Republicans continue to lay the groundwork to claim that Hillary Clinton’s likely presidential win somehow doesn’t count. The media isn’t scrutinizing her enough, we’re told, or voters are just treating the election as a referendum on Donald Trump, or she’s only winning because of a lack of attack ads:
“Failing to define a candidate allows them to compete for votes that they have no business competing for down the stretch in a campaign,” said Josh Holmes, a top Republican strategist and former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “In particular, the failure to define Hillary Clinton with key demographics that are absolutely necessary to win the election is beyond malpractice.”
In this case, both things can be true: Trump’s campaign is committing malpractice left and right, and even if Trump’s campaign had a disciplined message against Clinton beamed out in huge ad buys, she’d still be beating him. Either way, the claim that Hillary Clinton, 25 years into her life as a public figure, isn’t adequately defined for voters, or that she hasn’t faced enough attacks and scrutiny, is ludicrous.
None of this is idle talk. It’s about delegitimizing a Clinton win before a single vote is cast.