Several times, people have wondered why it is that UN Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on the Sunday morning talk shows in the wake of the Benghazi attack instead of Secretary of State Clinton. Well, it turns out Clinton hates going on those shows:
“Secretary Clinton had originally been asked by most of the networks to go on,” Rice told Williams. “She had had an incredibly grueling week dealing with the protests around the Middle East and North Africa. I was asked. I was willing to do so. It wasn’t what I had planned for that weekend originally, but I don’t regret doing that.”
But three sources close to the situation tell POLITICO that it was less a matter of fatigue, and more a matter of Clinton not wanting to go on the shows.
The aides said Clinton had a “default” policy of rejecting all Sunday requests.
None of the officials was willing to speculate on why the secretary wouldn’t make an exception after such an extraordinary event — or whether Clinton had wanted to avoid a controversy that could have compromised her political future.
West Wing officials would have little compunction about asking Clinton’s successor John Kerry to appear on the shows — but Clinton enjoyed a level of autonomy from West Wing meddling unique in the recent history of her department. Obama’s top aides, deferential and wary of reigniting old tensions with his 2008 foe, didn’t force the issue and scrambled to find a stand-in for Clinton.
“[Hillary] has a standing refusal [to do Sunday shows]. She hates them. She would rather die than do them,” said one aide on condition of anonymity. “The White House knows, so they would know not to even ask her.”
That’s okay Hillary, we don’t much enjoy watching those shows anyway.
