Hillary Clinton might want to watch the video of a CNN interview with a panel of Democrat voters in Florida. If she somehow still has some notion of running for president again in 2020, their reaction to the idea of her campaigning in the Sunshine State for Democrat candidate Andrew Gillum might disabuse her of that idea.
As you can see in this episode of Anderson Cooper 360 on Tuesday, most of those on the panel were strenuously opposed to her campaigning in Florida. In fact they make it quite plain that they are NOT with her (click "expand" to read more):
ANDERSON COOPER: As we pointed out earlier in the program, there is exactly two weeks to go until the midterm elections. President Trump announced this morning he's heading to Florida this weekend, campaigning in a state with two high profile races for both governor and Senate. President Obama has been on the trail as well lately. He's been campaigning in Las Vegas on behalf of the Nevada Democrats. For her part, Hillary Clinton is in Florida tonight at a private fund-raiser for Democratic Andrew Gillum in his race gubernatorial race against Republican Ron DeSantis.Now, President Trump continued to make Mrs. Clinton public enemy number one for the two years after beating her in the election, and some Democrats worry that her re-emergence will only embolden the President and his allies. Randi Kaye sat down with a group of Florida Democrats to get their take on the return of Hillary Clinton.
RANDI KAYE: A show of hands, how many of you think overall Hillary Clinton is more of a liability than an asset to the Gillum campaign? Almost all of you.
ALEXANDRIA AYALA, FLORIDA VOTER: Hillary Clinton is seen as this kind of figure that the right rails against. They go to rallies and they say lock her up.
ROB LONG, FLORIDA VOTER: Hillary Clinton is a rallying point for the right. They use that messaging against Hillary Clinton to drive out their votes. So I think you could end up seeing a huge boost in their numbers because you have Hillary Clinton now on the other side being associated with Gillum so closely.
Hmmm... So Hillary serves to boost the enthusiasm of voters... Republican voters:
KAYE: What concerns you about the baggage and the scandals that she was associated with and how that might impact the Gillum campaign?
LONG: Her post-presidential sort of, you know, demeanor or platform has been very sort of self-indulgence and very much about relitigating what happened in 2016. In our generation, my generation doesn't really respond to, you know, this relitigation of 2016. And I want to call it whining, but like at this point, it's kind of what it feels like.
AYALA: I am concerned. And as a young person, he nailed it. We're going forward, progressive movement, progressive policies. We're looking ahead, and I think she represents an old Democratic Party.
KAYE: Does anyone think that Hillary Clinton can be helpful to the Gillum campaign?
STEPHANIE REUBINS, FLORIDA VOTER: I do. I think she can be financially helpful because she has a history of fabulous fund- raising, and I think that's where she should stay.
Okay, that latter comment, in contrast to the others, sort of looks hopeful for Hillary....so far:
MARC LAFALAISE, FLORIDA VOTER: As far as they know going out and making speeches for Mr. Gillum, I don't think so.
KAYE: What is it specifically you think that -- how might Hillary Clinton harm the Gillum campaign, do you think?
REUBINS: She's just got bad cred.
Oops! Or maybe not.
KAYE: Bad cred.
REUBINS: Bad cred. People don't trust her. No one trusts her. You know, I -- the reality is I voted for her. I supported her. But she does things that -- she trips over herself. And she makes big mistakes.
Okay, mark down that Democrat as going from seeming supportive of Hillary to not trusting her within a few seconds.
KAYE: Hillary Clinton did an interview recently and said that she was asked about the Lewinsky affair, and she said that it wasn't an abuse of power because Monica Lewinsky was an adult.
REUBINS: Horrifying. Horrifying.
Yup! Definitely not supportive at all.
Following this, former Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook attempted to perform some not very convincing damage control in the CNN studio. However, the one who came up with the really silly reason for the voter antipathy towards Hillary was USA Today columnist, Kirsten Powers:
I do think that -- what is troubling to me is that -- watching these Democratic voters who don't appreciate why these attacks happened on Hillary and why these attacks happened on Nancy Pelosi. And it's -- there's one thing that they have in common. And they're both women, they're both very strong leaders, and this is just an outright misogynist attack and the President knows exactly what he's doing. The Republicans know exactly what they're doing. And Democrats -- it just would be good if they didn't go along with it, but unfortunately a lot of people do go along with it.
So Ms. Reubens of the Democrat voter panel proclaimed that no one trusts the "horrifying" Hillary because...she's a woman?
