Hillary Spox Insists She Doesn’t Have ‘Reluctance’ to Talk to the Press

Hillary Clinton has avoided engaging with the press and holding press conferences for a while now, unlike Donald Trump, but a Clinton campaign spokesman insisted the likely Democratic nominee doesn’t harbor any “reluctance” to talk to the press.

Brian Fallon told CNN’s Brian Stelter this morning that they are engaging the press “in a variety of formats,” focusing on local interviews some days, press avails on others, etc.

Stelter asked why Clinton is reluctant to do press conferences in general. Fallon pointed to how Clinton holds informal press avails after events to “literally stand there for 15, 20 minutes” taking questions from the traveling press corps.

And though avails are not quite on the same level as press conferences, Fallon said there’s not a substantial difference between them.

Three reporters who cover Clinton rebutted what he said:

HRC does occasionally stop for avails, as @brianefallon says on CNN. But not "day to day." And not for 15-20 mins. pic.twitter.com/pC5LJe55a3

— Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) June 5, 2016

Clinton rarely does avails, let alone of this length https://t.co/KewJVfMJfd

— Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) June 5, 2016

This explanation for Clinton's lack of press access to her traveling press corps is flatly not true. https://t.co/nnpNK5OBTH

— Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) June 5, 2016

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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