[Keilar:] We are getting new glimpses into Hillary Clinton's lovehate relationship with the news media as she weighs a 2016 presidential bid. CNN has examined previously unseen documents that shed new light on Clinton's response to negative coverage when she was first lady. And just yesterday, Clinton spoke publicly about hanging tough under fire.
[Hillary Clinton, Former Secretary Of State:] One of the best pieces of advice that I've ever heard from anyone is Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1920s who said that, you know, women in politics or in public roles should grow skin like a rhinoceros.
[Keilar:] Hillary Clinton offered some of her own leadership advice to women this week at a conference in New York City.
[Clinton:] There's an old, you know, saying that your critics can be your best friends if you listen to them and learn from them but don't get dragged down by them.
[Keilar:] Her comments come as new documents reveal Clinton has held a great distrust of the media from before her time as first lady. Clinton calls the press complete hypocrites, according to diary entries from her close confidante Diane Blair. "They say they want the truth, want power to be transparent but in fact they prefer backstage manipulation of Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, Bess Truman, Rosalynn Carter," Blair recounts Clinton saying. Carl Bernstein wrote a biography of Hillary Clinton. Shortly after her husband's 1992 win, Hillary received this advice about dealing with reporters from First Lady Barbara Bush.
[Carl Bernstein, Author, "a Woman In Charge":] Beware of this crowd, you don't want to have anything to do with them. And if you are going to be quoted, say it loud and clear and make sure you say it damn loud that they're not to be trusted. And Hillary said to Barbara Bush, I've already had some experience with that. And I know that already.
[Keilar:] In the White House, the Clintons squared off against the press over the firing of White House travel office employees, investigations into White House counsel Vince Foster's suicide, the list went on.
[Bernstein:] Clintons felt they were being attacked over health care, over this so-called scandal in Whitewater, and in face they really hadn't done anything wrong, in in Whitewater but they sure had handled it badly, and once again this pattern of non-candor was established.
[Keilar:] Especially for Hillary Clinton who was more guarded than her husband. In January 1995, after two years in the White House, she told her friend that she did not know how history could be written on Bill Clinton's presidency with media reports being so wrong. Diane Blair wrote, "She said there was hardly a news story that she couldn't totally refute." And our chief political analyst Gloria Borger joining us now. I mean, we sort of looked there at Hillary Clinton, her days in Arkansas, her time in the White House as first lady.
[Gloria Borger, Cnn Chief Political Analyst:] Right.
[Keilar:] Do you think that she's done a lot to sort of rebuild her image since then and also separate herself from her husband?
[Borger:] Look, she had an unsuccessful presidential campaign in which she was the prohibitive favorite and she lost to Barack Obama, and that was obviously hurtful. I would argue she was a hugely successful senator and a very successful secretary of state. Even after all of the Benghazi controversy over half the people in this country see her as a successful secretary of state. If she runs, she's going to run on her experience of a lifetime, which is what she talked about in her last presidential bid. But people will look at her differently because she has truly sort of separated her achievements from those of Bill Clinton who, by the way, is also going to be very hurtful to her this time if she runs because he's a lot more popular than he ever was. Right?
[Keilar:] And certainly yes, and the time in the State Department, I think, was sort of her reset for the poor management of her campaign that she got came under so much fire.
[Borger:] Right. You know, and also, one other thing about Hillary Clinton, when she first became secretary of state, people were saying, oh, how could Barack Obama appoint her? She would never be a member of the team of rivals and it turned out that she was a team player and we'll see what she writes about her in memoir that's coming out this summer but she was a team player and people who love Barack Obama and didn't like Hillary Clinton, they are now going to work for Hillary Clinton.
[Keilar:] Yes.
[Borger:] Because they respected the way she behaved when she was on her former opponent's team and that's not a small thing.
[Keilar:] No. And she was so she was so influential.
[Borger:] Yes.
[Keilar:] And so now, as everyone is wondering, is she going to run, is she not going to run? I mean, is she sort of damned if she does and damned if she doesn't when she speaks publicly?
[Borger:] Right. Look, she dominates the headlines. Even when she doesn't have anything to do with the making of the headlines. I mean, you were talking about her friend, Mrs. Blair's diaries which, of course, Hillary Clinton didn't write but these are private conversations that were dredged up from decades ago and she is still in the headlines and we're still talking about how she feels about the press. In many ways, a lot of us grew up looking at Hillary. We feel like we know her because we watched her in the White House or we watched her as a senator, we watched her run for the presidency. We watched her as secretary of state. So everybody comes to her with a certain bias that they already have because they think they know her. I think her challenge is difficult. It's to reintroduce herself as who she is really comfortable being. I think you saw that when she was secretary of state and I think she's got to sort of figure out a way to do that and to say, look, you know, I am a candidate who understands the way this country needs to move and change.
[Keilar:] Yes. To capitalize on her experience without seeming like, you know, kind of
[Borger:] She's 10 generations ago.
[Keilar:] Exactly.
[Borger:] Right.
[Keilar:] So that point
[Borger:] Yes.
[Keilar:] You know, one of the stories that was written when President Obama was elected was you had John McCain who was of a different generation.
[Borger:] Right.
[Keilar:] And that voters were ready for someone of a new generation. Hillary Clinton is a baby boomer. And if she does run
[Borger:] Right.
[Keilar:] she'll be running against younger folks, maybe.
[Borger:] Right.
[Keilar:] Chris Christie maybe not, Rand Paul. We're looking at Marco Rubio.
[Borger:] Right.
[Keilar:] Paul Ryan. These guys are of a different generation. Will that work against her, do you think?
[Borger:] You know what, she's a woman and sometimes it takes women a lot longer to get to the place that men get to a little bit earlier in life.
[Keilar:] Yes.
[Borger:] And so I think I don't think I don't think it would be held against her and also, by the way, I think there's this question about Republicans saying Barack Obama did not have enough experience to be president of the United States, his tenure as president has proven that. Well, it's been hard for them to turn around and say, but by the way, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz, who are newbies in the Senate, just like Barack Obama was, should then get the nomination because then they can't make that argument anymore and you know, it's a little bit difficult for them. So, you know, I think the fact that it's taken Hillary Clinton longer to get to where she is as a woman
[Keilar:] Yes. Also
[Borger:] Fine.
[Keilar:] We have longevity, right? This is one of the advantages of being a woman, I would say.
[Borger:] Right. Right. And yes and we change with the times.
[Keilar:] All right. Gloria Borger, thanks so much.
[Borger:] Thanks, Brianna.
[Keilar:] Now we have pictures right now of President Obama's plane, Air Force One, of course landing in Fresno, if we can pull that up. He is going to be out west talking about the terrible drought conditions in the area plaguing area farmers. A lot of people conserving water. It's something that we are going to be following and you see Air Force One landing there in Fresno, California, in the Central Valley. And we are also awaiting a verdict in a closely watched case being called the loud music trial. This has a Florida man facing a murder charge. The jury continuing to deliberate. The case has attracted national attention since the beginning. There are parallels here to the killing of Trayvon Martin and that trial of George Zimmerman. Similar overtones here of race and self-defense. In this case, Michael Dunn claimed that he was acting in self- defense when he fired on an SUV with four teenagers inside after confronting them about the loud music they were playing. Well, Dunn said that he saw one of the teens grabbing a gun. So Dunn fired 10 shots. Three of them hit 17-year-old Jordan Davis who died. No gun was ever found in the teen's car. No gun. Dunn was charged with first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder. And just ahead, we've got the latest from Sochi where there's a battle brewing over the U.S. speed skaters' uniforms. That's right. Could they be to blame for a disappointing showing? And Vladimir Putin paid a surprise visit to Team USA. This is really interesting. You want to stick around for this. Find out what why the Russian president was at the USA House.