Sunday School 1/30/11: Hillary makes the rounds

The focus of most of the talk shows today was the evolving situation in Egypt, and the spotlight was squarely on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. We’ve got excerpts from all of her appearances. 

On NBC’s Meet the Press, in response to David Gregory’s question on whether Mubarak should stay in power: “I believe strongly that we are only at the beginning of what is unfolding in Egypt. I’m not going to go into hypotheticals and speculation, other than to say that President Mubarak and his government have been an important partner to the United States.” 

Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Candy Crowley asked about Mubarak’s ability to stay in power, even if he reaches out to peaceful opponents, and even given that there are already elections scheduled within the next few weeks, would that be enough?  “Well, no. Much has to be done. And we are not advocating any specific outcome. We are advocating that the government, the representatives of the civil society, the political opposition and activists begin a dialogue to chart a course…”

Bob Schieffer (CBS News' Face the Nation) questioned whether the appointment of a vice president is a step in the right direction: “Well, it’s something that American Government representatives have been urging and requesting for 30 years… So yes, it’s something we have said is absolutely imperative.” 

Not to be left out, on Fox News Sunday Chris Wallace wondered whether Americans should leave Cairo. “Well, we are following the conditions for American citizens extremely closely. This is one of my highest responsibilities, Chris. And we have authorized voluntary departure, which means that we will assist American citizens to leave Egypt. Thankfully, right now, there are no reports of Americans killed or injured.” 

On ABC’s This Week with Christiane Amanpour, the host was in Egypt herself. Responding to Amanpour’s statement that folks in the streets were angry at the US and thinking that we were ‘hedging our bets’ by seeming to support Mubarak, “We believe that democracy, human rights, economic reform are in the best interests of the Egyptian people… People are not going to stand by any longer and not be given the opportunity to fulfill their own God-given potential.” 

It will be interesting watching things continue to unfold.