Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:53 pm
During an interview on Meet The Press, Hillary Clinton demonstrated why Republicans fear her by taking out Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in a single swoop.
Transcript via Meet The Press:
CHUCK TODD:
Secretary Clinton, is that an ad, have you moved on? Are we going to view this ad as the first one of the general election? It’s pretty clear you’re targeting Donald Trump.
HILLARY CLINTON:
Well, certainly I haven’t moved on. I know that I still have work to do to win the nomination, and I’m going to keep reaching out to every voter, everywhere in these remaining contests. But I also think it’s important to draw some pretty clear lines between what I think most Americans, and certainly what I know most New Yorkers believe about who we are as a people, what the values of our country are, against some of what we’re hearing from the other side.
And, you know, it’s both Donald Trump, as we are well aware, but also Ted Cruz. I know he made a critical comment about New York values some months back. So I want to really hold up the importance of New York and what we stand for. And, you know, we are a state that represents the diversity of America, the role that immigrants have played over the centuries in building– our nation. And the Statue of Liberty stands in the harbor. So I wanted to start out with a very clear message about our values and–
CHUCK TODD:
Well, in and–
HILLARY CLINTON:
–why I think it’s important we stand up for them.
CHUCK TODD:
In that ad, though, you do include footage, that awful footage, of a Trump supporter coldcocking, essentially, a protester at his rally. Why amplify that image?
HILLARY CLINTON:
Because I was horrified by it, Chuck, and I think most Americans were horrified by it. When you, as I’ve said before about Donald Trump’s appearances, his rhetoric, his demagoguery, when you incite violence, you are acting like a political arsonist.
And I want people to understand there’s a very different way of working towards our common ground that we have to seek and find in order to move our country forward. We may have differences, of course we do. But we don’t condone violence. We don’t say we’ll pay the legal fees of people who punch other Americans, who are protesting, attending an event. That is just not appropriate behavior when you’re running for president.
Here are two thoughts that should terrify Republicans. If the general election is Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump, it will be Clinton who holds the moral high ground. Republicans have spent years laying the groundwork for general election attacks on Clinton’s trustworthiness, but it all will go up in smoke if the Republican nominee is Donald Trump.
Secondly, Clinton was able to use Trump as a weapon to take down Ted Cruz. Republicans are portraying the choice between Trump and Cruz as a contrast, whereas Hillary Clinton is telling voters that they are two sides of the same coin. The Trump damage has already been done, so unless Republicans dump both Trump and Cruz at the convention, former Sec. of State Clinton is ready.
Trump and Cruz are so far to the right that Clinton is going to be able to appeal to the left, the center, and the center-right in the general election campaign. Clinton’s answer to Chuck Todd about her most recent ad sent a message to Republicans that it doesn’t matter if they nominate Trump or Cruz, they are already screwed for the fall.
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