New Castle, New Hampshire — Former Vice President Joe Biden recalled the biggest misstep of the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign during the last presidential election cycle was the reaction to the Access Hollywood tape that caught Donald Trump making candid comments about groping women.
“I think the biggest mistake that was made, and everyone underestimated it the last time about President Trump, the place he’s most comfortable is in the gutter arguing,” Biden said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire Friday.
Biden recalled his time on the campaign trail as a surrogate for the Clinton campaign and remembered ABC World News anchor Martha Raddatz was the moderator at the second debate right after the Access Hollywood tape came out. According to Biden, he gave his advice to the campaign before Clinton was due to debate Trump.
“I remember at the time saying, you know, the first question that’s going to be asked is they’re going to ask [Trump] about his comments about the Access Hollywood tape,” Biden said.
He continued, remembering the advice he gave, “And I said, I really think what should be done is — that they’re going to turn to [Clinton] and say, ‘What’s your view?’ And I said I’d respectfully recommend she stand there and … say, ‘Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. Let me tell you what I am going to do for the country,’ and not get into the debate, because it just drags it down.”
Biden went on to cite a Harvard study released after the 2016 election in which he said the researchers looked at everything that was said about the campaign and everything read about Clinton.
“And they said, ‘How much are related to issues that we’re discussing?’ 4%. F-O-U-R. I’m being deadly earnest. It was a tactic. The tactic is talk about the one place that you’re always comfortable. It’s like the big lie.”
Brian Fallon, who served as a senior aide on the Clinton 2016 campaign, took issue with Biden’s remarks, telling BuzzFeed, “Is he suggesting Hillary’s reaction to the Access Hollywood tape should have been, ‘Oh, nevermind?’” He added, “That is a pretty Mad Men-era mentality.”
