Secretary Clinton, I Have Some Questions for You

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

20 May 15

his past weekend I attended the Working Families Summit in Ames, Iowa. The event was sponsored by dozens of labor organizations and their allies. One of the things stressed to the attendees by more than one speaker, including former Labor secretary Robert Reich, was that voters should be asking the candidates tough questions. We should be looking for specific proposals and solutions, not settling for soundbites. I agree, and I have been asking tough questions to those who will take questions. 

I have been in Iowa since February and have covered dozens of campaign events, some with over 100 reporters, but only one campaign has denied me access. In her second visit to Iowa since declaring her candidacy, Hillary Clinton is once again limiting access by the media and Iowa voters. The only people who get into the events are those handpicked by the Clinton campaign. On her first visit to Iowa after she announced last month, we got a few days’ notice to apply for credentials. I was denied because of the lack of space. This time around, the first event was pool only, and the pool reporters were forced to leave after she read a prepared statement. The second event, in Cedar Falls, allowed more press and I finally got credentials for it. Only 16 members of the public were allowed into the event, surrounded by at least 75 reporters. After the event,for the first time, Clinton took six questions from the press. Sadly, and I’m not blaming Hillary Clinton for this, the questions were not on topics that matter to the American people. That’s the media’s fault – they only want to know about Hillary Clinton’s emails and donations to the Clinton Foundation. Let’s see if Andrea Mitchell will let us read all of her emails.

On Monday, I received an email from the Super PAC supporting Clinton with this headline in bold letters: “PUTTING THE VOTERS FIRST, HILLARY ASKS THE QUESTIONS THAT REALLY MATTER.” The email attempted to counter the narrative that Clinton is not answering questions from the press, arguing that Clinton has answered 20 questions from everyday Americans, seven on her first trip to Iowa. What that argument fails to say is that there weren’t many more than 20 everyday Americans at any of her Iowa events, and they were handpicked by the campaign. So they were everyday Clinton supporters.

The Clinton campaign can argue all they want that they are designing these events to hear the voices of everyday Americans, but to do that they need to let everyday Americans into the events. The real result of these small events is that they have set up a bigger wall between Clinton and everyday Americans than did her 2007 events, when she would fly in and out on the “Hillocopter.” Arriving in the “Scoobyvan” has not increased access to the voters. 

Since Hillary Clinton entered the race, she has answered a total of 19 questions from the press. Six of those questions came today in Cedar Falls, after the linked NPR story from May 13. Most questions have been shouted at her as she was walking past reporters, and if she heard a question she wanted to answer, she stopped and answered. If you click on the link, you will notice that it is a reach to say she answered the 13 questions. In Cedar Falls she took questions in an organized manner for the first time. While it is possible that this is the start of Hillary Clinton answering the media’s questions, it is also possible we will get more of the same for quite some time.

With the huge lead Clinton holds, one has to wonder: Does she think she needs the media? Is it a smart strategy to avoid gaffs like Jeb Bush’s handling of the Iraq question? How long can she avoid the media before voters start to turn?

Maybe this will have to be where I ask my questions. Here they are, Senator Clinton, these are the questions I would ask if you gave me the chance to ask them.

The first question is: Do you support the Trans-Pacific Partnership? When I asked Martin O’Malley prior to his campaign’s releasing a position on it, there was no hesitation. He immediately said, “I am opposed,” and explained why. Let’s compare that to Hillary Clinton’s and Jim Webb’s non-answers to the same question. “Well, any trade deal has to produce jobs, and raise wages, and increase prosperity, and protect our security. And we have to do our part in making sure we have the capabilities and the skills to be competitive,” Clinton said in one of her 13 answers to the press. So does she oppose or support the TPP? Webb was just as evasive. 

My second question, and the one Robert Reich also wants answered, is: Will you break up the big banks? O’Malley and Sanders clearly support reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act and breaking up the banks that are too big to fail – or succeed, as O’Malley likes to say. We have no idea where Clinton stands and have had no chance to ask her.

Now some more questions that need to be answered. Secretary Clinton, what would you do to address student loan debt? You and Jeb Bush and others talk about the problem, but you have not offered a solution. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation to make college free at public universities. Not just at two-year colleges as in Obama’s plan, but at four-year universities as well.

Do you support raising the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour? The Republican candidates are saying they will tackle income inequality, so we need to know how the candidates plan to address it. O’Malley and Sanders support $15 dollars an hour. What other steps will you take to address income inequality? We need specific answers. Again, Bernie has proposed massive infrastructure spending in the Senate. We know where Bernie stands.

Do you support or oppose the Keystone XL pipeline? As Secretary of State you had plenty of opportunity to kill the pipeline, but you didn’t. When it comes to climate change, Clinton, according to Grist Magazine, understands the issue but has the same disconnect as Obama when it comes to the solution. Grist pointed out that Clinton promoted fracking abroad while Secretary of State and “encouraged developing countries to sign deals with American fossil fuel companies to extract their shale gas through fracking.” In the same article, Grist reminds us she “has supported offshore oil drilling. In 2006, Clinton sided with Republicans and against climate hawks like Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) by voting in favor of a bill opening new Gulf Coast areas to offshore oil drilling.”

There are many more questions that need to be asked. Most of the media here in Iowa will not ask these questions, and perhaps Clinton is smart to not let my colleagues on the campaign trail pounce on her with questions that only serve to feed their tabloid journalism. 

Let’s hope that once the “ramp-up phase” is over, Hillary Clinton will start answering these questions. Both the media and the voters have a role to play in the primary process. I hope no candidate gets to decide who can ask the questions. It’s not just the reporters that the Clinton campaign has avoided so far. They have also shielded her from the voters. To say that she is listening to real Iowans or real Americans in these staged events doesn’t hold water. She is only hearing from people the campaign allows in the room. So Secretary Clinton, we have questions – when can we ask them?

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

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