ABC News(NEW YORK) — It’s been 272 days since Hillary Clinton’s last press conference. But Clinton’s lead press secretary, Brian Fallon, vows that if elected, “Hillary Clinton will hold press conferences.”
“But the frequency of them is something that would just play out as time went on,” he added.
On this week’s episode of the “Powerhouse Politics” podcast, Brian Fallon promised greater interaction between Clinton and the press on the campaign trail, and said that he expects the Democratic nominee to hold a press conference “soon.”
“The amount of interaction can only go up,” Fallon said, noting that the traveling press will soon be flying with Clinton on her new campaign plane.
“I’m sure that will bring with it a lot of opportunities for additional access to the candidate and interactions between her and the traveling press corps that covers her every day,” Fallon told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl and ABC News Political Director Rick Klein on the podcast.
“We are very respectful of the press and the job that they have to do,” Fallon continued. “We have done a lot of interviews, but I know that no matter how many questions we answer in a variety of formats, it is the press’s job to always demand more access. We respect that and so we’re going to seek further ways to accommodate that in the remaining months of the campaign.”
Fallon later expressed confidence that the larger plane will yield greater face time between Clinton and the traveling press, explaining that “she will interact with them to a good extent when we’re traveling with them on the same plane.”
He also pointed to a variety of local media and national television interviews, as well as press gaggles on the road “from time to time,” as evidence of Clinton’s availability to the press and outreach to voters in battleground states.
Yet before that can happen, Clinton faces tightening poll numbers with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump leading up to the November election.
“It is inevitable that the race will even further tighten than what we’ve seen in the last couple weeks. There was no doubt that coming out of the convention, we had a pretty significant bounce,” Fallon explained, later adding, “We always perceived that the race would tighten around Labor Day because once Donald Trump stopped committing unforced errors, he could probably get a little bit closer to consolidating the Republicans that defected from him — again — after he went after the Khan family, and that would naturally mean that the race would tighten a bit.”
Fallon also said the Clinton campaign has not yet been contacted by Henry Kissinger or George Shultz, despite recent reports that the former Republican secretaries of state are considering a joint endorsement of Clinton.
“I don’t know what the basis is. We have not heard from Mr. Shultz or from Mr. Kissinger on this, nor have we sought their endorsement,” said Fallon. But the campaign spokesman expressed that the potential endorsement is “testimony to the degree to which Republicans are fleeing the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency.”
ABC News reporter Ali Rogin, fresh off the campaign trail in Arizona, also joined the “Powerhouse Politics” podcast to discuss Trump’s recent immigration speech in the state, as well as Sen. John McCain’s primary race victory this week.
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