On Sunday’s Inside Politics, CNN’s John King argued that despite the numerous scandals the Clintons have dealt with over the years one “thing the Clintons have benefited from in the past is Republican overreach.”
The CNN host then asked the Washington Post’s Robert Costa, formerly of National Review, if “there is a risk in overplaying it as they have in past Clinton scandals?”
Rather than dismiss King’s suggestion outright, the so-called “conservative” voice on the panel maintained that the GOP hasn’t overreached on the Clinton Foundation controversy, “at least not yet”:
When you listen to this past week how Republican candidates and possible candidates responded to Secretary Clinton and this new story, you heard Mitt Romney use the term bribery, but you did not hear that from the Republican field. I think they look at history and they are aware of the Clintons political strength and they’re not using that tactic, at least not yet.
Costa went on to recommend that the GOP should focus on other issues surrounding Hillary Clinton, such as making a “generational argument” against her rather than talk about the Clinton Foundation and her e-mail scandal:
When I’ve spoken to the campaigns they also brought up an interesting question they’re grappling with. They know Hillary Clinton in the polls, on the question of trustworthiness, has vulnerabilities. But do you go straight at that?
They don’t think that’s going to a winner in a general election in a changing country. Perhaps they think the way to really win is to make a generational argument, old versus new, fresh versus perhaps a relic from the past.
See relevant transcript below.
CNN’s Inside Politics
April 26, 2015
JOHN KING: But the other thing the Clintons have benefited from in the past is Republican overreach. Now Mitt Romney saying bribery. I get it, you’re a Republican, just t-ball for the Republican base, but is there a risk in overplaying it as they have in past Clinton scandals?
ROBERT COSTA: When you listen to this past week how Republican candidates and possible candidates responded to Secretary Clinton and this new story, you heard Mitt Romney use the term bribery, but you did not hear that from the Republican field. I think they look at history and they are aware of the Clintons political strength and they’re not using that tactic, at least not yet.
When I’ve spoken to the campaigns they also brought up an interesting question they’re grappling with. They know Hillary Clinton in the polls, on the question of trustworthiness, has vulnerabilities. But do you go straight at that? They don’t think that’s going to a winner in a general election in a changing country. Perhaps they think the way to really win is to make a generational argument, old versus new, fresh versus perhaps a relic from the past.
STEVE INSKEEP: You make such a fascinating point there Robert because so many elections get down to a narrative. Bill Clinton had a narrative in 1992. Barack Obama had a narrative in 2008 about change, about generational change, about being the first black president. The question for Republicans is can they come up with a narrative. Hillary Clinton has an opportunity to set a narrative if she can control the debate.
