CNN political analyst Gloria Borger thinks Hillary Clinton “is well aware that she stepped in it” by criticizing President Obama’s foreign policy doctrine (or lack thereof), adding that the comments the former secretary of state made Sunday were “disparaging” to the president.
Borger spoke to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday about Clinton’s comments, where she claimed President Obama’s policy of “don’t do stupid shit” is “not an organizing principle.” The former secretary of state is traveling to Martha’s Vineyard tonight to “hug it out” (her words) with the vacationing president.
“I think she’s well aware she stepped in it,” Borger said. “She had, in her book, said that there were differences with the president on Syria. But what she did was she took a policy difference and she made it personal.”
“Don’t forget, this is a president who when she was retiring went on ’60 Minutes’ with her,” she noted. “Some of his staff has gone to work for her super PAC. So I think there are lots of hurt feelings here that she’s got to try and fix.”
“This is the kind of thing — when you take a policy dispute and you disparage the president and you kind of make it personal, which I would argue she did — it can backfire on you,” Borger later explained. “And I do believe that people in the White House are very upset about this.”
“This kind of an interview is something I don’t think they expected,” she continued, “particularly with the wording she used . . . It’s a little demeaning to the President of the United States.”