Heilemann on Clinton: Not ‘Smart Play for a Front Runner To Be Playing the Victim Card’
SCARBOROUGH: “But, but — I mean, if he wants to actually win the race, he’s going to have to get tougher. He’s going to have to say you know what, I didn’t, like, stick my finger up in the wind and try to —; Hillary Clinton doesn’t know what she believes in. Seriously, she runs the State Department and she says that TPP is the greatest thing ever. It’s the gold standard [crosstalk] than she weasel out of it, when she decides she wants to be president of the United States. And then she tells us stuff that’s just not the true. She’s saying oh, well, I hoped it would get better. No Hillary, you already called it the gold standard. And on Keystone, she is at the State Department, they decide they’re going to endorse it. She — I mean, He could very easily go after her aggressively and very fairly.”
HEILEMANN: “That’s, you know, the beginning of this phase was the Jefferson–Jackson last weekend in Iowa, we were out there and you saw Sanders start to do it and he’s now been doing it more and more. At the Jay Jay, he didn’t mention her name. He now increasingly is starting to mention her name. The other thing is their campaign really feels provoked in a lot of ways, because of the thing you guys talked about on the air yesterday. This notion of Hillary Clinton imputing a kind of sexism to Sanders around this comment about of — you know, we don’t need more shouting about guns and her turning that into a — [crosstalk] kind of allegation, imputed sexism —“
BRZEZINSKI: “Gender issue.”
SCARBOROUGH: “Why did they do that? I mean, obviously it was stupid. It really was stupid. Everybody knew — everybody knew he wasn’t doing that. Why did they do that? What did you heard?”
HEILEMANN: “I do not — I have no idea. I think in — look, she benefits in their view. She benefits for playing the gender card. I don’t think it’s a smart play for a front-runner to be playing the victim card in any situation. So, I can’t explain that calculation.” [crosstalk]
SCARBOROUGH: “ I just note there is some reporting behind it —“
HEILEMANN: “I do not know the answer to the question at this moment. But, I do know that the Sanders people were furious about it and they’re furious also about the way in which she attacked him on the gun issue. Because their attitude is he’s you know, made two votes that are questionable on guns and she’s trying to get to his left on guns and he feels as though [crosstalk] her history on the crime bill her history on a lot of things — he — she’s for the right of them so they feel almost they’re provoked in some ways to engage.” [crosstalk]
SCARBOROUGH: “Yeah. But you know what though, that sexism stuff was absolutely ridiculous. But the gun issue, if I were Hillary Clinton, I’d be hammering on the gun issue, too.”
HEILEMANN: “Sure.”
SCARBOROUGH: “The gun issue is very legitimate.”
HEILEMANN: “Yes. I think their point just is that there are other issues in the same vein —“ [crosstalk]
SCARBOROUGH: “Then they need to hit back. But they shouldn’t whine about the gun issue, because Bernie is out of touch with progressives on the gun issue.”
BRZEZINSKI: “OK, Willie.”
