Twitchy has reported on quite a few plants adorning Hillary Clinton town halls. Clinton usually calls on them last for dramatic effect, and they’re often children who read their questions awkwardly off of cue cards, only to have the candidate hug them for their innocence and insight.
The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple today reports on a grown man who has planted himself at two Clinton town halls and asked essentially the same question. It seems he wasn’t satisfied with Clinton’s original “canned” response.
Peak town hall: Same man asks similar question to Hillary Clinton at two different televised events: https://t.co/Q5vUmo1jJH
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) April 26, 2016
William Cobb, 46, who served six years in prison for robbery, appeared on “Good Morning America” last week to confront Clinton over her husband’s 1994 crime bill. How much money, he asked, would Clinton invest “in restoring the lives of the people and the communities that have been impacted adversely” by Bill Clinton’s crime bill?
Awkward…Watch As @HillaryClinton Is Confronted By Voter Affected By Her Support Of 1994 Crime Bill #HillaryOnGMAhttps://t.co/LRqhfZlaBB
— America Rising (@AmericaRising) April 21, 2016
Wemple spotted Cobb again Monday night on MSNBC, where he asked if Clinton were “willing to make billion-dollar investments and restore the lives of people and communities that have been adversely impacted by the 1994 crime bill.” Yes, Clinton responded.
Why ask the same question at two televised town halls? Cobb told Wemple that Clinton’s “canned” response on “Good Morning America” wasn’t satisfactory, and he wanted to get her on record pledging to spend billions to rehabilitate former inmates.
@maddow Curious why you brought the guy from @GMA to your live town hall tonight. Not that it's a bad Q&A, but odd. https://t.co/vmqYVbou5V
— Justin Cullifer (@justincullifer) April 26, 2016
Is it that easy to get called on at a candidate’s town hall? Wemple reports that Cobb, who is leaning toward Bernie Sanders, had assistance:
Cobb, who lives in Philadelphia, tells this blog that he got onto the “Good Morning America” set via his affiliation with JustLeadership USA, a group dedicated to “cutting the US correctional population in half by 2030, while reducing crime.” To get a spot at the MSNBC town hall, says Cobb, he leveraged his work with Community Legal Services, a group that provides legal help to low-income Philadelphians.
Just regular people …
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