‘Morning Joe’ Panel Baffled by Clinton’s Actions and the Campaign Lack of Answers
BRZEZINSKI: “Hillary Clinton's press team went on the attack, pushing back on the validity of the controversy surrounding her e-mail server. Yesterday, Fox News first reported the contents of two e-mails that triggered the FBI investigation. The concern from an intelligence community inspector general that they contained classified information. One e-mail described the worsening situation in Benghazi. The other had Intel about the deadly Benghazi attacks that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. Clinton’s campaign believes they're vindicated and what remains is a dispute between agencies over the sensitivity of the information. A campaign spokesman told reporters that it proves Clinton was a passive recipient of unwitting information that subsequently became classified.”
SCARBOROUGH: “All right. Let’s get to John Heilemann yesterday, yes, there was an interview on your show that was described by everybody I talked to as just a disaster for the Clinton team. Talk about it.”
HEILEMANN: “Well I talked to Jen Palmieri who is –“
SCARBOROUGH: “Who you've known for a very long time.”
HEILEMANN: “Yes, since the '92 campaign. She's the communications director for Hillary. We did a lengthy interview. We talked for about 25 minutes; we ended up running about 15 on the show. I thought that she was -- she was acting with consummate professionalism in terms of trying -- it was all on the e-mail issue. And I think she was in a bad place. There were some of -- there were some elements of her -- some of the things we've seen from the campaign, evasiveness and misdirection. Also, there were a lot of basic questions she didn't have the answer to. I think we have some sound that we're going to throw to you. Let's take a look at that.”
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PALMIERI: “I've encountered this a lot in politics, where people think that answer is a lot more complicated than it really is. And she's answered this many times and she had, you know, she did have her own e-mail account, others have done it before and it was just more convenient and she kept it like that. She didn't really think -- that's the thing. She didn't really think it through. She has said, had she, she would have done it differently.”
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HEILEMANN: “I asked her, at the very end of the interview, and I -- when came back to the core question. Why did she need a private server? Why did she do this unprecedented thing that no other -- they pointed out, they say other people had private e-mail. Yeah, other people used private e-mail, Collin Powel, no one had a server in their house. That’s not ever happened before. And I asked her that question. That was her answer to why. What did she need to do this for? And the answer, ‘I don't think she really thought it through,’ in the context, I think, of potentially classified information that, you know, again, according to the law, you're not allowed to take classified information or potentially classified information and put it in unsecure facility. You say that the Secretary of State didn't think it through, it sort of beggars belief.”
SCARBOROUGH: “Yeah, it does. It was -- it was -- I don't know how to say this charitably, it was a disaster of an interview. At least that's what everybody that I talked to thought, Mika.”
BRZEZINSKI: “She seems to be really struggling and the problem is –“
SCARBOROUGH: “By the way, Jen wasn't there when the server was set up. … It’s not like it's on Len.
BRZEZINSKI: “Look, Hillary Clinton is to be really struggling during her news conference.
SCARBOROUGH: “She was terrible.”
BRZEZINSKI: “It was. And the problem is that there's not a good answer. Right? Does anyone have a good answer for this?”
SCARBOROUGH: “There is not a good answer.”
BRZEZINSKI: “Really work on it--make up one.”
…
SCARBOROUGH: “… You said any other candidate in America would have had everybody come together for ten hours and have the lawyers here and the campaign people here and then walk them through it. But they obviously aren't doing that with Hillary.”
HEILEMANN: “I don't know whether that meeting is taking place. As a matter of fact, I do not know it. But on the basis of all my interactions with the campaign and this talk yesterday with Jennifer, I just don't think that's happened. I think there are many of the people who work for the campaign are in the dark about key facts of what transpired.”
SCARBOROUGH: “They can't Mika, I think you're right. They can't answer basic questions because there are no good answers to those questions.”
