It took Bill Clinton less than 60 seconds to destroy the latest Republican attempt to stop his wife Hillary from running for president.
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Former President Clinton was asked if the Weiner scandal was difficult to watch. He used the opportunity to knock down the Republican attempts to tie his wife to Anthony Weiner.
Clinton said, “Well, not because it is a political campaign. Neither Hillary or I was ever involved in the political campaign, and they understood that from the beginning. There are too many people running for mayor who have been my supporters, who supported her for senator, her for president. One was once a campaign manager,Mr. de Blasio But there are literally five people in that race, including one of the Republican candidates Mr. (John) Catsimatidis, who are personal friends of ours, so we are a hundred miles from that race and everyone understands that we are not going to be involved, as long as our personal friends and people who we feel obligations are involved. So, the feelings I have are all personal and since they are, I shouldn’t talk about them.”
This is all started with a New York Post story that reported that the Clintons were livid with Weiner, but the story went on to baselessly speculate that the Clintons were worried that Weiner’s scandal would hurt Hillary’s potential 2016 campaign. Conservative media picked up on that point, and have been speculating that Weiner’s sexting romps will hurt Clinton if she runs for president.
Former President Clinton’s comments revealed two things. One, there is no way that the Clintons are going to let the right use former Rep. Weiner to smear Hillary, and two, on a personal level they are probably understandably personally angry about what Weiner has done.
Republican strategists are trying their best to connect Hillary Clinton to Anthony Weiner. In a memo released to reporters on Friday, they wrote, “Hillary Clinton, has stayed mum about all of it. For someone who has not-so-veiled aspirations to lead her party, she’s failed to show any leadership in publicly denouncing Weiner’s habits or his candidacy.”
Former President Clinton stopped the whole effort to Hillary Clinton to Anthony Weiner dead in its tracks. Republicans are desperate, so desperate that they are trying to stop Hillary Clinton’s candidacy before she has even had a chance to announce it. The Republican Party couldn’t stop Obama with these types of smears and attacks. It definitely isn’t going to work on Hillary Clinton. Right now, Bill and Hillary Clinton’s messaging is more powerful than the entire Republican Party.
The Clintons have been playing this game with Republicans for twenty plus years. They know what they are doing, and over these past few decades Republicans have never won. Bill and Hillary Clinton are big leaguers, and Republicans are kidding themselves if they think that their efforts to smear Hillary will even make a dent.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
