Hillary Clinton's campaign bosses whined about MSNBC on Wednesday after Joe Scarborough accused Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook of "tiptoeing into Gary Johnson territory."
The "Morning Joe" host criticized Mook for repeatedly refusing to answer questions about his candidate's potential policies on Syria and the situation in Aleppo, and instead, attempting to turn the conversation to Donald Trump's refusal to outline his own plans to defeat the Islamic State.
"We love you, buddy, but what are you here for if you can't answer basic questions?" Scarborough asked Mook, after panelists posed questions to him concerning Clinton's response to Syria and the ongoing violence in Aleppo, including an airstrike on a humanitarian supply convoy.
"Why do we have you here?"
But Mook, insisting the show's panel was asking "new policy questions," replied that Scarborough and others would "have to ask the secretary."
"New?" Scarborough shot back. "Aleppo's been around for — Syria's been around for some time. The red line being drawn has been around for some time. I'm not being difficult here at all. These are basic questions."
Scarborough's remark about Gary Johnson referred to a recent gaffe by the Libertarian presidential candidate who didn't recognize Aleppo as the city at the center of the humanitarian crisis spawned by Syria's civil war.
Soon after, the Clinton campaign took to Twitter to accuse MSNBC of unfair treatment.
The verbal fisticuffs on "Morning Joe" began after the conversation switched to foreign policy in response to an appearance by Bassma Kodmani, a member of the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee and executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative, who addressed her country's humanitarian crisis.
"Obviously, she's been out of office for some time now," Mook responded to a question from show co-host Willie Geist about Clinton and her actions concerning Syria.
"I think she's well regarded for her leadership as secretary of state. She came out of that office with a 70 percent approval rating..." Mook shot back.
"She, in contrast to Donald Trump, has released a clear and decisive plan to defeat ISIS. Donald Trump has said that he thinks he knows more about it than the generals and refuses to tell us what his secret plan is."
"Obviously she was out of her office when Assad used chemical weapons," Geist replied. "Was it a mistake to draw the red line if the president was not willing to do something about it when it was crossed?"
"Well, as you pointed out, the decision regarding that was made after she was out of office, so I think you'd have to ask President [Barack] Obama," said Mook.
But he referred other questions to Clinton, including about her response when Obama's "red line" was crossed by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
"I think you'd have to ask her about that question, how she would characterize it," Mook said. "Look, what matters is what she is going to do as president. As I said, she has a clear plan to defeat ISIS. Donald Trump does not. It's a secret. He won't tell anybody what it is and he says he knows more than the generals. I think the choice is clear."
Clinton has already said she'll work with allies to dismantle the "safe harbor in Syria and Iraq," he continued.
"She will harden our defenses here at home and she will dismantle their network around the world and a lot of that is going to happen in cyberspace and through digital communications. So you can go on our website and read the full plan there."
But when political commentator Mike Barnicle asked Mook for Clinton's specific plans for humanitarian aid for Aleppo, and how she'd respond to the potential of a "war crime" being committed through the bombing of a relief convoy, Mook reverted to insisting he would "have to ask her that question. That's a matter of policy and I'm going to leave it for her."
"I'm simply saying that she has laid out a plan to defeat ISIS and if there are new questions pertaining to Aleppo, I'm going to need to let her answer those, and she will answer those in the debate. We look forward to her having the opportunity to do that," Mook concluded.
"And as I said, Donald Trump has been able, unable, rather, to release a plan and we hope that he will reveal what his plans are in the debate."