In an interview with Hillary Clinton’s communications director Jen Palmieri on Tuesday, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell fretted over the Democratic front-runner’s recent dive in the polls: “The numbers are grim for Secretary Clinton, whose overall unfavorable rating of 48% is worse than any unfavorable rating we've recorded for Barack Obama during his presidency....What do you think is the cause of these poll numbers?”
After Palmieri dismissed Clinton’s unfavorability as “the wrong question,” Mitchell offered another possible reason for the political damage: “And one of the things that we’ve pointed out is that these unfavorable poll numbers came immediately after an inaccurate report...which led to a lot of other inaccurate reporting before it was corrected....Do you feel that there is a problem, that she's being treated unfairly?”
Palmieri easily hit the softball:
What we were concerned about, obviously, with the Times story was poor sourcing, bad facts, and a very long time to correct what was on their website and we thought that that was damaging in terms of, as you said, a lot of other outlets picking it up. And also what we are trying to convey overall is just because – with digital information – just because you can correct the story later doesn't mean you should rush to get it up, take the risk of being wrong.
Mitchell similarly pushed the theory on NBC Nightly News on Monday: “And tonight in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, [Hillary] Clinton is facing her worst numbers yet of this campaign....But the poll was taken after inaccurate reports that she was the target of a potential criminal investigation. All untrue.”
On the July 23 Andrea Mitchell Reports, Mitchell and Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd were baffled by Clinton’s poor polling performance.
Here are portions of Mitchell’s August 4 exchange with Palmieri:
12:01 PM ET
(...)
ANDREA MITCHELL: And our new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll highlights problems for both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush in a critical area for any politician – likability. The numbers are grim for Secretary Clinton, whose overall unfavorable rating of 48% is worse than any unfavorable rating we've recorded for Barack Obama during his presidency.
Jen Palmieri is communications director for the Clinton Campaign and joins me now. What do you think is the cause of these poll numbers? She's upside-down now in the polls and she's 11 points down in just the last month.
JEN PALMIERI: But if you look at head to heads with any Republican candidate, she's beating all of them, and she’s beating all of them by a pretty good number, including Jeb Bush by four or five points, depending on the poll that you look at. So – and I'm sure that those numbers will move around a lot. We think that, you know, we are still relatively early in the campaign season. She's just starting to make her argument. We've just gone on the air with ads about how to show through her biography why she's a person you can count on to fight for you and, you know, we'll continue to make that case. But I think when people cover the polls what's lacking often is where the favorability numbers are for Republican candidates and there's a fundamental fact that she is still beating – that she still beats all of them.
MITCHELL: She still beats-
PALMIERI: In head to heads.
MITCHELL: She still beats all of them, but if you look at the internals in the polling, among women overall, 45% unfavorable, 41% favorable. Among whites, 57% unfavorable, 30% favorable. Independents, 27% favorable, 52% unfavorable – among independents. Among blue collar workers, 34% favorable, 49% unfavorable. So is there a problem?
PALMIERI: So it would suggest that the question you're asking is the wrong question because she is beating everyone and her gender gap are 10 to 11 points depending on who the candidate is. So we still have a lot of campaigning to do and she still has a lot of arguments to make. But I do think that the coverage of these polls doesn't reflect the fundamental truth. I think most people would be really surprised to hear that she actually continues to do – to perform better than these Republican candidates.
MITCHELL: Indeed she does. But the Republican candidates now are all ganging up on her.
PALMIERI: And she's been durable. I mean, she has been under attack for four months, pretty relentlessly. We have – she's also been going out with a lot of good economic policy speeches as well. But it is – and I think that, you know, we just started with paid media. But what you've seen is she's durable. So we think she's been tested. We think that – we expect that the Republicans are going to continue to attack her. But what we see is someone that is very resilient. This has been true across her career. And like, I think what people see is someone who’s going to fight for them and that's why she continues to actually beat people.
(...)
12:09 PM
MITCHELL: And one of the things that we’ve pointed out is that these unfavorable poll numbers came immediately after an inaccurate report that you confronted directly, which led to a lot of other inaccurate reporting before it was corrected. The inaccurate reporting about the referral from the inspectors general. Do you feel that there is a problem, that she's being treated unfairly?
PALMIERI: I think that when you are the front-runner of the Democratic side and she's the overall front-runner, so we understand that with that comes a lot of scrutiny and I think people are – you know this is – you see it in the coverage of the polls. It's all about the focus is where people see that she's not doing as well as opposed to the fact that she's still winning. So we expect that.
What we were concerned about, obviously, with the Times story was poor sourcing, bad facts, and a very long time to correct what was on their website and we thought that that was damaging in terms of, as you said, a lot of other outlets picking it up. And also what we are trying to convey overall is just because – with digital information – just because you can correct the story later doesn't mean you should rush to get it up, take the risk of being wrong.
So, we – look, she's a big girl, I'm a big girl. We've been through this and we expect a lot of scrutiny but we just want to make sure that people are going the extra distance to be as accurate as possible.
MITCHELL: Jen Palmieri, the rigors of a presidential campaign, even this early out. Thank you very much. It’s great to see you.
PALMIERI: Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.
