Hillary Clinton’s campaign surrogates, staff and spokespeople are not allowed to appear on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program. At least, temporarily.
According to Politico, here’s why:
There’s a mandate on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”: No candidate surrogates or spokespeople can appear on the show until the candidate agrees to be interviewed. And it all started with the Hillary Clinton campaign.
“The rule was put in place for Hillary’s campaign because while just about every other candidate came on, the Clinton team kept trying to put out surrogates and staffers,” host Joe Scarborough told POLITICO. “We finally said ‘not until the candidate comes on herself.’ And then some suggested we have Jeb [Bush’s] people on a month or so ago, but we held to the same policy.”
…For their part, many in the Clinton orbit see “Morning Joe” as one of the shows most critical of Clinton’s campaign. The show often targets Clinton for her email use and the hosts have criticized Clinton at times for what they’ve deemed a lack of authenticity.
Hillary Clinton is notorious for having issues with accessibility to the press and campaign transparency, and journalists are getting sick of it. National reporters had to wait 2 silent months for a press conference or an interview from Clinton after she announced her candidacy for president. Some had to tolerate being “roped off” during coverage of Clinton marching in a Fourth of July parade.
Clinton finally had to answer some tough questions on this week’s Today Show town hall, and frankly, it was about time.
