Dana Perino Stands By Hillary Clinton After Heated Epstein Testimony

In a rare show of bipartisan solidarity, Fox News anchor Dana Perino defended former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a Tuesday, March 3, broadcast following Clinton’s closed-door testimony regarding her relationship with deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Clinton’s six-hour testimony included several heated moments, most notably involving Republican congresswomen, Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Nancy Mace (R-S.C.).

Clinton nearly walked out and threatened to stay in contempt “until the cows come home” after learning Boebert had leaked a photo of the closed-door deposition to a right-wing commentator.

The former first lady got into it with Mace when the South Carolina congresswoman accused her of “obfuscating” fundraising events involving Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Epstein.

Clinton reacted with disbelief when questioned about “Pizzagate,” the debunked conspiracy theory that emerged during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, falsely alleging that a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant, Comet Ping Pong, was the center of a child s— trafficking ring involving high-ranking Democratic Party officials.

She called the conspiracy theory “totally made up” and “outrageous.”

Perino, former White House Press Secretary under President George W. Bush, stated, “I don’t blame her for getting mad,” after Clinton expressed frustration to reporters about being questioned on various conspiracy theories during her deposition.

The America’s Newsroom co-anchor criticized Republicans for insisting on a closed-door hearing instead of a public one, suggesting they hoped for “great information” that ultimately did not materialize in the released tapes.

“The Clintons asked for a public hearing, and they were denied a public hearing because they wanted to do it behind closed doors because they were gonna get all of this great information out of it,” Perino said. “Well, now we know — you can look at the tape, is there great information that came out of it?”

Perino, who moonlights as co-host on Fox’s The Five, also blasted the decision to leak a photo from the proceedings to social media, describing it as a violation of rules that deserved to be “slapped down.”

Unlike the majority of her Fox News colleagues, Perino has occasionally offered balanced commentary on Clinton, such as providing “dos and don’ts” for her 2015 Benghazi hearing and arguing in 2015 that people should vote for Clinton based on her being the “best person for the job” rather than just because she is a woman.

Perino was the first Republican woman to hold the position of White House press secretary.

The Fox News host advised that it was time for Republicans to be more selective with their political targets, and implied that their decades-long fixation on Clinton should end.

“I think that for the Republicans, I would say: There’s a lot of problems in this country, pick your battles. This isn’t one of them,” she said.