Elections

Heilemann: Hillary’s Disarrayed Campaign ‘Is A Classic Clinton Scenario’ [VIDEO]

Steve Guest Media Reporter
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Amid reports of possible staff shake-ups within the Hillary Clinton campaign after the New Hampshire primary, John Heilemann said, “This is a classic Clinton scenario.”

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Joe Scarborough suggested the problems stem from the Clintons themselves because Hillary “doesn’t have anybody around her that can speak truth to power.”

“This is a classic clinton scenario,” Heilemann argued. Referring to the Politico report about possible shake-ups, the Bloomberg Politics managing editor said, “First of all, everyone who went to work for this campaign always assumed that at some point this would happen because this is what happens with the Clintons. There’s always some point where you have a crisis in the campaign and there’s discussions of shake-ups.”

“It’s still really bad for morale though to be having these conversations on the eve of the New Hampshire primary,” Heilemann said. “Is it true? Hillary Clinton says I’m going forward with the team I have at the same time people are saying there’s going to be a shakeup. Both of things are possible because the way the Clintons do this is when they have a shakeup, they don’t fire people they just layer. They bring in people from the past and put new people on top of the old people. This happened eight years ago after New Hampshire. There was a very similar thing.”

Heilemann added, “The core truth, though, is that she and her husband are exceptionally frustrated with the way this campaign has gone.”

Mike Barnicle argued that Hillary isn’t just the problem, claiming, “The level of frustration with former President Clinton is extraordinarily high and the two of them have been together here for more than a few days together, which just added to the joint frustration.”

Joe Scarborough added, “The problem right now in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and it must have been the problem in 2008, is there is nobody that can go up to her and tell her exactly like it is. We’ve heard it from everybody around they her. We’ve heard it for decades. They tell her what they think she wants to hear. And that’s why when she is confronted with very basic facts like you got paid a lot of money from banks, she acts shocked and calls it a smear. She always appears shocked on the debate stage and ill-prepared for the most basic swing that’s coming at her. That’s because she doesn’t have anybody around her that can speak truth to power. And that’s been an ongoing problem.”

“I think many people in the campaign assumed she would win more decisively in Iowa and she might conceivably win here [in New Hampshire],” Heilemann said. “It’s just the reality now that they’re going to head out of New Hampshire, a state the Clintons are so invested in, has been so good for them for so long, to leave this state getting beaten badly potentially by Bernie Sanders, is just the reality of it is a very hard blow.”

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