On Monday, the Donald Trump campaign pounced on a rare Hillary Clinton slipup, releasing a scathing attack ad featuring Clinton saying, “half of Trump’s supporters” could be put into what she calls “the basket of deplorables.”
To try and defend against that attack ad, today the Hillary Clinton campaign released their own ad, full of clips of Trump insulting… basically everyone.
These two ads, released in tandem, open up a new theme of the campaign: which candidate is more insulting to voters than the other? Perhaps the “insult” dynamic in Trump and Clinton’s ads was just waiting to happen, given the historic distaste for both candidates – with each one trying to make the race a referendum on the other.
Clinton’s newest ad, “Low Opinion” released this morning, is not terribly different than other anti-Trump attack ads released throughout this cycle. We first see Trump from a primary rally ask his audience “How stupid are the people of the country?” The ad then goes down the laundry list of Trump mocking a disabled reporter, insulting Mexicans, African Americans, Muslims, veterans, and women. The ad then turns Trump’s recent attack line against Clinton on its head, as Trump says, “You can’t lead this nation if you have such a low opinion for its citizens.” The idea here is: “Yeah, but whose opinion is lower?”
Surely each of Trump’s lines is offensive in its own way. To many, Clinton’s basket of deplorables comment was just as bad. The Clinton campaign is undoubtedly confident that if this race is based on insulting people alone, they surely will win by a landslide.
But the repeated reliance on these same Trump clips in every Clinton ad, every Priorities USA ad, every anti-Trump ad and every attack ad from every super PAC, means the Clinton team is running the risk of letting Trump’s remarks lose their power. Eventually voters will become desensitized to Trump’s ability to offend.
Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” line may not be nearly as insulting as Trump’s many vulgar remarks towards the American people – but at least it’s something new. Not to mention it plays right into Trump’s argument that Clinton is too wrapped up with wealthy politicians to care about working Americans. And for Clinton – this late in the campaign – that could turn out bad.
To try and defend against that attack ad, today the Hillary Clinton campaign released their own ad, full of clips of Trump insulting… basically everyone.
These two ads, released in tandem, open up a new theme of the campaign: which candidate is more insulting to voters than the other? Perhaps the “insult” dynamic in Trump and Clinton’s ads was just waiting to happen, given the historic distaste for both candidates – with each one trying to make the race a referendum on the other.
Clinton’s newest ad, “Low Opinion” released this morning, is not terribly different than other anti-Trump attack ads released throughout this cycle. We first see Trump from a primary rally ask his audience “How stupid are the people of the country?” The ad then goes down the laundry list of Trump mocking a disabled reporter, insulting Mexicans, African Americans, Muslims, veterans, and women. The ad then turns Trump’s recent attack line against Clinton on its head, as Trump says, “You can’t lead this nation if you have such a low opinion for its citizens.” The idea here is: “Yeah, but whose opinion is lower?”
Surely each of Trump’s lines is offensive in its own way. To many, Clinton’s basket of deplorables comment was just as bad. The Clinton campaign is undoubtedly confident that if this race is based on insulting people alone, they surely will win by a landslide.
But the repeated reliance on these same Trump clips in every Clinton ad, every Priorities USA ad, every anti-Trump ad and every attack ad from every super PAC, means the Clinton team is running the risk of letting Trump’s remarks lose their power. Eventually voters will become desensitized to Trump’s ability to offend.
Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” line may not be nearly as insulting as Trump’s many vulgar remarks towards the American people – but at least it’s something new. Not to mention it plays right into Trump’s argument that Clinton is too wrapped up with wealthy politicians to care about working Americans. And for Clinton – this late in the campaign – that could turn out bad.