Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been maintaining a list that is regularly updated and sent out to reporters highlighting conservatives criticizing Donald Trump since he was declared the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. But this approach to Trump could very well backfire.
The list is published on the Clinton campaign website under the title, “Conservatives Rebuke Trump As He Captures Republican Nomination.” In the past week the Clinton campaign has sent out seven different emails, by my count, highlighting conservatives or Republicans who are criticizing Trump or outright saying they couldn’t support his nomination. (Disclosure: I am featured on the list.)
“Day after day since Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Republicans and conservative commentators continue to reject his unpredictable, risky and divisive candidacy,” the latest email sent out Wednesday reads. “Donald Trump has for years proven himself to be a loose cannon whose hateful language and dangerous policies will do serious harm to working families and put America’s security at risk, and Republicans are continuing to acknowledge that a President Trump would be too big a risk.”
Clinton’s approach to GOP division over the Trump nomination follows a traditional line of political attack. The thinking is, the campaign wants to define Trump as too extreme and risky even for Republicans.
The problem with this thinking is that that to start, whatever division there is within the Republican Party is going to work itself out — or not — regardless of whether Clinton launches this line of attack. If anything, the fact that Clinton is promoting the criticisms of certain Republicans and conservatives is only likely to help Trump unify the party more (by allowing him to portray his internal critics as tools of the Clinton campaign).
Now, it’s clear that the intended audience for this line of attack from Clinton is actually independent voters. Clinton wants to show that Trump should be disqualified right out of the gate because he’s too dangerous for his own party to rally behind him. Yet Trump could easily turn this line of attack to his advantage. He can say something to the effect that, of course corrupt Washington politicians and pundits feel threatened by his candidacy. He can argue that D.C. insiders oppose him because they’re beholden to the same special interests as Clinton, while he’s focused on helping the American people.
Republicans in Congress are only viewed favorably by 15 percent of the public, compared with 81 percent who disapprove, according to a March Quinnipiac poll. It isn’t as if a perceived rift between himself and the GOP Congress is likely to hurt him with independents.
Furthermore, creating the impression that Trump is at war with his own party runs counter to the strategy of tying Trump to Republicans in hopes that it will cost the party House and Senate seats. That’s an approach that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and fellow House Democrats took Wednesday morning in releasing a video that tries to portray Trumpism as a natural outgrowth of House GOP rhetoric during the Obama years. In releasing the video, Pelosi said there’s “not a dime’s worth of difference” between Trump and the GOP.
Well, which is it? Is Trump too extreme for his own party? Or is he a fitting standard bearer for his party?
I’ve long argued that Trump will likely face insurmountable demographic hurdles in a general election matchup against Clinton. But I have to admit that the thought has crossed my mind a number of times in the past week, seeing her response to Trump’s nomination. Is it possible Clinton could blow it?
