Hillary Clinton gave her first interview of 2016 and to be expected it was with a friendly interviewer, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. Of course a sit-down with the person most likely to be the first female candidate for president doesn’t mean anyone actually watched it given that network’s ratings.
Clinton offered few details on how she would improve the economy except to say that it should be “fixed”. And she did not refer at all to the issue that polls show Americans are most worried about, namely the inefficiency, divisiveness and corruption of the government.
Even so, what Clinton has to say should be heard and understood so here then are the highlights:
Hillary couldn’t explain the difference between being a socialist and a Democrat, though she was adamant that she’s the latter not the former.
“Matthews still hasn’t gotten an answer to his question: what’s the difference between a Democrat and a socialist?” explained Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey, who noted that the MSNBC host tried this same query with DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz five months ago. “The actual answer,” noted Morrissey, “is there isn’t a difference any more, but no one wants to admit it. I’d be surprised if Matthews ever asks this question again in public, or at least if he asks it before the general election in November.”
Hillary wants to combat terrorism with “a sense of unity and purpose” in the same way that she credits George W. Bush with unifying the country after the attacks of 9/11.
“ISIS cannot be contained it must be defeated,” she declared. In the next breath she explained that the best way to do that is to “work with Muslim Americans in our own country.” How exactly that would defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria was left unclear.
She was perfectly clear however about the “other side” being divisive, offensive and counter-productive. She meant Republicans not ISIS, by the way. As far as a strategy to actually defeat ISIS, Clinton committed to continuing the current strategy – air alliance and American special forces who are training Kurd and Arab forces in Iraq – which by the way recently has proven successful but is still a long, long way from victory. Committing US combat troops on the ground was an absolute no. She said she developed the idea of a no-fly zone in Syria “years ago” as long “as we could get the Russians to sign off on it.” Only trouble is that the Russians want no part of such an idea, and many say it won’t work.
“I think we’ve gone past the point where a no-fly zone can be effective,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, a former top commander of air forces in the Middle East. “Instead of being distracted with a no-fly zone, we should put together a cohesive, coherent strategy to eliminate the Islamic State.”
To that point, Clinton referred to an “arc of instability that fuels the terrorist ideology” that she claimed she would “go after” as in their “funding, foreign fighters and their effective use of the internet.” Clinton has previously argued that private companies should censor speech on the internet. She offered no definition of the ideology she means to defeat.
Hillary told Matthews she wants to bring everyone together “to get things done,” as long as they aren’t Republicans, that is.
Clinton played a game of telling Matthews she wasn’t going to get into attacking Donald Trump but then took several opportunities to lump Trump together with all those who identify with his chosen political party. She has previously identified Republican as her “enemies” but then during the interview referred to “relationships” as “the beginning of everything.” Clinton continued, “I am always looking for ways to work together… I am looking for that common ground…for ways to work across the aisle.” And she admitted it would not be magic all the time because after all “it is so much more gerrymandered” now that “people don’t feel like they have to make a deal.” Funny, that. It was Democrats who refused to make any deal with Republicans when it came to Obamacare. It is the current Democrat president who calls his political opponents terrorists. And yes, the GOP has redrawn congressional maps. Where do you suppose they learned that?
