Appearing on MSNBC’s The Rundown with Jose Diaz-Balart on Monday, political reporter Alex Seitz-Wald speculated on whether Hillary Clinton would comment on Donald Trump during an upcoming speech in New Hampshire: “...it might be hard for her to resist, right? Donald Trump was the biggest news of the weekend....And he’s been most useful to her as a cudgel against the rest of the GOP field.”
Seitz-Wald observed: “So when Republicans were hesitant to go after Trump on immigration, she attacked them for being slow, for – you know, she would tell Latino audiences, ‘You can't trust Republicans if they can't even take on Donald Trump.’”
He argued that despite many Republicans criticizing Trump’s comments about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, Clinton would similarly try to slam the GOP:
I think what you would expect Clinton to do is try to raise the bar....She would say that what they've said is not good enough....They need to go higher, they need to propose real policy to help women. And that's how she's going to continue to use Trump. She doesn't care so much about Trump in and of himself, but in how he can damage Jeb Bush and the other candidates who she thinks are more likely to end up as the Republican nominee.
Seitz-Wald was one of the numerous sycophantic reporters that excitedly spotted Clinton’s “Scooby Van” during a campaign event in April.
Later on Andrea Mitchell Reports in the 12 p.m. ET hour, host Andrea Mitchell grilled former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu over Trump: “The Republican Party's own post-mortem after Mitt Romney lost was that they needed to do two big things. They needed to reach out to women and have a different tone on women's issues and they needed to reach out to Hispanics. Donald Trump has trashed both sectors.”
Sununu countered: “Well, Donald Trump is – in the opinion of a lot of Republicans – is running at the behest of the Clintons. So he's just there to mess the things up.”
Mitchell scolded: “Well, that’s a conspiracy theory.” She then wondered what “lasting damage” Trump would cause to the GOP.
Sununu pushed back: “I think there's always lasting damage, but I don't think it's big enough to overcome the lasting damage that the Democrats have from a disastrous Obama/Clinton administration.”
Here is a transcript of Seitz-Wald on August 10:
10:38 AM ET
(...)
JOSE DIAZ-BALART: And, Alex, I’m just wondering, because she has, in the past, reacted rather quickly to what Jeb Bush has said and stumbles that he has had, to criticize. Any word on whether she's ready to engage Trump?
ALEX SEITZ-WALD: Right. Well, I mean, we haven't had any official word from the campaign on that. But it might be hard for her to resist, right? Donald Trump was the biggest news of the weekend, he’s been the biggest political news of the month really. And he’s been most useful to her as a cudgel against the rest of the GOP field.
So when Republicans were hesitant to go after Trump on immigration, she attacked them for being slow, for – you know, she would tell Latino audiences, “You can't trust Republicans if they can't even take on Donald Trump.”
Now that you have Jeb Bush and leading Republicans, Fox News even, going after Donald Trump on his attack on Megyn Kelly, the Fox News debate moderator, I think what you would expect Clinton to do is try to raise the bar.
She would say that what they've said is not good enough. You can't just condemn Trump for suggesting, as he did, that Megyn Kelly was menstruating when she was asking him questions, that made her go after Trump unfairly. She's going to say that's not enough. They need to go higher, they need to propose real policy to help women. And that's how she's going to continue to use Trump. She doesn't care so much about Trump in and of himself, but in how he can damage Jeb Bush and the other candidates who she thinks are more likely to end up as the Republican nominee.
(...)
