Mark Halperin came on the side of child leashing and human herding on Monday, as the With All Due Respect co-host attempted to explain away a hostile incident between the Clinton campaign and the media.
Clinton campaign aides in New Hampshire corralled reporters with rope, forcing them to embarrassingly walk through a Fourth of July parade in a makeshift pen. Pictures of reporters behind the rope went viral over the weekend, drawing criticism from many.
It was yet another self-inflicted mistake for the campaign that has a rough relationship with the press for its heavy-handed treatment of reporters.
None of that mattered to Halperin, however. To him, Clinton’s "control freakishness" was "purely logistical."
"I am going to take as much heat as Hillary Clinton for this. It was purely logistical. There was a parade. They did not want the press present so they would miss the whole parade," Halperin said in defense of the same campaign that pre-screened campaign event attendees and avoided exposure to voting Americans for months.
Halperin then blamed the victim, claiming the wild press corps had to be "contained" so they did not ruin Independence Day.
"They were ruining the parade by running around and this was a way to keep them contained and moving forward, it looks horrible, but it was purely logistics," Halperin said. "I think the Clinton campaign is getting hugely bum-rapped for this."
Heidi Przybyla, filling in on the show, defended the First Amendment and the mistreated reporters.
"Her press corps was strung along by campaign aides holding ropes like common bovine creatures," Przybyla said.
"Given the history, they had to see this coming. It was stupid to do this," she continued.
Halperin gave no indication whether he would approve the Washington Free Beacon’s seven alternative press-containment strategies for Clinton.