DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz would not confirm Hillary Clinton’s claim that she tried to join the Marines, dodging host Andrea Mitchell’s questions and attacking her for asking about the story.
Mitchell asked Schultz "why on earth" Hillary Clinton would "go to a Marine recruiter" even though she was "actively against the war in Vietnam," and settled down in Arkansas with Bill Clinton at the time.
"With all due respect, Andrea, why on earth are we talking about this?" Schultz asked.
"Well, because she brought it up in New Hampshire the other day," Mitchell said. "If she hadn't brought it up, it would not be an issue in this campaign."
Schultz went on to extoll the significance of the story, which "illustrated […] that we have made a lot of progress in America." She said that the story is "an important way" to spark a conservation about making "progress for women in this country."
Mitchell interrupted Schultz, asking her again, "Did this happen?"
"You have a presidential candidate, the frontrunner in the Democratic Party, saying something happened which is quite strikingly dissonant to people who knew her back then," Mitchell said.
"I just find it really unreasonable, Andrea," she said, skirting the question. "This is a personal story that Hillary Clinton has told, and it's not the first time she told it."
"This is a personal story of Hillary Clinton's," she said again, "It is one that I have heard over the last few days is not where you can go back and ask a recruiter whether that happened."
"She was using it as an illustration, and it's not the first time she raised it, and it's an appropriate illustration and a personal experience," she said, still skirting Mitchell’s question.