Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine stumbled through his interview Thursday morning on CBS as he tried to defend his running mate, Hillary Clinton, for not holding press conferences.
CBS correspondent DeMarco Morgan said that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump traveled to Mexico to speak to Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto on Wednesday and then immediately opened the floor to questions from the press. Morgan then asked Kaine when Clinton was going to open the floor to questions from the press at her events.
"You see Hillary take questions from reporters every day. She talks to the press everywhere she goes," Kaine said.
"Really?" CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell interjected.
Kaine responded that he did not really know what the difference was between holding a press conference and talking to the press everywhere she goes.
"But just to set the record straight, it has been 272 days since she has had a formal news conference," O’Donnell said.
Kaine questioned that number and said he recalled Clinton holding a press conference in early August with the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists. While the Clinton campaign classified that as a press conference, the Huffington Post reported that many national political journalists did not consider that event a press conference because the five journalists asking questions were pre-selected.
O’Donnell continued her questioning and asked Kaine about transparency.
"The New York Times recently reported, and this is true I have covered, that unlike any other presidential nominee in history, she is not allowing journalists to accompany her on the campaign plane. This is something that has been standard since I’ve covered presidential campaigns. Why is that the case? Do you believe in transparency? Do you think this will change?" O’Donnell asked.
Kaine dodged the question and talked about his own personal experience on the campaign trail traveling with the press.
"Well, I mean, just–I’m going to use my own example. I’m traveling too, and I travel in a small plane and the press travels in a plane with me. We are not on the plane together, but that is going to change in about a week. And I think that is fairly common during campaigns that you often fly in small planes and that you get to the end, you start flying in larger planes," Kaine said.
Kaine anticipated the campaign bringing the press aboard its campaign planes after Labor Day weekend.
At the end of the interview, CBS anchor Josh Elliott told Kaine that they look forward to the next press conference.