Dem VP Candidate Defends Clinton's Questionable Media Availability

As the days drag on since Hillary Clinton's most recent formal news conference, the candidate and her aides have struggled to explain why she refuses to hold one.

The latest attempt came Thursday, when Clinton's running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, was asked about the Democratic presidential nominee's limited interactions with the media during an interview with CBS News.

“Hillary takes questions from reporters every day. She does,” Kaine said. “She talks to the press everywhere she goes.”

This depiction, however, is largely inaccurate.

Clinton has only stopped to take questions from her traveling press corps a handful of times this year. It's always unannounced with no podium, limited in the number of reporters there, and never lasts more than 10 minutes. (Trump, on the flip side, has conducted numerous wide-ranging news conferences that are announced in advance.)

More often than not, Clinton simply ignores questions from the traveling press, even when they come face-to-face.

At a recent campaign stop in Reno, Nevada, for instance, a group of reporters repeatedly tried to ask Clinton questions during a visit to a coffee shop. But Clinton, who had just been presented with a platter of chocolates, wouldn’t indulge.

“Oh, my gosh. This is really good. It really is," she said, avoiding the questions as she bit into a salted caramel truffle. "I want you to offer it all to the press. They are so wonderful. So cooperative, so hardworking, they all deserve a piece of chocolate.”

As reporters attempted again to throw out a question, she interjected again: "No, no, no you’ll love this. So good. Everybody try one."

It has been 271 days since Clinton held a formal news conference. The last one was Dec. 4.

It is true that she has held several interviews with local and national reporters, including this one. The practice of choosing one-on-one interviews instead of news conferences, however, allows the campaign more control over the message: They get to choose who interviews Clinton and when.

When asked about when she’ll hold a news conference during a recent phone interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Clinton immediately quipped: “Well, Anderson, I'm talking to you right now.”

For Kaine’s part, he has gathered informally to take questions from his press corps four times since becoming the vice presidential nominee in late-July. He does local interviews routinely, but often ignores questions from the traveling press when approached on the rope line at events.

ABC News' Josh Haskell and Jessica Hopper contributed to this report.

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