Bathroom Distance Was Cause For Concern For Clinton Campaign Before Debate

Chuck Ross

Reporter

3:11 AM 12/21/2015
A gender gap of sorts is being blamed for an embarrassing moment during Saturday’s presidential debate when Hillary Clinton returned late to the debate stage after taking a bathroom break.

According to The New York Times, Clinton campaign vice chairwoman, Huma Abedin, expressed concern to debate organizers before Saturday’s contest, held in the gymnasium of St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, over the relatively long trek the Democratic front-runner would have to make to go to the bathroom.

Facilities for Clinton’s debate opponents, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, were “significantly closer” to the debate venue, The Times reported.

Anticipating a problem, Abedin reportedly timed how long it would take Clinton to walk from podium to potty and determined that a round-trip would take the former secretary of state three minutes and 30 seconds of walking time. That posed a problem because of ABC News’s five minute commercial break, which was dictated by the network’s live broadcasting schedule.

Sorry,” Clinton deadpanned after settling behind her podium.

According to The Times, Abedin had informed Clinton before the debate of the time constraint.

Part of that precaution could have stemmed from a similar moment during the first Democratic debate, held in Las Vegas in October. But in that case, CNN moderator Anderson Cooper waited to resume the debate until Clinton returned to the stage.
“And welcome back to this CNN democratic presidential debate. It has been quite a night so far. We are in the final block of this debate. All the candidates are back, which I’m very happy to see. It’s a long story. Let’s continue. Secretary Clinton, welcome back,” Cooper said.

“Well, thank you,” Clinton replied. “You know, it does take me a little longer. That’s all I can say.”

There are all kinds of theories out there.  One was – if you add having to change “depends” takes a little longer. The other one was that it was surprising that this wasn’t negotiated for Clinton by requesting a port-a- potty outside the debate area.

Another story was that she was in the process of  negotiating with the building management into making the men’s restroom into a men/women’s restroom or what is called a “public restroom.”

But in the end, what I think really happened was – they took a wrong turn and got lost.

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