Former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is “hiding” from the American people with a deliberately underwhelming and stage crafted rollout, Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Tuesday morning.
When Clinton announced on Sunday, she sent out just a simple tweet: “I’m running for president. Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion.”
Her campaign on Monday released a two minute, 18-second long video that barely features Clinton in it at all. “I’m getting ready for a lot of things,” a woman says as video clips of various people engaged in a variety of activities appear across the screen. “A lot of things.”
The video then cuts back and forth between various different people across the country and brief vignettes about them, and doesn’t even introduce Clinton until more than a minute-and-a-half into it. “I’m getting ready to do something too,” Clinton says while appearing on-screen with a cup of coffee, before then speaking directly into the camera: “I’m running for president.”
“Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top,” Clinton says, while the video cuts back and forth between her speaking directly into the camera and clips from the people in the various vignettes from earlier in the video. “Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion, so you can do more than just get by. You can get ahead and stay ahead. Because when families are strong, America is strong. So I’m hitting the road to earn your vote because it’s your time and I hope you’ll join me on this journey.”
And off she’s gone, in the “Scooby” van across on a road trip where press hasn’t been invited and there are no public events—only private gatherings that are orchestrated by Clinton’s operation, a strategy designed to avoid any scrutiny over the litany of issues ripping her credibility as a presidential candidate to shreds.
“It’s the only strategy that their team could have possibly employed because the last thing Hillary Clinton can afford right now is to stand in front of a press gaggle and start answering questions,” Priebus told Breitbart News. “So they put together a video where she’s barely involved, and now they’re in a van having no press, having no events and then now the next thing they’re going to do is have private listening sessions without press and without any crowds. So, her MO [modus operandi] right now is make sure everyone knows she’s running for office but avoid any press and all questions related to a number of scandals that are obviously plaguing her.”
When asked about how Clinton, according to the Associated Press, made her decision to run for president while staying at Oscar de la Renta’s luxurious Dominican Republic resort, Priebus said she’s “out of touch” with America.
Obviously, she’s out of touch with ordinary people and now while she’s trying to avoid the press she’s trying to make things appear as though she’s a regular person driving in a van except for the fact it’s the Secret Service driving the van. She hasn’t driven in over 20 years. So to me the interesting thing would be if she actually gets behind the wheel of the van for starters, and the second thing is whether she’s actually going to appear before the press. She’s used to flying around on private jets, and as we all know she’s somebody who has been taking $300,000 per speaking fee and also arriving in a private jet to get to these locations. So, yeah, she now wants to make believe she’s just an ordinary person, well I don’t think the American people are going to buy it.
What’s even more interesting, Priebus said, is that the “stagecraft” from the Clinton operation is so controlled that they put out a story via ABC News about how Clinton inconspicuously ordered Chipotle and nobody noticed her. ABC News was provided with security footage from Chipotle, and it was made into a story designed to humanize her after having spent decades as an elitist in the political class. Priebus said if Mitt Romney, the GOP nominee in 2012, had done this in the last election he would have been vilified by the media.
“You have the actual company working with them to get the security video out? I don’t know how they got it,” Priebus said. “The point is that if Mitt Romney went to something like that people would have said he was out of touch because he didn’t talk to any of the employees. Hillary Clinton does it and it’s somehow savvy and interesting. It’s all about stagecraft. It’s all fake and phony. She’s used to private jets, not vans and she doesn’t drive the van—Secret Service does. She’s not used to dealing with ordinary Americans. It’s all going to come out, slowly but surely. We will be very grateful that Hillary Clinton is the nominee for the Democrat Party.”
Priebus said that the Democrats—even if they wanted to—are going to have a hard time considering someone other than Clinton for their nominee, someone like former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), or Vice President Joe Biden. He said that’s because Democratic Party elders have already dumped so much money, time, and resources into a Clinton candidacy.
“There’s something called a sunk cost analysis and the sunk cost analysis is the Democrats are sort of trapped with accepting Hillary Clinton as their nominee even if it’s not making a whole lot of sense because they’ve got so much money and so much time and energy sunk into this thing that the cost of actually moving in a different direction may be too big and too big of a risk for them to take,” Priebus said. “So, Hillary Clinton is at a 60 percent rating of people who find her untrustworthy in the battleground states. Right now, Hillary Clinton has 100 percent name ID. But she’s losing to our candidates in battleground states straight up. Our guys have about a 30 percent name ID rate and that’s only being generous. So look at the product they’re trying to sell and the biggest problem they have is they’re hiding Hillary because they don’t have a case for her candidacy. They don’t have an answer for the scandals. And by the way, she’s pretty gaffe prone on top of it. I like where we’re sitting as a national party with Hillary Clinton on the other side.”
Priebus added that Clinton’s poll numbers were only good when she was not out in public—something that as a presidential candidate she won’t likely be able to continue for long.
“Her poll numbers are good as long as she’s not out in the public,” Priebus said. “The more she appears in public the worse her poll numbers get, that’s what’s going on here.”
Priebus thinks Democrats at places like the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and throughout leadership of the party are “concerned” that Clinton’s not going to be able to win in a general election. He also said that she’s the Democratic candidate he most wants whoever wins the Republican nomination to face in 2016.
“I’m sure that they’re concerned about the fact that if Hillary Clinton continues to go in the direction that she’s going, they’re going to have a very flawed product that they’re going to have to sell,” Priebus said. “As you know, there’s some reports of Democrat leadership out there that are nervous about Hillary Clinton and putting all of their eggs in her basket. So clearly that’s the case. The question though is whether or not the cost and risk of shifting gears is something the Democrat Party willing to do. So, from my standpoint, I prefer Hillary Clinton on the other side. I sure hope that they keep Hillary Clinton there and to me it’s a known commodity and something that has lots of problems that we can get out there and talk about. It defines their party. That’s helpful.”
Priebus added that the coronation Clinton seems to want as the Democrats’ nominee is a stark contrast to the robust debate between several highly qualified candidates on the Republican side. Three Republicans have announced so far—Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Marco Rubio (R-FL)—and each has done a speech, a series of public events, and media interviews.
“They’ve also been all over the TV too,” Priebus said. “Our candidates have availed themselves to media and people that are going to ask difficult questions. The reason why she didn’t give a speech is because she can’t avail herself to the media. She cannot get herself in a situation where she’s going to have to deal with a question about Benghazi or about the emails or about her speeches or about the Clinton Foundation or about her disastrous tenure as Secretary of State. She wants to be able to have a few days and a couple weeks of peace and change the subject from what’s been plaguing her and the only way she can do that is by hiding and that’s what she’s doing: Hiding.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.