Now that Hillary Clinton can operate as the likely Democratic nominee without fear of an indictment over her private emails, Democrats are calling on her to move beyond the traditional scripted appearances with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and draw contrasts with Donald Trump by stressing competence and showing a more human, likeable side.
“She’s in a good position, having been cleared, [she should] take advantage of it,” David DiMartino, a veteran Democratic campaign strategist, told the Washington Examiner.
Without the distraction of new email revelations dominating headlines on a daily basis, DiMartino said Clinton should use the pivotal moment in her campaign, the lead-up to the Democratic convention, to take a more risky strategy and build a life narrative with a big, freewheeling sit-down interview.
“Do a sit-down with [the host of NBC’s ‘Today show] Savannah Guthrie,” he said, noting that Clinton should avoid getting into the legal details of the investigation into her time at the State Department. “She’ll be tough, but will be fair.”
“With this behind her, Hillary can court the constituencies that Trump is leaving behind – un-angry Americans, the left and left-of-center values coalition and the media,” he added.
Trump is pouncing on the Clinton trust gap after FBI Director James Comey’s decision not to seek criminal charges against Clinton, even though he rebuked her for being “extremely careless.” The presumptive GOP nominee immediately took to Twitter to denounce the decision as more evidence of a “rigged Washington system” that desperately needs fixing.
A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal survey found that 69 percent of those polled said they were worried that Clinton has a “record of being dishonest.”
But her supporters say Clinton can still move to erase the trust gap, in large part because Trump has problems of his own. A wide segment of the population doesn’t believe he has the temperament to be president.
Back in April, an NBC/WSJ poll found just 12 percent gave him high marks when asked if he was the right kind of person to be president versus 60 percent who gave him a “very poor score.”
Because Clinton faces such a deeply flawed and damaged nominee, she has a really good opportunity over the next few weeks to win over the majority of Americans by simply showing that she is experienced, tough and competent, her supporters say.
“She’s not necessarily going to be the warm and fuzzy candidate that Bill Clinton was – she’s going to be her own candidate,” one Democratic consultant told the Examiner. “She’s a tough, persistent, focused, determined leader who has built her campaign on doing what’s best for the Americans people and families that haven’t benefited” from the recent shifts in the economy.
At least in the first few days after she escaped criminal charges, however, Clinton seemed ready to let Obama do the talking for her. The president outlined the experience and stability theme for Clinton at his first campaign stop last week with the presumptive nominee.
Clearly more at ease on the stump than Clinton — he talked North Carolina basketball with a slight Southern drawl and wished everyone a happy extended Fourth of July — Obama quickly pivoted to unleash a torrent of taunts aimed at Trump. He summed up the problems with the GOP presumptive nominee by focusing in on his tendency to dash off angry reactions on Twitter.
“Anybody can tweet … Sasha tweets,” Obama said of his younger daughter. “But she doesn’t think that she should thereby be sitting behind the desk. But I can tell you this, Hillary Clinton has been tested.”
Clinton’s attacks on Trump will undoubtedly help bring at least some Bernie Sanders backers into the fold as she plays up the high stakes involved in preventing Trump from winning the White House. Bill Burton, a longtime Democratic operative who was Obama’s national press secretary during his first campaign for president, said time may also help memories of the email scandal fade.
“I don’t think anyone is happy we had to deal with this issue here,” he said in reference to the email scandal and threat of an indictment. “But I think it will largely recede once it is overtaken by vice presidential picks, conventions and other news that dominates presidential campaigns.”
