Post's Capehart: Attacking Clinton Only Appeals to Trump's 'White, Male, Angry' Base

May 9th, 2016 8:54 PM

On Hardball Monday night, host Chris Matthews brought on the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart to discuss Donald Trump attacking Hillary Clinton, saying she was “an enabler” to Bill Clinton’s affairs while he was President. Matthews asked if this line of attack was “a mistake” that would turn off new voters. Capehart responded by stating that this rhetoric would only appeal to Trump’s “white, male, and angry” base.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me go back to John. His opponents used that before. I get the feeling that he's not stupid. I never thought Trump was stupid and everybody makes mistakes. This may be a mistake. I think he knows that to win this election, he's got to change it around from so the moderates and liberals, progressives like the Clintons, women generally like the Clintons if you look at the numbers. He's got a problem with women. He has to do something radical to shift that around and I think this is his salient to do so. What do you think he's up to?
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Chris, in order for him to win, he's got to open up, he's got to open his base of support beyond the people who already don't like Hillary Clinton. That riff that you just showed is stuff that his crowd has been feeding on for probably the entire 30 years that the Clintons have been in public life and certainly since the impeachment days. So I don't see what it buys him. If Donald Trump wants to become President of the United States, he's going to have to start talking in a way and putting policies out there that appeal to people who aren't white, male and angry.