Hillary's communications director Jen Palmieri sounded utterly terrified facing questions from George Stephanopoulos.

Palmieri should have been perfectly prepared. She's the communications director so she should be an ace at communications. She knew the precise issue she would be asked to address: Hillary's statement, in the previous night's debate, that Donald Trump is "ISIS's best recruiter" and that ISIS is "going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists." Palmieri knew everyone was demanding to know whether there were actual videos. All she needed was a packaged answer, the best answer under the circumstances, and to deliver that answer with confidence. Here's the video. Here's the transcript.

Why did she fumble, look scared, and speak in a trembling voice?! 

Palmieri's segment followed a phone interview with Donald Trump, Donald Trump had just totally overwhelmed Stephanopoulos, and Stephanopoulos's first question to Palmieri incorporated the formidible Trump: "Your response to Donald Trump?" Maybe she was prepared, but Donald Trump unnerved her. She began:

PALMIERI: The -- you know, Donald Trump I think was talking -- you know, what Secretary Clinton was saying last night is that one of the many dangerous things about Donald Trump is that his (inaudible) rhetoric say we shouldn't allow Muslim refugees into the country is being used -- and this is something that the (inaudible) international group who monitors social media and -- on ISIS has said...

So she starts out inaudible and incoherent! Stephanopoulos interrupts:

STEPHANOPOULOS: But there have been no videos.

PALMIERI: Well, what they have said is that they are using him. They -- he's being used in social media by ISIS as propaganda. She didn't have a particular video in mind, but he is being used in social media. And, you know, what they haven't found is -- the group hasn't found a video that, you know, Mr. Trump keeps talking about, this alleged mystery video of thousands of people in Jersey cheering the collapse of the World Trade Center. But it is true that they -- he is being used in social media by ISIS to help recruit...

What "group"? This is the communications director! She tries to switch to the subject of something video-related that Trump has gotten wrong, but there's no elegant pivot. She's awkwardly, grudgingly admitted that there is no video, then seems to hope she can get out of a jam by likening Hillary to Trump. He too makes big, politically motivated assertions based on videos that he's only guessing might exist.

Stephanopoulos does the same interruption again:

STEPHANOPOULOS: To be fair, you don't have a video, as she said...

PALMIERI: But I'm referring to a specific video.

I went back to the video — the video of the show — and the transcript is wrong there. Palmieri said "She's not referring to a specific video." Palmieri was not as incoherent as the transcript makes her sound.

PALMIERI: But he is being used in social media by ISIS as propaganda -- cites International Group, which monitors -- this is what they do, they monitor ISIS on social media, they monitor other terrorist groups on social media, to see what they are using. And they have said that they are using him in social media as propaganda to help recruit supporters.

Okay, now I know what "the group" is! So there's something called International Group that would have the video that HC talked about. So there sort of is video, there must be video, the International Group should have video, but there's no specific video.

Watching Palmieri, I thought: Susan Rice. Now, Susan Rice was sent out to the Sunday morning shows to cover for Hillary with a message about video and terrorism, and Rice delivered the prepared message with a calm, untroubled face and voice: On "This Week"— "a spontaneous — not a premeditated — response to what had transpired in Cairo," where "a few hours earlier, there was a violent protest that was undertaken in reaction to this very offensive video that was disseminated";  on "Face the Nation" — "what began spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo where, of course, as you know, there was a violent protest outside of our embassy– sparked by this hateful video";  on "Fox News Sunday," "a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo as a consequence of the video"; and on "Meet the Press" — "a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of– of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, which were prompted, of course, by the video." Of course!

Watching Palmieri, I was thinking, maybe she's freaked out — not at all like Susan Rice — because she remembers Susan Rice and she can think I'm the Susan Rice. Susan Rice, herself, was free of that frightening thought.

And by the way — and by the way, that's what Trump kept saying as he freaked out George Stephanopoulous: "And by the way..." — why doesn't Hillary Clinton go on any of these shows herself? Why does she rely on these wan emissaries? She can't face the nation — to name one of the shows — she can't face the nation on a Sunday morning? She was up late doing the debate. Does she need to sleep in? Bernie Sanders — he's 72 — was up and letting us see his face on one of yesterday's shows. And Donald Trump was just talking about how Hillary does one big event and "then she goes away for five or six days and you don’t see her. She goes to sleep."

How can she get away with not sitting down to face tough questions? Why is she able to rely on proxies at all? And with her power to find and designate mouthpieces, how is it she got such a mealy-mouthed mouthpiece as Jen Palmieri?!