PHILADELPHIA— Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters and delegates that the campaign does not accept poll numbers that show her and Donald Trump having similar unfavorable ratings.
“I don’t necessarily accept their data and their premise,” Mook said of the Gallup polling that shows Clinton and Trump having similar negative ratings. “However, this has been a challenge for her and I think you’re going to hear her touch on it a bit tonight, knowledge that some people are still skeptical.”
Mook says that he believes the best way for Clinton to boost these numbers is for voters to “get to know” the Democrat better, which is something she will try to communicate in her speech tonight.
He also noted that Clinton’s low polling numbers could be in part due to the “unprecedented” amount of incoming attacks from Republicans lawmakers and special interest groups, “She left the State Department with one of the highest approval ratings. Republicans were praising her. She decides to run for president; all of a sudden they’re hauling her into committee hearings. And as Congressman McCarthy said, before he had to get chased out of his speaker race, that the whole point of this was to lower her numbers.”
At the Republican convention in Cleveland, Trump spent much of his speech attacking Clinton. Mook said that Clinton’s speech will do much of the same, and focus on her career and legacy.
“In today’s fragmented media environment we have to say something a lot of times for it to cut through,” Mook explained.
