If attacking your corrupt opponent on corruption seems obvious, it wasn’t to Mr. Trump for a long time. The GOP nominee is a scrapper, and part of his draw was the expectation that he would speak bluntly about the Clintons. He did, though as voters would soon realize, only in fits and incomplete starts. He delivered a speech on her ethics in June—then never sustained the argument. He ignored prime opportunities (the State Department inspector general report; FBI Director James Comey’s press conference), flitting to other subjects instead. He seemed to think the occasional #CrookedHillary tweet was enough.
This was frustrating if only because Mrs. Clinton’s venality is the concrete with which Mr. Trump must pave his road to the White House. This is a woman whom close to two-thirds of voters view as untrustworthy. She has based her entire campaign around the argument that she is more credible and competent to lead the nation—a claim utterly undermined by revelations about her foundation’s business model, her cavalier handling of classified information, and her inability to “recall” most of her tenure as secretary of state.
Mr. Trump’s new approach is to unrelentingly hit all sides of that claim—making the case that Mrs. Clinton is “unfit” to hold the top job. Case in point: After Wednesday’s commander-in-chief forum on NBC, the Trump campaign detailed precisely why Mrs. Clinton should not be trusted with national security. Mr. Trump hit her during the forum, while a follow-up press release highlighted her bad judgment in using an “illicit” email server and the risk of a “hack of classified info”; noted how her drone emails would “undermine” security; and flagged her stumbling attempt to tell a vet in the audience why she should be held to a different standard on classified information than military officers. Good, smart stuff.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member