Hillary Clinton hasn’t held a formal press conference in 276 days, according to Donald Trump, but the traveling press corp aboard her campaign plane on Monday are saying a 25-minute Q&A session is close enough to be considered a press conference, which would make the count since her last 275 days.
“For those who care, consensus in press corp is that 25 minute Q&A on plane is a ‘press conference,’” Wall Street Journal national politics reporter Laura Meckler tweeted.
However, the Trump campaign came to a different consensus, and sent out a press release with the subject, “Hiding Hillary: Day 276.”
Clinton last took questions from reporters on July 31, according to the Wall Street Journal, so the conversation on the plane was a nice surprise for the traveling press corps.
This is notable either way, as Trump supporters have pointed to a July 7 Washington Post article titled, “Here’s exactly how long it has been since Hillary Clinton held a news conference,” as a way to criticize the Democratic nominee.
Clinton’s new campaign plane allows the candidate and the press to travel together, and Clinton decided to chat as it flew from a Labor Day picnic in Cleveland to one in the Quad Cities area of Iowa.
Trump often mentions that Clinton doesn’t speak to the press, while the Clinton campaign insists she speaks with the press all the time. Clinton’s campaign often points to “over 300” interviews that she has conducted this year, while Trump feels she should be available for more general media questioning that isn’t planned in advance.
On Monday, she discussed Labor Day and a few harder hitting topics, such as Russia messing with the U.S. election process with cyberattacks.
“We’ve never had a foreign adversarial power be already involved in our electoral process with the DNC hacks,” she said. “We’ve never had the nominee of one of our major parties urging the Russians to hack more. So I am grateful that this is being taken seriously and I want everyone–Democrat, Republican, independent–to understand the real threat that this represents.”
Hillary came back and talked to press briefly, says she'll talk more "formally" later pic.twitter.com/BmGASSbJct
— Liz Goodwin (@lizcgoodwin) September 5, 2016
For those who care, consensus in press corp is that 25 minute Q&A on plane is a "press conference." (How about another one tomorrow!)
— Laura Meckler (@laurameckler) September 5, 2016