Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is looking to make a name for himself. Since appearing in the afternoon debate of lower-polling GOP presidential candidates on Thursday, Jindal has debuted a new provocative line of attack on the stump that openly craves media attention.
The governor is traveling through Iowa on Tuesday, and prepared remarks provided by his campaign show he will take aim at Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
Since Clinton has signed a sworn declaration under the penalty of perjury claiming that she has handed over all emails related to government business, Jindal will say, “This means that she’s one email away from prison time.”
“She’d better pray the Chinese government doesn’t do a document dump,” Jindal will say. “Maybe her friend Martha Stewart can stop giving her interior decorating advice and give her jailhouse survival tips instead. Orange really will be the new black!”
On Monday, Jindal remarked that he knew mentioning GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s name would help him earn coverage from the media.
“It seems like the best way to get any media attention right now is to talk about Donald Trump,” Jindal said in Iowa on Monday. “So what I’ve decided to do is randomly throw out his name every several minutes just to get more media. If I say Donald Trump real fast five times, maybe that will get more attention.”
Jindal’s remarks drew laughter from the Iowan crowd, but communications director Kyle Plotkin took to Twitter to explain that the governor was joking — not desperate for attention — and was “out hitting Dems.”
Excerpts provided by the Jindal campaign in advance of his remarks on Monday suggested he would close by saying, “Also, did I mention Donald Trump?” But a Cedar Rapids Gazette report suggests he deviated from that script.
“Our best days [are] still ahead. This is still the greatest country,” Jindal said in closing, as the Gazette reported. “It’s up to us to make sure it remains that way. We can, we must, we will get our country back.”
RealClearPolitics’ average of polls conducted before Thursday’s nationally televised debates showed Jindal tied with Carly Fiorina behind a dozen other candidates nationwide. An NBC/SurveyMonkey survey conducted after the debate showed Fiorina moving up into fourth place, while Jindal made no gains or losses in terms of support.
