Chardonnay, Flattery & Panda Videos — How Hillary’s Book Tour Made a Mockery of the Media [Montage]

‘What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?

This story is cross-posted at our consumer site, Grabien News. Watch it there – without audiomarks.

It’s no wonder Hillary Clinton appears to be enjoying her current media tour so much. In the two weeks since she began promoting her new book, “What Happened,” she’s yet to encounter anything like a tough question.

Instead, she’s been feted with flattery at almost every stop along her PR parade. 

But while Clinton appears to be having heaps of fun, the media appears oblivious to how horribly it's humiliating itself. 

There are countless, tough questions average Americans would certainly ask given the opportunity to meet Clinton one-on-one. Fortunately for Clinton, she instead encountered questions like:

CNN’s Anderson Cooper, citing “page 27” from Clinton’s book, asked if she might demonstrate the “alternate nasal breathing” she credits with helping her cope with her electoral defeat.

Over on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow interrupted her softball interview so they could share the joy of watching an Internet video of a baby panda sneezing. 

On “The TODAY Show,” Matt Lauer asked Clinton about Americans “who simply don’t like you.” “Does even having to ask yourself why,” he empathized, “hurt?”  

And in an interview that aired live on CSPAN, conducted by the owner of the Washington, D.C., bookshop, Politics and Prose, Clinton was treated to tough questions like … “What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream.”

If these journalists were actually interested in making news and moving the story forward, here are just five questions we would have expected them to ask:

— You’ve pinned blame for your loss on James Comey’s so-called October letter, which you say swayed the entire election. But on the flip side of the coin, it was recently reported that Comey decided months before the FBI’s investigation concluded — indeed, before they even interviewed you — that he would recommend the DoJ exonerate you. If someone else were heading the FBI and you were indicted in the middle of the campaign, wouldn’t that have destroyed you chance? Couldn’t Comey in fact be credited with keeping your campaign alive? 

— You’ve attacked Trump over recent weeks for “not dealing in reality.” During these same interviews you’ve theorized that James Comey wrote his October letter due to “political pressure” from Rudy Giuiliani and others inside and outside the FBI. What’s your evidence for this?

— You’ve blamed Bernie Sanders, the media, James Comey, Russia, Wikileaks, voter suppression, fake news, and many others for your defeat. You’ve also said your own personal mistakes were not enough to cost you the election. But you also did things that gave voters pause, such as deleting 30,000 emails that were under congressional subpoena. Might voters have had a legitimate reason to seek someone outside of America’s political class? 

— You’ve repeatedly called the emails Wikileaks published “anodyne.” But the emails were anything but; they revealed your campaign mocking Catholics; that you had a connection inside the DoJ feeding information about the FBI investigation; that you were getting debate questions in advance — and let’s not forget Debbie Wasserman Schultz emails revealing her efforts to sabotage the Bernie Sanders campaign, which led to her resignation as DNC chairwoman. Wasn’t the problem that these emails were not “anodyne,” but completely damning?    

During one of these interviews, Clinton chastised the media for reporting too extensively on the scandals she was tied up in, and said the press “has some soul searching to do.” She even said she feared Democrats would “continue to face a difficult media environment.”

If the montage above is any indication, one personal failure Clinton is unaware she possesses is a total lack of self-awareness. The media, as this book tour made plain, is your strongest ally. 

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