Hillary Clinton spokeswoman Kristina Schake repeatedly dodged questions from MSNBC's José Díaz-Balart on Friday about whether her boss would release her Wall Street speech transcripts, repeating Clinton's line that she just wanted to be held to a fair transparency standard.
The topic came up again at Thursday night's debate, as CNN moderator Dana Bash pressed Clinton to put the saga behind her and release them. Clinton stood firm, saying she would do so "when everybody else does it."
Díaz-Balart hit Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) for failing to release his tax returns before wondering why it was so difficult for Clinton to do the same with her paid speeches, such as the three she gave to Goldman Sachs for more than $600,000.
"Then there's the issue of the transcripts," Díaz-Balart asked. "How difficult is it to release transcripts when you get paid a couple hundred Gs to say a speech? How difficult is it to release what you said?"
"Well, let's start with the transcripts," Schake said. "Sen. Sanders has been attacking Hillary on this for quite some time, but there is a basic standard for transparency in campaigns, and that's that you release your taxes. He's been attacking her on transcripts, but he himself has not released his taxes.
"As she said last night, she just wants to be held to the same standard as everyone else, and she'd like him to be, too."
"All right, so, what can we glean from this? Is she going to release her transcripts, and should Bernie Sanders release his tax returns?" Díaz-Balart asked. "Is she going to release the transcripts?"
"On the transcripts, she just wants to be held to the standard as everyone else," Schake said. "If that's the new standard, it's normally health records and your taxes. She has done that. She has—"
"No, Kristina!" Díaz-Balart said. "We're talking about transcripts! Transcripts of speeches."
"Yes, but I have to say again, if she's being held to a different standard that she needs to release her transcripts, so do all the other candidates in the race, and that's the point that she made last night," Schake said.
Díaz-Balart gave up, ending the interview.
Earlier Friday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.), a backer of Clinton, said she believed the frontrunner would eventually release them.