On Sunday’s This Week, political commentator Cokie Roberts continued to praise Hillary Clinton for playing the grandmother card throughout her presidential campaign.
During a discussion about Joe Biden’s potential White House bid, Roberts cheered Clinton for going after the GOP on “climate change for instance when she says everybody says I'm not a scientist. She says I'm not a scientist either, I'm just a grandmother with two eyes and a brain. That's brilliant.”
Earlier in the segment, Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson suggested that the only way Biden could challenge Clinton for the Democratic nomination is “to the extent he can excite people who maybe think that Hillary Clinton is too much a traditional politician who doesn't have clear answers on questions I think maybe that could be his opening.”
In response, Roberts quickly jumped to Clinton’s defense and eagerly praised her recent speech to the liberal Urban League and her “new message” to voters:
She did a very good job at the Urban League, where she did get African-Americans fired up. And she went after Jeb Bush in a way that they also they responded to. And she does have a new message out from the last time which is the grandmother message and she's using it very well. On climate change for instance when she says everybody says I'm not a scientist. She says I'm not a scientist either, I'm just a grandmother with two eyes and a brain. That's brilliant.
This was not the first time Roberts touted Clinton’s use of the grandmother card on the campaign trail. During an appearance on This Week in July, the political commentator hailed the Democrat’s ability to counter questions about her age:
I did think she said one thing that I think we’re going to be hearing a lot about. She said, what voters care about is who will be there when they need them. And I think that's going to be her theme. And that somewhat plays into the grandmother theme. Because, you know, your grandmother is there when you need her. And I think that's a way of dealing with this age issue. Because that's going to be a real issue.
See relevant transcript below.
ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos
August 2, 2015
JONATHAN KARL: Kristen, you’re the pollster at the table, what is your read of Biden, could he get into this and actually give her a real challenge?
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON: So Joe Biden has only ever been in single digits in the polls, really, hasn't shown a lot of strength. Up to this point, Hillary Clinton is clearly the strong front-runner. However, I think to the point that Speaker Gingrich made about people’s sort of hunger for somebody that doesn’t sound like a typical politician. I mean, I think Joe Biden has been in the game a while. But, I think, he's certainly better than Hillary Clinton on that metric. And so, I think, to the extent he can excite people who maybe think that Hillary Clinton is too much a traditional politician who doesn't have clear answers on questions I think maybe that could be his opening.
COKIE ROBERTS: She did a very good job at the Urban League, where she did get African-Americans fired up.
KARL: And went after Jeb really hard.
ROBERTS: And she went after Jeb Bush in a way that they also they responded to. And she does have a new message out from the last time which is the grandmother message and she's using it very well. On climate change for instance when she says everybody says I'm not a scientist. She says I'm not a scientist either, I'm just a grandmother with two eyes and a brain. That's brilliant.
