Hillary Confronts the Enemy

At Politico, "For the first three months of her campaign, Clinton remained virtually off limits to the national media. But on Tuesday she sat for her first nationally broadcast interview":

Hillary Clinton’s campaign, unlike those of her rivals, has provided the media with information about the fundraisers attended by the former secretary of state, down to the names of the donors who hosted and the head count for each event. Its communications shop has so far maintained a constructive working relationship with the press corps — senior staffers last month mingled with reporters over beers after a background briefing at the Brooklyn campaign headquarters.

That new spirit of openness may have neutralized the famously toxic relationship between the press and the Clinton operation, but with Bernie Sanders turning out huge crowds and the Republicans about to steal the spotlight next month with their first debate, Clinton operatives have realized it’s time to cross the final, harrowing frontier: providing access to the candidate herself.

For the first three months of her campaign, Clinton remained virtually off-limits to the national press. She did not sit down for a national television interview (her most recent occurred during her book tour for “Hard Choices” in 2014), nor did she grant any interviews to national newspapers or websites. With questions surrounding her use of private email during her years at the State Department, and surrounding the Clinton Foundation, the candidate herself remained as distant from the national media as ever — and it shows in the press coverage of her second presidential bid.

On Tuesday, after a campaign stop in New Hampshire, the campaign sought to enter a new phase of its relations with the press — Clinton sat with CNN’s Brianna Keilar (notably a beat reporter, not one of the network’s anchors who are household names) for her first nationally broadcast interview.

More interviews will follow, communications director Jennifer Palmieri has promised.

Clinton insiders said July makes sense for Hillary’s moment to finally embrace national television — enough time has passed since the height of the controversies surrounding the Clinton Foundation and her use of a private email address at the State Department that she will have space to talk about her own campaign message.

But the campaign doesn’t have the luxury of waiting much longer: In August, Clinton is scheduled to go on vacation, and then the crowded Republican field will be chewing up news cycles with the first debate — possibly defining Clinton on a national stage.

“Now is a good time for the campaign to take back control of the story of who Hillary Clinton is,” said longtime donor Jay Jacobs. “She can now use [national television] to accomplish that.” In terms of the controversies she will have to respond to, he said, “The tide has been turned.” Beginning Monday, Clinton will also start rolling out more detailed policy proposals to discuss...

There's more at the link, although that's a strange dig against Brianna Keilar, whose beat is in fact the Hillary Clinton campaign as Senior Political Correspondent for CNN. "Notably" she fills in for anchors Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper regularly, and for the most part she's fair and balanced.

That said, Politico downplays what's obviously going on in Camp Clinton: they're shitting bricks at the rise of Bernie Sanders, who looks to make this a real race. It's pretty interesting, in fact.