Scott Walker and Hillary Clinton may very well face off against other in the general election for president next year, but the Republican from Wisconsin has claimed to have had Clinton’s number for more than a decade. Long before he had become a national figure, Walker said on a Wisconsin radio show that the first lady and future senator and secretary of state polls best when “people feel a bit sympathetic for her having to be married to Bill.”
Back in 1999, Walker was a 31-year-old state assemblyman, while Clinton was preparing to run for the U.S. Senate in New York as a Democrat. In January of that year, the future Badger State governor called into Bob and Brian, a popular morning radio talk show based in Milwaukee and heard throughout the state.
Among Walker’s comments about the state and national political news was his assessment of Clinton’s political assets and liabilities.
“Her poll numbers do very, very well when she’s not talking about much and when, quite frankly, when people feel a bit sympathetic for her having to be married to Bill,” Walker said. “But when she talks about policy, for example when she talked about health care a few years back, her numbers take a major dive.”
Listen to the clip of the conversation below, from Bob and Brian‘s show archives:
Walker, who is in his second term as Wisconsin governor, has not yet announced whether he is running for president.
After Clinton announced Sunday she would be running for president in 2016, Walker offered criticisms of the former secretary’s foreign policy credentials:
As Secretary of State @HillaryClinton was the architect of the failed foreign policy we’re seeing executed by President Obama today. -SKW
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) April 12, 2015
.@HillaryClinton has the same Washington-knows-best mentality people around the country are looking to move beyond. – SKW
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) April 12, 2015
