as a candidate are rooted in the past. But this could be undercut as a negative if voters appreciate how much historic ground would be broken by electing her. Or, to expand on that a bit, if electing a female president inherently breaks new ground, that itself might put a forward-looking gloss on her experience, turning her longevity on the political scene into an undiluted reason to vote for her, Lake suggests. “The Republicans are trying to exploit age and health and a ‘third Obama term’ and a ‘third Clinton term’ to say, ‘more of the same,'” Lake says. “People think they voted for change in Obama, but he wasn’t able to deliver change. So you need more experience to deliver change. She represents change and the ability to deliver on it.” Of course, this by itself is hardly enough, Lake adds: “It’s got to be followed up by a specific vision for the economy, one that includes women and men.” Which might explain why, in her speech, she repeatedly described economic proposals that might disproportionately benefit women — such as pay equity, a minimum wage hike, and universal pre-kindergarten — as “family” issues. “‘Family first’ is the strongest economic theme out there right now,” Lake says. “She’s running as a champion of making the economy work for families. A woman can be a very credible voice of change on that message.” *Bill Clinton’s claim that Hillary did economic diplomacy because there was no Commerce Secretary <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/06/15/bill-clintons-claim-that-hillary-did-economic-diplomacy-because-there-was-no-commerce-secretary/> // WaPo // Glenn Kessler – June 15, 2015 * “She [Hillary Clinton] believed that part of the job as secretary of state was to advance America’s economic interests around the world. And, for much of the time she was secretary, for a number of complex reasons, we didn’t have [a] commerce secretary. And now we have got Penny Pritzker. And she’s very vigorous and very good, I think. But we didn’t have one. And so, if she hadn’t been doing this economic diplomacy work, nobody would have been doing it.” — Former President Bill Clinton, interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union,” June 14, 2015 Former president Clinton, in rebutting accusations that Hillary Clinton helped donors to the Clinton Foundation while serving as secretary of state, made an interesting point on one of the Sunday politics shows — that she had to engage in “economic diplomacy” because “much of time she was secretary,” there was no Commerce Secretary. This made little sense to us, and it’s certainly easy to check. Was there such a gap in Commerce leadership that it was left to Clinton to conduct the administration’s economic diplomacy? The Facts The Commerce Department is sometimes described as the broom closet of the federal bureaucracy, in that it contains a number of unrelated agencies, such as the Census Bureau, the National Weather Service, the Patent and Trademark office, the Economic Development Administration, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and so forth. The notion that the commerce secretary was some sort of globe-trotting promoter of American industry only began to take hold in Clinton’s administration, when Ron Brown became commerce secretary. The Commerce Secretary, in the department’s mission statement, “serves as the voice of U.S. business within the President’s Cabinet.” Commerce Department Order 1-1 says “the historic mission of the Department is ‘to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce’ of the United States.” Meanwhile, the State Department has an economics unit and also is quite involved in international economic issues; the official duties of the Secretary of State includes “promotes beneficial economic intercourse between the United States and other countries.” International economics is represented in the department at the level of undersecretary of state. The undersecretary of state is expected to engage in economic diplomacy, charged with “implementing economic growth, energy, agricultural, oceans, environmental, and science and technology policies,” the department’s Web site says. The State Department, for instance, is the lead agency on the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) conference. Of course, the real heavy lifting on international economic matters is done by the Treasury Secretary–and international trade negotiations are handled by the U.S. Trade Representative. Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner might be surprised to learn that if Hillary Clinton “hadn’t been doing this economic diplomacy work, nobody would have been doing it,” as her husband put it. In President Obama’s first term, there were two commerce secretaries: Gary F. Locke, former governor of Washington, who served from March 26, 2009, to August 1, 2011, when he became ambassador to China. John E. Byson, former business executive, who served from Oct. 21, 2011, to June 21, 2012, when he resigned for health reasons. (He took a medical leave of absence starting June 11.) In between Locke and Byson, Deputy Secretary Rebecca Blank served as acting secretary, a role she filled after Byson’s departure as well. Penny Prizker became secretary on June 26, 2013, about four months after Clinton stepped down. Clinton was secretary of state from Jan. 21, 2009, to Feb. 1, 2013 — essentially 48 months. As we have shown, there was a confirmed commerce secretary for all but 12 months of that period. So that’s a ratio of 3 to 1 when a commerce secretary was in office at the same time as Clinton. Byson may not have had as much of chance to have an impact, but by most accounts Locke did a pretty good job. Here’s what Clinton said when she swore him in as ambassador to China: “He helped improve the lives of the people of Washington and of the United States. He was a great job creator in Washington during two national recessions. He has helped to lead our efforts to increase U.S. exports. He has brought the Census in on time and under budget, an unheard of accomplishment. He’s brought comprehensive patent reform legislation closer to passage than it has in decades.” Representatives of former president Clinton declined to provide an on-the-record response. The Pinocchio Test Former President Clinton exaggerated when he claimed that for “much of the time she was secretary,” there was no commerce secretary. For three out of the four years, there was a Senate-confirmed commerce secretary sitting near Hillary Clinton at Cabinet meetings. Moreover, the secretary of state is supposed to engage in economic diplomacy, whether or not there is a commerce secretary. Yes, there was some turnover in the leadership of the commerce department. But Clinton’s assertion that if not for Hillary Clinton, “nobody would have been doing” economic diplomacy is quite a stretch, given the dominant role of the Treasury Secretary on international economic issues. That comment tipped this rating toward Three Pinocchios. *Clinton says her wealth is 'secondary' concern for voters <http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-distances-herself-obama-trade-070623558--election.html> // AP // Lisa Lerer – June 15, 2015 * Hillary Rodham Clinton countered criticism that her personal wealth undermines a populist campaign message focused on the economic problems of everyday Americans, saying on Monday that her family fortune is "secondary" to most voters. "I don't think Americans are against success," she told reporters in Concord, New Hampshire. "Those of us who do have opportunities ought to be doing more to help other people do the same." Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have made hundreds of millions of dollars since leaving the White House from paid speeches— a fortune that even she has struggled to explain. Last year, she stumbled into a storm of political criticism after saying her family was "dead broke" at the end of her husband's second term. Though in deep debt due to legal fees from various controversies, Clinton quickly moved the couple into the top 1 percent with her book sales and speaking fees. Last month, the couple reported that they earned more than $30 million in speaking fees and book royalties since January 2014. In New Hampshire on Monday, Clinton seemed more comfortable acknowledging her wealth, describing her family as "blessed." But she also highlighted her middle class roots, pointing out that both she and her husband had federal college loans to pay off. "What (voters) are interested in is who's going to fight for them," she said. "I want everybody to have the same opportunities that I had and my husband had." While the opening days of her campaign have stressed Clinton's family and career history, her personal fortune has gone largely unmentioned. Her remarks on Monday came in the midst of a campaign launch focused on her personal biography, particularly her mother's impoverished upbringing, as a way of reintroducing one of the country's best known political figures as a fighter for struggling families left behind by the economic recovery. On Monday, she focused the first major policy proposal of her campaign on universal pre-K education — an issue championed both by liberal voices in her party, as well as by more conservative governors in Republican-led states, including Texas. Speaking to parents and children at a YMCA, she promised that as president she would make "high quality preschool" available for all 4-year-old children in the next decade, double federal money for early Head Start programs, and implement a tax cut to help parents with the costs of raising children under age 3. That proposal is one item on a wish-list of progressive policies Clinton has backed over the past three days, as part of her vision of a more "inclusive economy." "Prosperity cannot be just for CEOs and hedge fund managers," she told hundreds of supporters Monday in a Concord barn. Those Wall Street financiers include members of her immediate family. Her son-in-law Marc Mezvinsky has leveraged family ties to raise money from investors for his hedge fund. Her daughter, Chelsea, also worked at a hedge fund founded by a major Clinton campaign donor. Clinton was paid to speak to financial firms such as Deutsche Bank and Ameriprise Financial. One of her final paid speeches was delivered in March to eBay, which paid her $315,000, records show. Republicans have spent months questioning how the Clinton family has leveraged political connections into personal cash— criticism that may be having some impact on early perceptions of her candidacy. About 47 percent of Americans said Clinton cares about people like them in a CNN/ORC poll released earlier this month, down from 53 percent in the same poll last summer. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released the same day found a slight decline in the past year on a similar question, with 49 percent saying Clinton "understands the problems of people like you" and 46 percent saying she doesn't. Republicans are flipping charges successfully leveled against their party in the last presidential race. In 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney, the wealthy co-founder of private equity firm Bain Capital LLC, found his presidential bid undermined by Democratic attack ads painting him as a heartless plutocrat. "Hillary Clinton has to expect the same kind of treatment," Romney said Monday, in an interview on MSNBC. "How could she get out there and sell a populist message when she makes in one hour a multiple of what the average American will make in a year?" *Clinton campaign denies access to pool reporter <http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/06/clinton-campaign-denies-access-to-pool-reporter-208839.html> // Politico // Dylan Byers – June 15, 2015 * The Hillary Clinton campaign denied access to the print pool reporter on Monday, reigniting reporters' longstanding concerns about the campaign's commitment to running an open and transparent campaign. David Martosko, the U.S. political editor for London's Daily Mail, reported showing up at the campaign's breakfast stop in New Hampshire only to be told that he would not be allowed to pool the day's events. Pool reporters are responsible for sending reports from the trail to the rest of the press corps. "Your pooler showed up at the Puritan Backroom in Manchester on a rainy New Hampshire morning at 7:45 and was greeted in the parking lot by Meredith Thatcher, a press staffer with the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Thatcher told your pooler that he wasn’t the approved print pool reporter for today’s pooled events," Martosko reported in his first pool report. (Note: Thatcher is actually a press staffer for "Hillary for New Hampshire," not the state's Democratic Party.) "Asked to call her boss, Harrell Kirstein, she did so and then reported: 'So I'm afraid it's a no. You're not on the list.' She said [campaign press secretary] Nick Merrill should be phoned with questions," Martosko continued. "Asked if the print pooler was being prohibited from getting on either of the pool vans, Thatcher replied: 'I'm afraid that's right.' Asked why, she responded: 'All I know is what Harrell has told me. I got an email saying the print pooler would be changed for today. Sorry.'" Denied a ride in the pool van, Martosko told Thatcher that he would drive to the first campaign stop in Rochester on his own, "in the hope that things would be sorted out during the 75-minute drive." Reached via email, Martosko declined to comment. He apologized for any typos, noting, "I'm dictating to phone as I drive." Daily Mail spokesperson Sean Walsh said the organization is "seeking an explanation from the Clinton campaign as to why this occurred as Mr. Martosko was scheduled to be the designated print pool reporter in New Hampshire this morning." Merrill, the campaign's traveling press secretary, did not respond to a request for comment. However, he did provide an additional explanation to Martosko, which Martosko relayed in a report on The Daily Mail's website: Merrill said that the campaign’s position is that the Daily Mail does not qualify because it has not yet been added to the White House’s regular print pool – something Martosko informed him was a timing issue, not a White House choice, since Francesca Chambers, the Mail's White House correspondent, has been vetted and has a hard pass. ... 'We’re just trying to follow the same process and system the White House has,' said Merrill. ... Merrill then insisted that the decision had 'nothing to do' with the campaign considering the Daily Mail foreign press. ... 'We don’t consider you foreign press,' he said. ... Merrill then added; 'This isn’t about you. It’s about a larger...' and did not continue his sentence. ... Merrill later insisted that his reasons were not based on the foreign-press question, but that the campaign simply wanted a day to 'have a conversation' about how to proceed. UPDATE (9:50 a.m.): Merrill emailed: "We want a happy press corps as much as the press corps does. And we work very hard to achieve that in tandem with them. It's a long campaign, and we are going to do our best to find equilibrium and best accommodate interest from as many news outlets as possible, given the space limitations of our events." UPDATE (11:01 a.m.): Martosko filed the following pool report: After some confusion about the location of the morning's early childhood education summit in Rochester, NH, your pooled determined that it was at the YMCA of Strafford County and arrived at about 10:20. ... Secret Service at the main entrance refused to let your pooler in and advised to go in through another entrance near a playground. ... Visiting that doorway, another agent asked for your pooler’s name and outlet, to which the pool replied “David Martosko with The Daily Mail.” A voice from behind the door, whom your pool later learned was the head of Mrs. Clinton's Secret Service detail, was heard saying “Oh. No.” ... The first agent sent your pooler back to the front door, advising that the head of the detail insisted. At the front door again, your pooler was asked to wait while the first agent on duty checked to see if the pool would be admitted. ... The answer: "No. You can't come in." Pooler was advised by that Secret Service agent that he had contacted someone “with the campaign” named “Pollard,” who personally said no, your pooler could not come in. It’s unclear who Pollard is. ... Your pooler asked if he could come inside to use the restroom. The Secret Service agent advised that the area had been swept already, so he should “hit the woods.” ... Pool saw a WMUR-TV truck outside and confirmed with a reporter from a competing local station that there were indeed pool journalist inside from photo and video. ... With a light rain falling, your pooler went back to his rental car to file this report, after counting about 210 cars in the parking lots and on the street. ... Both press pool vans from Manchester were visible outside, along with the now-famous black “Scooby” van and a contingent of New Hampshire state trooper vehicles. *Hillary Clinton’s super PAC nabs 2 veteran pollsters <http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/hillary-clinton-super-pac-priorities-usa-pollsters-119027.html> // Politico // Annie Karni – June 15, 2015 * Priorities USA Action, the Democratic super PAC backing Hillary Clinton’s campaign, has hired two pollsters: Jefrey Pollock, founding partner and president of Global Strategy Group, and Geoff Garin, who oversaw polling on Clinton’s 2008 campaign after pollster Mark Penn was pushed out. Both pollsters worked for Priorities in 2012, when the super PAC supported Obama’s reelection campaign. Pollock’s firm also worked on some of the few Democratic wins in the 2014 midterm elections, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s reelection campaign and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy’s reelection campaign. “We have the key pieces in place that will help shape the 2016 landscape and define the choice Americans will make on Election Day,” Guy Cecil, Priorities’ chief strategist, said in a statement. “We’re also proud to have cornered the market on pollsters with unique ways to spell Jeff.” The pollsters have been working with Priorities and participating in conference calls for a few months. Their hiring was confirmed to POLITICO after a shakeup of the super PAC’s leadership. In May, Cecil, who came in to manage Clinton’s 2008 campaign after a shakeup, took over from Obama holdover Jim Messina. And last month, Anne Caprara joined the PAC from Emily’s List, which works to elect pro-choice Democratic women to office. She replaced executive director Buffy Wicks, who was recruited by the Clinton campaign for a senior level job. Amid the restructuring, longtime Clinton defender David Brock rejoined the board after resigning last February because of internal disputes. *Some of Hillary Clinton’s Libya emails said to be withheld from Benghazi Committee <http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/hillary-clinton-libya-emails-withheld-benghazi-committee-119037.html#ixzz3dBD382rG> // Politico // Rachel Bade – June 15, 2015 * House GOP Benghazi investigators have discovered additional Libya communications between Sidney Blumenthal and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a congressional source told POLITICO — suggesting that either the State Department or the 2016 Democratic presidential contender withheld correspondence the panel had subpoenaed. Blumenthal — a longtime Clinton family friend who is set to testify before the committee behind closed doors Tuesday morning — recently gave the House Select Committee on Benghazi his Libya-related emails after the panel had quietly subpoenaed them. Story Continued Below Among those were several emails concerning Libya between Blumenthal and Clinton that had not been previously turned over by State. Clinton has said she gave all her work-related correspondence, kept on her personal email server, to the State Department. State was then tasked with going through the emails and giving the panel relevant correspondence. Department officials turned up about 300 emails related to Benghazi. The source did not know whether Clinton had turned the emails over to State and State did not provide them, or whether Clinton failed to hand over the correspondence. A State Department spokesman downplayed the discovery and said the agency gave the panel what it asked for. “The Department is working diligently to publish to its public website all of the emails received from former Secretary Clinton through the FOIA process,” Alec Gerlach said in a statement. “We provided the Committee with a subset of documents that matched its request and will continue to work with them going forward. Secretary Kerry has been clear that the State Department will be both transparent and thorough in its obligations to the public on this matter.” Blumenthal’s attorney, James Cole, and Clinton’s attorney, David Kendall, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The committee has subpoenaed Clinton’s Libya-related emails. But because she used a personal server, her lawyer decided which emails constituted “official” communications and provided them to the State Department before they were released to the committee and publicly. *Hillary Clinton dismisses trade authority as ‘process issue’ <http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/hillary-clinton-trade-deal-process-issue-119020.html> // Politico // Gabriel Debenedetti – June 15, 2015 * While the political world’s attention was focused on Jeb Bush’s presidential announcement 1,500 miles to the south in Miami, Hillary Clinton brought her stump speech to New Hampshire and refused to be pinned down on her views of a trade deal that has raised progressives’ ire. Clinton’s one-day swing through this state that buoyed her politically in 2008 is part of the Democratic front-runner’s week-long tour of the four early-voting states following her campaign’s first large rally in New York City on Saturday. The former secretary of state spoke at a campaign launch party at a rainy apple orchard here, after holding a meeting at a YMCA in Rochester, N.H. After delivering a version of her standard stump speech in Concord, Clinton held a rare 18-minute news conference. She again danced around the trade issue and tried to minimize the importance of her views about whether President Barack Obama should have fast-track authority to negotiate trade pacts. “The TPA is a process issue. The issue for me is what’s in the deal” she said. “I think this is a chance to use this leverage so that the deal does become one that more Americans and members of Congress can vote for.” “I believe that you take whatever happens to you in a negotiation, and you leverage it,” she said minutes later when pressed again on the topic. Democratic rival Martin O’Malley quickly seized on what he called Clinton’s political dodge on the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, which he and progressives in Congress have come out strongly against. “For the thousands of American workers whose jobs are on the line with TPP, fast track is not a ‘process’ issue, it’s a straightforward vote on their future and their livelihood,” O’Malley aide Lis Smith said in a statement. Just hours earlier, Clinton unveiled one of the first detailed policy proposals of her campaign, calling for universal preschool and new federal funding for the states that expand their preschool programs for low- and medium-income families. New Hampshire, the second-voting state that has been politically kind to both Clinton and her husband in the past, was one of six states that did not provide any funding for preschool in the last fiscal year. Clinton’s proposal would aim to provide high-quality preschool access to all 4-year-olds within the next decade, and the former secretary of state also proposed doubling investment in the Early Head Start and Early Head Start-Child Care programs. During her speech in Concord, Clinton also defended the records of both her husband Bill Clinton and Obama, while criticizing Republicans. “The records of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama of cleaning up the messes the inherited is something that speaks to Democratic values, and it’s something that is historically factual. The other side is coming back with more of the same,” she said. Clinton also repeated her now-familiar calls to rid politics of unaccountable money, to make voting easier for young citizens and minorities, and to lessen the debt burden on students. Clinton’s appearance came as Bush, the son of one president and the brother of another, was launching his much-anticipated campaign. But she demurred when asked to provide Bush advice on running a campaign that distinguishes himself from his family name. “That’s a very tempting question to answer,” she said, “But I won’t.” *Clinton campaign kicks off amid boiling press frustrations <http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/06/clinton-campaign-kicks-off-amid-boiling-press-frustrations-208855.html> // Politico // Dylan Byers – June 15, 2015 * Less than 48 hours out from its formal launch, the Hillary Clinton campaign has twice managed to anger the traveling press corps by denying access to the candidate. Monday's dust-up, in which the print pool reporter was denied access for ambiguous reasons, came just one day after the campaign had angered reporters by keeping them away from Clinton's impromptu exchange with local New Hampshire residents. On Sunday evening, the pool reportedly "threw a fit" after it missed an exchange between Clinton and residents of Burlington, Iowa, outside a private residence where the candidate had been holding a question-and-answer session with voters. "The pool was kept in the backyard, and did not get to see Clinton walk out of the ev