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McCormack: Clinton Can't Run Away from Failed Reset, 'So She Has to Spin It as Something Positive'

Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack discussed Hillary Clinton's remarks Thursday that the Russian reset had worked, saying Clinton couldn't "run away from this issue" and has to spin it the best she can.

The reset of U.S.-Russian relations included Clinton giving the Russian foreign minister a ceremonial reset  button, but with recent Russian aggression in Crimea, support for U.S. enemies like Syria and Iran, and its alleged role in the shooting down of a commercial airliner last week, the souring relations have become a sore spot for the former Secretary of State.

McCormack pointed out Clinton, a potential candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, also called the 2009 reset a "brilliant stroke" during a June interview with BBC.

"It sounded like it might have been a gaffe, but she doubled down again today," McCormack told On the Record. "The reason she did, I think, is pretty obvious. She is the one back there holding that fake reset button back in 2009 with the Russian foreign minister, pressing it for a photo op. She can't run away from this issue, so she has to spin it as something positive. I don't think you can. I think that her critics would rightly argue that was a policy of appeasement ... How's that working out? Every place you turn, Ukraine, Syria, Iran, Russia has been emboldened. They haven't come around to our thinking, and it's just not working out very well for them."