Hillary Clinton Tells Karl Rove and The Republican Party To Bring It On

During an interview on NPR, Hillary Clinton blasted Karl Rove and the Republican Party for planting false information that is designed to distract people. Clinton’s message to Rove and the GOP was bring it on.

Audio of the interview:

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Transcript from NPR:

GROSS: So I have to ask you about the kerfuffle over the People magazine cover that you were on. You were standing with your hands resting on the back of a chair, apparently a patio chair. But the photo was cropped, so all we saw of the chair was the bar across the top of the chair. And your good friend, Matt Drudge, tweeted, is Clinton holding a walker? Now, you know, obviously it wasn’t a walker but – and he didn’t lie. He didn’t say you were holding a walker. He just asked a question in the tweet. Is that a technique that you’ve become used to, like…

CLINTON: Yes, it is to me. (Laughing).

GROSS: Planting ideas in people’s heads, not by making a statement, but just by – I’m just asking a question.

CLINTON: Right, well…

GROSS: Is that a walker?

CLINTON: Yeah, Karl Rove tried that with my health and got totally, you know, shot down. I am so used to these people. They’re like a bunch of, you know, gamers. They are trying constantly to, you know, raise false canards, you know, plant, you know, false information, and that’s what they do.

They don’t want to have a real debate about what the tax policy of this country should be. They don’t want to have a real debate about how we begin growing the economy again and putting more people to work. They don’t want to have a real debate about climate change and clean energy. They want people to get diverted and totally off subject, and that is their modus operandi.

But I have to say, Terry, that if that’s the best they have to offer, let them do it because that is not the debate that I think the American people want to have. And, you know, there’s a difference between fair game and playing games. And it is, unfortunately, too common in today’s political environment that people want to play games that divert attention from the real issues that affect our country and its future.

Republicans have been editing clips of Clinton in the same interview trying to make it sound like she is anti-gay marriage, which is ironic because they are the party that has pushed “religious liberty” and marriage bans all across the country. The striking thing about this nearly forty five minute interview is how much Hillary Clinton sounded like a presidential candidate.

The pretenses are coming down, and little glimpses of Clinton’s 2016 strategy are becoming apparent. Hillary Clinton isn’t going to be afraid of Karl Rove and the Republican Party. She was correct. This is the same crowd that she and her husband have been dealing with for more than twenty years. Republicans are already demonstrating that they haven’t learned any new tricks and if the best they can offer is a rumor about brain damage and a nutty conspiracy theory about a walker being visible in a photo, they are already well on their way to losing in 2016.

Bill Clinton rolled through the right-wing rumor machine to the presidential election victories twice in the 1990s. President Obama steamrolled them in 2008 and 2012. Hillary Clinton will likely shred them in 2016. Despite their fierce reputation, these guys aren’t very good at their jobs, and they definitely don’t seem up to the challenge of stopping Hillary Clinton.

Jason Easley

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