Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart suggested Tuesday that Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers have collapsed recently due to the fact that she has failed to respond to the “avalanche of bad stories” that have dogged her candidacy for the White House.
“I think the problem is the stories have been coming one way. It’s just been an avalanche of bad stories with pretty much silence coming from the Clinton camp,” he said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Capehart’s comments come on the heels of recent polling data showing that the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate has seen a sudden and dramatic drop in popularity.
Clinton is less popular today than she has been at any point since 2001, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. Her approval rating with adults is at a mere 46 percent. Further, only 42 percent of survey respondents said they believe her to be “honest and trustworthy,” which is an eight-point decline from last month.
Clinton has another problem: As her popularity with American adults continues to decline, her 2016 Republican opponents, including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida, are steadily gaining on her.
For Capehart, part of Clinton’s problem is her unwillingness to address questions surrounding her tenure at the State Department as well as her family’s sudden rise to enormous wealth.
“[D]epending again on how she answers those questions [surrounding her bad press] will determine whether she can flip those poll numbers back over,” Capehart said Tuesday. “Because right now, all the public has to go on is everything that’s coming from the press with no response whatsoever from the Clinton campaign.”
(h/t WFB)
