Clinton Sides With “Egyptian People” Rather Than Picking Protesters Or Pres. Mubarak

On this morning’s State of the Union, Candy Crowley tried to pin down Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with a simple question: in Egypt whose side are we on – Egyptian President Mubarak or the people in the streets protesting? However, Clinton suggested it isn’t that simple and instead the United States is on the side of a third choice, the “Egyptian people.”

Clinton continued, “we are on the side, as we have been for more 30 years, of a democratic Egypt that provides both political and economic rights to its people.” When Crowley pushed to see if any recent efforts could suggest the U.S. is backing away from its prior support of Mubarak, Clinton carefully suggested “we do not want to send any message about backing forward or backing back” and later said “we are not advocating any specific outcome.”

Beside calling for neither side to resort to violence, it’s clear the current policy with regards to the Egypt protests is to wait-and-see how things play out, but will President Obama and Clinton be able to continue to avoid the difficult and complex decision of more forcefully backing Mubarak or the protesters?

Watch the clip from CNN below:

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