Wolf Blitzer and his fellow journalists on Wednesday thrilled over how Bill Clinton responded to comments by Karl Rove about Hillary. His reaction was "well done," "effective" and there's "nobody better." Regarding an appearance by Mrs. Clinton, Blitzer enthused, "She does look great, you've got to admit."
On the subject of the former President's defense of his wife, Gloria Borger touted, "There's nobody better to do it...There's there's nobody better to answer the charges about brain damage than Bill Clinton." She added, "He's a very good surrogate for Hillary Clinton." [MP3 audio here [1].]
Summing up, Borger praised, "I mean, very well done."
Regarding jokes Mr. Clinton made, Brianna Keilar hyped, "To do it with humor was effective. I thought it was effective."
Despite the universal praise of the Clintons, Borger should be commended for pushing back on the idea that Rove's charges are somehow unique to Republicans:
BORGER: You know, this isn't rocket science and it's not limited to Karl Rove. If you remember, during the last campaign, at one point, Harry Reid mentioned that he heard that Mitt Romney had paid no income taxes. Remember that?
[Thanks to MRC intern Connor Williams for the transcript.]
A partial transcript of the May 14 Wolf segment is below:
WOLF BLITZER: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington. Hillary Clinton hits the speaking circuit without mentioning the political fire storm swirling around her. But her husband did. Mrs. Clinton addressed the American Jewish Committee forum in Washington, D.C. today. She did not respond to Republican strategist Karl Rove's comments that she may have suffered a serious brain injury, but here's what Bill Clinton said about his wife's health at a different event here.
BILL CLINTON: She works out every week. She is strong. She's doing great. As far as I can tell, she's in better shape than I am. She certainly seems to have more stamina now. And there's nothing to it. I didn't even -- I was sort of dumfounded. They went to all this trouble to say that she had staged what was a terrible concussion that required six months of very serious work to get over. Something she never low balled with the American people, never tried to pretend didn't happen. Now they say she's really got brain damage.
REPORTER: You think they're just trying --
CLINTON: If she does, I must be in really tough shape because she's still quicker than I am.
BLITZER: Let's bring in our chief political analyst Gloria Borger and our senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar. First of all, what do you make of the President the addressing the Karl Rove allegations?
GLORIA BORGER: There's nobody better to do it. I mean, obviously, as Brianna knows, the Clinton campaign, the Clinton people, I should say, put out a --
BRIANNA KIELAR: Easy to slip there.
BORGER: Yeah, easy, put out a very strong statement about this yesterday. But there's nobody better to answer the charges about brain damage than Bill Clinton. The way he handled it was kind of offhand. He didn't dismiss what occurred to her. He's a very good surrogate for Hillary Clinton. She’s got the stamina, she's this. And, you know, he turned it around and said now they'll make it an issue that she's got brain damage, I mean, very well done.
BLITZER: What do you think?
BRIANNA KEILAR: To do it with humor was effective. I thought it was effective. I will tell you, just having been to so many events because Hillary Clinton, since finishing up her book has really been making the rounds, you can go and you can see, she's kind of been I think working on some of her political muscles as she gets sort of back into that gear. But there's really no indication as you watch her at these events and as she keeps a rather busy schedule that there's anything the matter. What he's saying really does seem from that point of view as we go and follow her around.
BLITZER: Because you saw her this morning here in Washington at the event. How did she look?
KEILAR: She looked great. She has a lot of -- she does seem to have a lot of stamina because we know she's keeping a schedule and we expect that very much to pick up as her book drops here June 10th.
[...]
BLITZER: Rove didn't say Hillary Clinton has brain damage. He writes -- he hinted it thus giving himself deniability while ensuring that the slur lingers in the public mind which is what he's been doing his entire career.
BORGER: You know, this isn't rocket science and it's not limited to Karl Rove. If you remember, during the last campaign, at one point, Harry Reid mentioned that he heard that Mitt Romney had paid no income taxes. Remember that?
KEILAR: It turned out not to be true.
BORGER: It turned out not to be true.
[...]
WOLF BLITZER: Let me play a little clip of what Hillary Clinton said.
HILLARY CLINTON: The meeting has resumed in Geneva. The goal now is to negotiate a comprehensive agreement that will resolve all of the international community's concerns. To get there, we will have to be tough, clear eyed and ready to walk away and increase the pressure if need be. No deal is better than a bad deal. [ Applause ] And from --
WOLF BLITZER: She does look great, you've got to admit. At that appearance there, she was pretty well received?
KEILAR: Yes, very well received. She's talking to an audience, keep in mind, the American Jewish Committee, that is very skeptical of what's going on with Iran. So it was -- the fascinating part of watching her today for me was how she was threading the needle as she gets all these attacks from Republicans about her time at the state department, she's there saying, here's what I did on Iran and I got them to this point. She's also talking to a crowd that's skeptical whether this is going to work with Iran.
— Scott Whitlock is Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Scott Whitlock on Twitter. [2]