It's Time to Really Meet the Press

It’s not difficult to understand why Hillary Clinton is wary of the press and of excruciatingly heavy scrutiny. There she was, in 1992, a smart, confident, capable woman whose husband was running for president. The couple’s sales pitch was that by voting for one, you’d get both: two Ivy League-educated attorneys with experience in public policy. Instead, the female part of the couple was treated with pettiness and nastiness. Her hair (and black headband) were criticized, as were her legs. She was criticized for saying she just didn’t want to spend her days baking cookies and having teas. (What person, male or female, with a professional degree would want to consume the hours that way?) When questions were raised about her husband’s affairs with other women, the ire and blame quickly shifted from him to her: Forget about whether he betrayed a commitment to his wife. What was wrong with Hillary Clinton that she wouldn’t leave the bum? And when Bill Clinton won anyway, the gender-based barbs at Hillary Clinton continued, with whispers that she was alternately either a lesbian or having an affair with Vince Foster, a White House official who tragically took his own life.

So we can see why she might be a little defensive. What’s perplexing is that after all this time in public life, she is still acting so defensively.

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Her decision to use a private email account (routed through her home server) instead of a formal State Department account is baffling on both a practical and strategic level. Why wouldn’t she want to have two accounts – one for discussions of weddings, funerals and yoga, as she explained in her press conference about the matter – and one for formal State exchanges? No one (or hardly anyone) would have begrudged her the right to have her personal email account for personal matters. Her explanation that she didn’t want to carry two phones was hollow – anyone aware of the ability to have a server in one’s own home is also aware that two email accounts can be loaded on the same phone. Also, when you’re a Cabinet secretary, you do have people who can carry things for you.

And why did it take so long to hold a press conference explaining the matter? It just made the event even more loaded, more dramatic and gave the impression even more that she had something to hide – even if she doesn’t. There was one easy response, after the New York Times published its report: Have a press conference the next day, at a hotel where everyone can get in (not at the U.N., with its hyper-complicated security). Answer every single question – every one. Do not cut off questioning. This is not a time to leave the crowd wanting more. This is a time when you need to be the last person standing, to exhaust the press corps and their questions (and that would indeed happen). Then, Hillary Clinton looks in charge and not like she’s hiding something.

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Hillary Clinton has gone back and forth, with being accessible and retreating into bunker mode, and the former approach has never worked for her. And it also doesn’t make sense: she’s very good on her feet, very knowledgeable and commanding. There is simply no need to keep her away from the press – she’s not one of those officials who either tend to say stupid things, or who are just not that bright to begin with.

I saw this firsthand, when Hillary Clinton was initially elected to the Senate. I was writing a story about how then-Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., was advising her on navigating the Senate. After all, he was really the only one who understood what her life would be like as the relative of a president and as someone who arrived in the Senate with a fame not assigned to senior members. Since Kennedy’s brother Robert had been an outsider senator from New York, he understood that as well.

Kennedy sat with me for a half hour in his office, talking about the gifts Hillary Clinton would bring to the Senate and the challenges she would face, trying to be known as a hard-working senator instead of as a senator with a famous name. Hillary Clinton’s press operation repeatedly refused to make her available. Finally, I said, how will I explain to readers that the senior senator from Massachusetts was able to carve out a half hour to talk about the freshman senator from New York, but that the newbie couldn’t get on the phone for ten minutes to talk about Kennedy?

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That worked, and here’s the thing: She was great. She was warm, she was smart, she was funny, and it was obvious she was excited and determined to do the best job she could for her New York constituents. So why the knee-jerk tendency to protect her from the press?

The press corps can be relentless, it can be mob-like at times and even mean. But the best way for Hillary Clinton to protect herself from the press is not to avoid the media, but to face them, every day and without fear or apology. If she doesn’t have anything to hide, she ought to stop hiding.