Hillary Clinton has not officially thrown her pants suit in the ring, but last night she took her first big step toward an eventual run for the presidency by entering the lion’s den (aka Fox News Channel), where she sat down for a Q & A with hosts Bret Baier and Greta Van Susteren.
Clinton appeared affable enough, even when asked questions that previously rankled her, such as to explain the two sets of talking points that emerged after the Benghazi raid. She had no real answer beyond the “fog-of-war” defense, but she wasn’t pressed and she didn’t lose her composure.
The highlight of her appearance was her response to a challenge by Van Susteren to explain her curious claim after the recent notorious prisoner exchange that the so-called Taliban 5 are “not a threat to the United States.”
Clinton had apparently been coached on this topic because she answered without hesitation. Unfortunately for her, this was her response: “As long as they’re in Qatar, they’re not a threat to the United States.”
If only they had been sent to Pluto!
When Van Susteren pressed, noting that Osama bin Laden was never in the United States, Clinton dug herself deeper, explaining:
No, no, but in Qatar, with an agreement that has been entered into, they are supposed to be constrained from what they can do, and certainly they are not supposed to be permitted to travel. That is, my understanding tells me, what the deal is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGM3x12mUjk
But within days of the exchange, Reuters cited a senior Gulf official as having said that the prisoners would be allowed to “move freely” about Qatar. One of the five freed terrorists, moreover, told a relative that he would return to the battlefield to “fight Americans” again. Can we construe from Clinton’s response that she was unaware of these developments, and, if so, is she to be taken seriously as presidential timber? Even Barack Obama manages to keep abreast of current events, if only by following the news.
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