Hillary Clinton has not held a major press conference for more than 270 days, an unprecedented amount of time for a presidential candidate from one of the two major parties.
All previous presidential campaigns in recent memory have been punctuated by monthly (or frequently more often) major press conferences, with Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama giving dozens of them in the weeks and months leading up to their elections.
Clinton’s vice presidential running mate Tim Kaine tried to defend Clinton in a recent appearance on CBS, claiming that her recent taking of questions at a meeting of Hispanic and African-American newspaper publishers constituted a press conference. But this was, in fact, a falsehood, as Clinton’s questioners at the meeting were simply the event’s moderators (who happen to be in the journalism business), not members of the press covering her campaign (who were barred from asking questions).
For a veteran politician such as Kaine to blatantly lie on-air to the public and to news reporters shows he’s no better than Clinton when it comes to sticking hard-and-fast with the truth.