At debate, Sarah Sanders defends avoiding Arkansas press conference
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CHAD BAKER, HILLARY CLINTON’S CHIEF OF STAFF, took a step back and said, “It’s fine.”
The Washington Post had covered Sanders’ town hall about gun control in Little Rock on Tuesday after she failed to show up. The Post sent reporter Abby Phillip to cover the event.
An adviser to Sanders responded to the story by saying, “I asked my staff to let it be a private conversation. We chose to do it privately because we wanted it to be. I am not going to add to the negative spin that there is a huge controversy about this.”
In fact, there was more controversy.
The New York Times followed the Sanders town hall with a story that quoted Clinton’s campaign spokeswoman as saying, “Our campaign does not believe guns are the cause of mass shootings in America.”
The campaign’s own data showed that guns were involved in more than four out of five mass shootings in the United States that year, a number that didn’t stop Clinton from saying, “Enough is enough.”
After the Post’s story, one member of the campaign issued a statement about it, “This isn’t the media’s fault. There are more than a few people that have not covered the event and are trying to spin this.”
As the Post noted, Sanders held a similar town hall about gun violence in North Carolina the day before. And the campaign has continued to hold open forums about gun policy.
In Arkansas as in North Carolina and California, the campaign does not hide the fact that the issue of gun control is a big part of the conversation.
The Washington Post story included a quote from Sanders as saying, “This is a real problem, and we have to have very strong background checks,