Are Democrats In Danger Of Losing American's Trust Over Baseless Accusations?
Democrat political analyst Kelly Hyman and GOP strategist Ford O'Connell debate a potential split in the Democratic Party after Hillary Clinton alleged Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian asset.
Trump And Clinton Spar Over Possible 2016 Rematch Amid Shakeup In 2020 Race
When President Donald Trump suggested on Twitter Tuesday that 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton should get into the 2020 presidential race, the former secretary of state fired back, “Don’t tempt me. Do your job.”
The response was clearly a joke, but as Clinton hits the talk show circuit to promote a new book co-written with daughter Chelsea, some are starting to take the prospect of her making another run for the White House more seriously.
Clinton laughed off the speculation in a “PBS NewsHour” interview Tuesday. Asked about the president’s tweet—which said she should run after she explains “all of her high crimes and misdemeanors, including how and why she deleted 33,000 e-mails”—Clinton said Trump appears to be “obsessed” with her but is “either lying or delusional” with his allegations about her emails.
“So maybe there does need to be a rematch. Obviously, I can beat him again,” she said with a smile, adding, “But, just seriously, I don't understand, I don't think anybody understands what motivates him, other than personal grievance, other than seeking adulation.”
Republican strategist Ford O’Connell suggested the enduring speculation about Clinton reflects both her refusal to accept her loss in the 2016 election and growing doubts in the Democratic Party that the top 2020 primary candidates can win in the general election.
“I think part of this is ego driven for her,” O’Connell said. “I also think, when we look at the overarching theme, nobody thought the 20-plus candidate cattle call in the Democratic field would be this bad.”
In a Fox News column earlier this week, conservative commentator Liz Peek claimed unnamed Democrats unhappy with the current field of candidates are urging former first lady Michelle Obama to enter the race. O’Connell noted talk of an Oprah Winfrey 2020 bid continues to crop up from time to time as well, but wishful thinking about a last-minute, hail-Mary candidate is not unusual in presidential campaigns.
“When the party who is out of power is nervous about who they’re going to put up there, this inevitably rears its ugly head,” O’Connell said.
As the White House attempts to frame the House impeachment inquiry over President Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden as a baseless and unconstitutional effort by Democrats to undo the 2016 election, O’Connell predicted putting Hillary Clinton on the ballot again would bolster that argument.
“Nothing would feed more fodder to Trump’s claim the Democrats are trying to relitigate 2016 than if she jumped in,” he said.
“I think Hillary Clinton throwing her name in the equation would probably pour more flame on that fire and take Trump across the finish line because he’s an incumbent,” O’Connell said.
Trump’s 2020 Re-Election Rally Signals 2016 Strategy May Be Used Again
Donald Trump repeatedly railed against Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as a friendly Florida crowd cheered and jeered. Only it wasn’t 2016 — it was just six days ago.
The president took a crowd of supporters in Orlando on a journey through time last Tuesday as he formally announced his re-election bid. He dropped his now-familiar attack lines that elicited chants of “Lock her up” for Clinton and boos for Obama.
Curiously, he opted against aiming rhetorical jabs at most of the 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls. It was a departure from almost every other rally he has held since becoming president — including his homestretch barnstorming for Republican Senate nominees before last year’s midterms.
The president flashed a 2020 approach that closely resembles the one he employed three years ago from places like Madison, Alabama; Dimondale, Michigan; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; and Manheim, Pennsylvania. Only now, Obama appears to be enjoying his post-presidency and Clinton won’t be on the ballot.
Trump and his campaign are already trying to rebuild the 2016 Electoral College map that improbably put him in the White House in the first place. Republican and Democratic strategists call that a long shot, and it begs the question: Can the same message that fueled a dark horse campaign work for an incumbent four years later?
Another hurdle is a disapproval rating that consistently hovers around 50 percent, said Ford O’Connell, a GOP strategist.
“No modern president who has avoided recession has not been re-elected,” he said. “So if he avoids that, the disapproval number is probably what worries them the most.”
Like Clinton's Emails, Doubts About Warren's Ancestry Claim Aren't Going Away
As Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., prepares to hit the road promoting her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, her failure to definitively resolve long-standing questions about her dubious claims of Native American heritage has some critics declaring her campaign dead before it even begins.
“She’s done as a 2020 presidential candidate,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell.
Days before its official kickoff event in Massachusetts, Warren’s nascent presidential campaign was shaken Tuesday by a Washington Post report that she identified herself as “American Indian” on a 1986 Texas Bar registration form. A registration card obtained by The Post provided documentary confirmation that Warren asserted her contested Native American ancestry early in her legal career.
In field of more than 20 potential contenders for the Democratic nomination, O’Connell predicted Warren will never survive with this controversy around her neck.
“She may be a solid progressive but she’s damaged goods as a nominee,” he said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if the White House was praying she is the nominee.”
Supporters argue the revelation that Warren declared her race “American Indian” on a form that was meant to be confidential and had no bearing on her admission by the Texas Bar adds little to the narrative that was not already known. It appears to be consistent with her assertion that she believed she had Native American blood at the time.
O’Connell, who is also an attorney, argued a bar registration card carries significantly more weight than a legal directory listing.
“The bar card, as a lawyer, is really you attesting to yourself and really doing it by your own hand,” he said.
Warren acknowledged Wednesday there could be more documents out there on which she identified herself as Native American.
O’Connell rejected those complaints and suggested Warren’s ancestry claim is an even bigger detriment than Clinton’s emails because it undercuts the central narrative of her biography.
“Hillary Clinton didn’t build her backstory on her emails,” he said. “[Warren’s] whole narrative is, ‘I rose to the top.’”
Hillary Clinton 2020? Former Adviser Claims She Wants A Rematch Against Trump
Before the dust has settled on the midterm elections, candidates are testing the waters for the 2020 presidential election and according to a former adviser to Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee wants a rematch against President Donald Trump.
Mark Penn, who advised Hillary and Bill Clinton for more than a decade, penned an opinion piece Sunday with New York City politician Andrew Stein, predicting Hillary Clinton will make her third bid for president in 2020.
"You can expect her to run for president once again," the writers asserted. "Maybe not at first, when the legions of Senate Democrats make their announcements, but definitely by the time the primaries are in full swing."
The initial response from the White House appeared to be just short of popping champagne bottles. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway responded gleefully to the prospect of a Trump versus Clinton rematch, tweeting, "Dear God, please, yes."
"Hillary will be the gift that keeps on giving to the Republicans if she decides to jump into that race," said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell.
Clinton still has all of the political liabilities she had in 2016, plus the potential to throw an already crowded and chaotic field of Democrats into bitter infighting. "If she got in, she'll lose the Democratic nomination. It's going to tear the party apart and Donald Trump is going to walk to re-election victory." O'Connell predicted.
Democrats will also be fighting the historic odds of beating an incumbent president. Incumbency is a powerful factor, even for unpopular presidents. In the last 100 years, only five of 15 sitting presidents have lost re-election and each time it was related to a significant economic downturn. "The only thing that can hurt Trump is if he has a recession," said O'Connell.
Read more from Leandra Bernstein at Sinclair Broadcast Group
Will Elizabeth Warren’s DNA Results Impact The Midterms?
Republican strategist Ford O’ Connell and Democratic strategist Wendy Osefo discuss how Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) DNA results and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s CBS interview will impact the midterm elections.
Republicans Will Need More Than The Economy To Hold The House
President Trump recently injected some reality into his 2018 “red wave” talk. He acknowledged at the Ohio Republican Party’s annual dinner that it will be “probably tougher” for Congressional Republicans to hold the House than the Senate in this year’s midterm elections.
Trump would be correct. 2018 is a tale of two different midterm electionswith control of the Senate currently favoring Republicans and control of the House approaching nightmare status for the Grand Old Party.
History suggests that Republicans will lose the House. In midterm elections between 1934 and 2014, the president’s party lost, on average, 27 House seats, with the average first-term loss being 25 seats. Given that Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats for a majority in the House, this statistic alone is an ominous sign.
Adding insult to injury for the red team is the fact there are 43 open Republican House seats now without an incumbent on the ballot; a modern record. When combining these two items, it is easy to see why The Hill’s Reid Wilson contends that Republicans could lose anywhere from 72 House seats to as few as 10 or that election prognosticator FiveThirtyEight.com gives the Democrats a better than 71 percent chance to win control of the House.
There is still time for Republicans to flip the script, but the clock is ticking. Yes, Republicans could conceivably hold the House but one thing is pretty certain, they are going to lose seats in the lower chamber of Congress.
The primary issue for House Republicans is staring them right in the face. They have an enthusiasm gap problem. Democrats are beyond fired up. For them, 2018 is personal, and they are focused on one thing – taking down President Trump. This is best evidenced in a recent Fox News poll. According to the survey, 76 percent of Clinton voters are certain they will vote this fall. Among Trump voters that figure is only 67 percent.
'But My Emails': Clinton Mocks Comey For Use Of Private Email For FBI Business
Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had only three words to say in response to the Justice Department inspector general's report on the FBI's handling of her email investigation, "But my emails."
Clinton's tweet was at once a dig at her Republican critics' fixation on the email affair and a jab at former FBI Director James Comey, who used a private Gmail account to conduct official FBI business.
According to the inspector general's report, Comey used a personal email account "on numerous occasions" to conduct official business. Inspector General Michael Horowitz and his team dinged Comey saying the frequency of his behavior was "inconsistent with the DOJ Policy Statement" regarding the use of personal email for official business.
Clinton seized on this detail buried 400 pages into the report to troll the former FBI director who she still blames for her 2016 election loss. As recently as April, Clinton described Comey's decision to send a letter to Congress announcing the reopening of the investigation days before the election. as "the single event that changed people's votes."
If there was a lesson from the three-year saga that originated with three email servers in Chappaqua, New York, James Comey apparently missed it, said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell.
"It is ironic," he noted. "The obvious lesson is, if you're a government official you should know what you should be communicating on and you should also know what is classified and what isn't."
Comey told the inspector general that he did not use his personal email or laptop for classified information. According to Comey's former chief of staff, James Rybicki, Comey began using the personal email account at about the time he became FBI director in 2013.
Clinton's jab at Comey was an attempt at a clever response to the IG report, O'Connell noted, "but it is proof that she still hasn't understood what the whole brouhaha was about, nor does she seem to care.
Read more from Leandra Bernstein at Circa
How The GOP Can Keep Control Of Congress After The 2018 Midterms
"What does the GOP need to do in order to keep control of the House and Senate?"
The Washington Examiner asked that question to about a dozen conservative operatives, campaign hands, political scientists, and commentary writers as both parties prepare to do battle in this year's midterm elections.
At this point, history and numbers are working against the Republicans.
But flipping one or both houses to the Democrats is not a fait accompli. And if we've learned anything from the last election, it's that history and conventional wisdom aren't as reliable as they once were.
Republicans have a record to run on, but they're also dealing with an unpopular president who happens to be the leader of their party.
Can they run on tax cuts and a strong economy while distancing themselves from a polarizing president at the same time?
Here's what our group had to say.
Ford O'Connell
In the unlikely event that President Trump’s approval rating cracks 50 percent this fall, Republican congressional candidates, particularly in moderate House districts, will have to take matters into their own hands.
They will need to remind voters that Trump is not Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi, and they will have to make the case to voters that whether you like or despise the president, it is hard to argue with the successes and results of this White House, especially when it comes to the economy.
One way to do this is to continuously run the Pelosi clip in which she proclaims that the bonuses being given to millions of employees around the country as a result of the tax bill are “crumbs.” Look, congressional Republicans don’t have to reinvent the wheel, nor do they have the time to, in an effort to hold the House of Representatives. They just have to be vociferous in reminding voters of the alternative, because a blue wave is looming on the horizon.
Despite Book Title, Some Say Clinton Refuses To Admit 'What Happened' In November
As Hillary Clinton returns to the airwaves to promote her new book about the 2016 election, “What Happened,” the former First Lady’s personal account of her defeat by President Donald Trump is reigniting controversy across the political spectrum about why she lost, who to blame, and indeed, what exactly happened last November.
Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist who has worked on failed presidential campaigns, said he understands the frustration Clinton feels after a brutal loss, but launching a national book tour is not how candidates typically handle the disappointment.
“She’s basically on a victimhood tour,” O’Connell said. “If she whines any more, she might actually get a year’s supply of cheese.”
Although Clinton has repeatedly said in the book and in interviews that she takes responsibility for her mistakes, Gregg Jarrett of Fox News counted at least 43 factors besides her own campaign that she lays blame on at various points in the 469-page tome.
“She’s named everything from Russia to Netflix,” O’Connell said. “At some point, you need to own up to your role in it.”
