Maggie Hassan’s “Brutal” Week

Maggie Hassan’s repeated failure to answer a simple yes or no question on Hillary Clinton’s trustworthiness is emblematic of her entire candidacy.

Maggie Hassan had a “brutal” stumble this week, failing three times to answer a direct, yes-or-no question on whether she believes Hillary Clinton is honest and trustworthy. The question came amid polls showing 64% of voters do not find Clinton trustworthy.

National press outlets were stunned by Hassan’s total failure to answer a predictable, simple question.

“Hassan’s campaign clarified after the interview that she does believe Clinton is honest and trustworthy, but it’s clear as day that she didn’t want to say it if she didn’t have to. And her awkward responses during the repeated questioning don’t suggest a politician who was comfortable being a character witness for her party’s nominee. She basically ignores the question and deflects, talking about something else that she likes about Clinton.” — Washington Post

“If you’re asked if the person you think should be the next President of the United States is honest and trustworthy, and you can’t answer, you should probably find another candidate for President.” — Union Leader

But the New Hampshire reporters who have covered Maggie Hassan for years considered her gaffe typical of her stilted, scripted candidacy.

On NHPR’s The Exchange, reporters who routinely cover Hassan had this to say:

DEAN SPILIOTES, SNHU: “And you know, Governor Hassan does sort of have a reputation sometimes as kind of keeping her cards close to the chest or wanting to leave herself a little bit of wiggle room in her answers and not pin herself down, but this was an example of where she should have just said yes and kind of moved on to other things.”

…

JOSH ROGERS, NHPR: “Anyone who has covered her has had the experience of her repeating talking points when even asked the most basic, non-controversial question even on very small matters.”

CASEY MCDERMOTT, NHPR: “I don’t think it is an understatement to say she is very on message all the time but I think that kind of makes it, makes this one even more perplexing as you said because her message has been ostensibly: ‘I’m pro-Hillary Clinton, I believe in her, I’m a big supporter of hers.’ So the fact that in this case at least it was difficult for her to break off of any other talking points to say I trust her to say ‘I think she’s honest’ on air when given three chances to do so — I think that exchange was particularly striking.”

…

ROGERS: “This has been something, a recurrent stress, and it’s something the Ayotte campaign has tried to capitalize on: this scripted nature of Governor Hassan at times. And it’s something that it is unclear to me that this is something that the national press highlights because they’re not used to dealing with her and therefore it’s conspicuous — maybe they’ve heard about somebody that is allegedly a rising star in their party and they come and this is what they get.”

Hassan has consistently refused to answer for Hillary Clinton’s troubling record.

Hassan “practices a little misdirection on Clinton” FBI investigation findings — Nashua Telegraph

“Did Hassan believe Clinton’s ridiculous attempt to blame a YouTube video for the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya?” — Union Leader

“What say you, Gov. Hassan, about the sorry record of Hillary Clinton?” — Eagle Tribune

Hassan has repeatedly failed to give straight answers and policy specifics.

“Asked three times if she believes Clinton is honest, Hassan would not answer directly.” — CNN

“Asked if she felt Clinton has trust issues to overcome, Hassan kind of brushed by the question.” — WMUR

“Asked several times by reporters, [Hassan] did not say specifically whether she still believes there should be a pause in the program with respect to Syrians.” — WMUR

Hassan “likes to sort of leave herself some wiggle room on issues — doesn’t like to be pinned down.” — WKXL

Hassan “largely avoided specifics in the 15-minute speech.” — AP

Hassan’s “talking points, vague party lines and memorized factoids won’t, and shouldn’t, cut it come November.” — Concord Monitor

“Mostly, though, Hassan stuck to her usual talking points… The part of the speech that rang the most hollow was Hassan’s claim that she was part of a bipartisan budget solution in the last legislative session, as if she forgot that she vetoed the budget. But at some point she is going to have to move beyond the script that paints her as a cookie-cutter Democrat… Talking points won’t be enough. In fact, they may be a problem. After she sat down for an interview with the political website Politico last month, she was criticized for offering “political bromides” and little else. We’ve noticed that about Hassan, too…” — Nashua Telegraph

Hassan “hewed relentlessly to talking points and political bromides” — Politico

“Relentlessly on message, even in private, [Hassan] speaks in the sort of scripted, too-boring-to-quote genericisms” — The Atlantic