Hillary Clinton supporter Howard Dean said Wednesday that she shouldn't do a press conferences because the media's questions aren't "legitimate" and the press doesn't treat her fairly.
Dean's rant came as Clinton allies have pushed back strongly on an Associated Press report showing more than half of the private parties that met with her as secretary of state were financial contributors to the Clinton Foundation. Campaign manager Robby Mook calling the story and its implications of pay-for-play "outrageous."
Dean was no exception, defending that Clinton hasn't held a true press conference since last December.
"She has no reason to trust the press corps, and the so-called email scandal is one of the reasons," he said. "Look what AP did today. They completely screwed up their story. They had 100 appointments, or 85 or whatever it was that she made, out of 1,800 appointments and tried to make a big deal out of it. Having a press conference, in my view, is not the solution to this. You just get more of the same."
MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing cut over Dean, saying, "Answering legitimate questions from legitimate press is more of the same?"
"The trouble is the questions aren't legitimate, and the press isn't legitimate," Dean said.
Dean cited left-wing explainer site Vox.com criticizing the AP story as proof of the story's wrongness.
"They were called out by Vox, which is another press organ," Dean said. "So, I mean, that's the problem. The press is gotten to be where it's all about the lowest common denominator ... They don't treat people in an even-handed way, and that is why, in my view, Hillary Clinton should not do press conferences ... The press conference becomes a feeding frenzy, it becomes a one-upmanship and who can get the best story."
Note: This article initially referred to MSNBC's Chris Jansing as Kate Snow. This has been corrected.