Both ABC and NBC finally found the time to report on the secret meeting between former President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, after omitting it Wednesday night and Thursday morning. But both tried to play the encounter off as harmless with nothing to worry about. “Aides to Bill Clinton and Lynch say it was a chance meeting, and they were simply exchanging pleasantries,” reported ABC’s Tom Llamas on World News Tonight, “The conversation, she insists, all personal, no business.”
Clinton fan girl Andrea Mitchell made the pair’s argument for them on NBC’s Nightly News:
They run into each other on the tarmac at the airport. It's 108 degrees so they board her air-conditioned government plane along with her husband and visit for 30 minutes … Lynch saying it was social about golf, grandchildren and visits each had paid to former Attorney General Janet Reno who is ailing.
Both whined that Donald Trump used the meeting to “pounce” on Clinton and Lynch. “Tonight, Donald Trump accusing Attorney General Loretta lynch of an ethical breach after she met with President Bill Clinton on the tarmac of a Phoenix airport for 30 minutes,” Llamas said.
They also argued that the real problem with the situation was the “optics” of it.” “The optics of the chance meeting causing an uproar because it comes at a time when the Justice Department is looking into Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server,” said anchor Lester Holt leading into the segment.
But Correspondent Lourdes Meluza on Spanish-language network Univision noted what the real problem with their encounter was, “under the law, people with personal interests in a case should not have contact [with investigators].” The other Spanish-language network Telemundo continued to ignore issue and failed to report it.