Hilary Clinton Television Specials Put Reince Priebus Through The Wringer (VIDEOS)

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is having a really bad week. The poor guy just can’t seem to catch a break over the possible Hilary Clinton television specials in preproduction by networks like NBC and CNN. He can’t even catch a break from his friends at Fox.

In the last couple of weeks, it has come to light that 4 different networks are planning to broadcast television specials about the former first lady and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. None of these broadcasts have yet begun production and outside of speculation there is no word as to how these broadcasts will portray the former Secretary of State and possible future presidential candidate for the 2016 presidential election.

Monday, Reince Priebus sent two-page letters to both NBC and CNN threatening to pull all Republican officials from the networks, as well as the campaign debates and primaries themselves if they do not abandon plans to air programs about Hillary Clinton. In each of the letters, Priebus gives a deadline by which he expects the networks to halt their plans before he will ?seek a binding vote of the RNC? to pull all partnerships and sponsorships for the campaign coverage. Priebus contends that the possibility of a movie regarding the former secretary of state is a ?thinly-veiled attempt at putting a thumb on the scales of the 2016 Presidential Election.?

CNN responded the same day by issuing a statement:

Instead of making premature decisions about a project that is in the very early stages of development and months from completion, we would encourage the members of the Republican National Committee to reserve judgment until they know more. Should they decide not to participate in debates on CNN, we would find it curious, as limiting their debate participation seems to be the ultimate disservice to voters.

That same evening Priebus managed to score some talking time on Fox News with Sean Hannity. During his almost 6 minute whine, Priebus claimed that the nature of the broadcasts didn’t matter at all and cited the banning of Fox News from the 2008 DNC. He went on to claim “liberal media bias” during 2012 and that being the reason for Mitt Romney getting attacked with questions regarding “liberal issues” during those debates. As memory serves, it was the RNC and the Romney Campaign that set the terms for the 2012 debates and they refused to participate unless the moderators were of their choosing.

Wednesday, the discussion got a little tense on the set of MSNBC’s Morning Joe between co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. That led to Priebus being invited to the show the next day to explain his decision in person. The discussion began friendly enough, but took a very chilly turn when Priebus asserted that he would not choose Brzezinski to moderate any debate.

BRZEZINSKI:

My point is you expected an honest and fair conversation here even though we’re a part of NBC.

PRIEBUS:

I’m not going to have you moderate the Republican debate because you’re not actually interested in the future of the Republican Party and our nominees. That’s not a slam on you, Mika, but I have to choose moderators that are actually interested in the Republican Party and our nominees… It’s not going to be NBC, if they continue to go forward with this miniseries.

Sunday, Priebus interviewed with Candy Crowley of CNN, reaffirming his intent to boycott CNN and NBC if those networks chose to engage in any broadcast centered on Hillary Clinton. Crowley, like the hosts in all the previous interviews, once again pointed out that NBC Entertainment is an entirely separate company from NBC News.

Priebus stated:

First of all, our party has to quit availing our self to biased moderators and companies that put on television, you know, in this particular case documentaries and miniseries about a particular candidate that we all know is gearing up to run for president, and that’s Hillary Clinton, and so the big question for me, Candy, number one, is which company is putting it on the air, who’s doing the work? I’m not interested if they’re using the same caterer or whether they all drink Diet Coke, or I’m not boycotting Diane Lane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiMFx1VkS-0

Here is the overall failure in Priebus’ logic, which Crowley attempted to point out to him. Friday, The New York Times reported that NBC Entertainment is looking to partner with another production company in order to produce the NBC miniseries regarding Hillary Clinton. That company is Fox Television. Apparently, Priebus missed the memo on that deal, but he doesn’t seem to think the two situations are related at all.

His response to Crowley:

I’m not going to boycott Diane Lane [for playing Hillary Clinton]! It’s not her fault she decided to take a script. I’m not going to boycott the food trucks that service all of the same companies. Candy, some researcher at CNN or NBC worked for a few days to find some little connection somewhere down the road to bring something into this debate. I think it’s totally ridiculous and stupid.

So, this must be one of those “apples and oranges” kinds of things?

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Edited/Published by: SB

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