Pressing Issues

Diagnosis: Political Goose-Gander Syndrome

   Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party presidential nominee, has been heavily criticized for not holding a news conference in months.
   Question: When was the last time Donald Trump, the Republican Party nominee, met with a roomful of reporters and faced a barrage of inquiries?
   It's one thing to talk to mass rallies of supporters and answer one or two questions from reporters on the way out of the meeting, or to call in to favored TV commentators, who are always pressed for time, but it's quite another issue to open up for a full hour of questioning by the entire press corps assigned to follow the candidate's doings.
   Off hand, the last time Trump fielded questions from the press corps, he ejected a reporter from Univision, insisting that "You weren't called on. Sit down."
   In addition, he has pulled credentials from half a dozen media outlets because he didn't like the coverage he was getting.
   Memo to the Don: You do not control the press. It's called the First Amendment. You are certainly free to refuse credentials to individual reporters, or to their news outlets. But you cannot keep them from a public meeting.
   As for Hillary avoiding news conferences, she too should be more open to questions from the assembled press corps, rather than selectively talking briefly, one on one, with those she is comfortable with.
   There is also the issue of health reports. Voters have come to expect some detail on candidate health, in the form of medical records. But to make public a three-paragraph statement allegedly signed by a personal physician that reads more like it was dictated by the candidate himself, praising the candidate as the healthiest person ever to seek or become the President, raises an ethical issue in itself.
   It may well be that Trump is extraordinarily healthy. But voters have already seen more detail on Hillary's health. To insist that she release a full report first before you explain any is the sort of behavior typical of juveniles.
   Both candidates appear to be quite healthy, but it has become customary to provide evidence. Where is it?
   "You go first!" is not an acceptable response.