Clinton Addresses Planted Questions Flap

As noted in Starting Gate this morning, Hillary Clinton has been getting heat over the fact that her aides have, on more than one occasion, given suggestions to audience members at campaign events as to what they should ask the candidate. Yesterday in Waterloo, Iowa, Clinton addressed the issue.

"It was news to me and neither I nor my campaign approve of that," she said, according to CBS News' Fernando Suarez. "It will certainly not be tolerated."

Pressed about other instances in which this has taken place, Clinton said "you know everything I know."

Rival John Edwards is hammering Clinton over the issue, suggesting it's "what George Bush does."

"I mean if you actually want to be president of the United States, you go out, you face people–which I've done–in every one of the 99 counties in Iowa and answer their questions," said Edwards. "We don't stage questions. We go in and answer the questions that are asked, and that's the way it's supposed to work in the caucus process."

Clinton has been battling her rivals' claims that hers is a calculating, inauthentic campaign, and Edwards is using this story to push that argument forward. Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee, who said Clinton was unaware of the planted questions, responded to Edwards with this statement, according to the New York Times: "Senator Clinton has taken hundreds of questions here in Iowa and across the country from voters and reporters, and she will continue to. What George Bush does is attack the Democrats and divide the country, and John Edwards's campaign is resembling that more and more every day."