The case that Hillary Clinton has been a “great” secretary of state is “exceedingly weak,” Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume argued on Sunday.
According to Hume, there’s nothing exceptional in the list of accomplishments Mrs. Clinton’s proponents use to tout her four years as America’s top diplomat.
“I think those examples you cited would add up to a case for her competence,” Hume said during this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” after host Chris Wallace laid out a list of Clinton’s alleged accomplishments.
“They do not add up to a case for greatness. After all, the groundwork on Burma had been done by the previous administration and the administration properly followed through on it. You look across the world now at the major issues. Are Arabs and Israelis closer to peace? How about Iran and North Korea and their nuclear programs: Have they been halted or seriously set back?”
“Has the ‘reset’ with Russia, which she so famously introduced with the photo-op in Moscow with the reset button, has that led to a new and more cooperative relationship?” he continued.
“Is there a ‘Clinton Doctrine’ that we can identify that she has articulated and formed as secretary of state? Are there major treaties that she has undertaken and negotiated through to a successful conclusion? I think the answer to all those questions is that she has not. And those are the kinds of things that might mark her as a great secretary of state.”
Hume did concede that Clinton kept herself busy overseas, but doubted that was enough to qualify her historically as a great secretary of state.
“She has certainly been industrious,” Hume said. “She has visited 112 countries. Her conduct as secretary of state has been highly dignified. She does her homework. There have been no gaffes or blunders.”
“So I think she has been a capable and hard-working secretary of state, but I think the case for her being a great secretary of state is exceedingly weak.”