Pundits Weigh In On Race As Clinton Clinches Nomination
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - On Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, Chris Stigall spoke with political pundits John Hayward and AB Stoddard about the presidential race following Hillary Clinton's conclusive primary wins in New Jersey and California over Bernie Sanders, clearing the way for her to take on Donald Trump in the general election.
Hayward, who writes for Breitbart, predicts this will be one of the most negative elections in recent memory.
"It's this weird thing where these two candidates have these gigantic negative ratings and are going after each other. Theoretically, neither one of them should be electable. Clinton might very well be indicted. That's one of the reasons Sanders is hanging on by the way. Apparently, he personally thinks she might get indicted before the convention. That's one of the reasons he refuses to throw in the towel. She made history by being the first person under an FBI investigation to win the Presidency. That's what's historic. The first nominee for a major party that's being investigated by the FBI."
Stoddard, from The Hill, agrees that Sanders will continue to cause Clinton problems despite the fact that she has enough delegate support to have secured the nomination.
"The Bernie problems are really going to fester. Obama's going to have more conversations with him. Everyone is going to bring the pressure down. She's going to try to play nice behind the scenes and offer him olive branches but we just really don't know where his head is...In 2008, Hillary, no matter what she thought of Barack Obama, she wanted to run for President again so she was going to endorse him and tow the party line. Bernie Sanders is not really a Democrat. He's never going to run again and I don't think he cares about enthusiastically endorsing her. We'll have to wait and see but it doesn't look very good."
She disagreed when asked if the election could turn into a rout and sees a close race ahead in the fall.
"I just can't go with a landslide. I think you could argue the two of them turn off turnout, the two of them inspire turnout against each other. Trump's voters are more enthusiastic than Clinton's. We don't know that that will be true come November 8th. The idea of one of them winning in a landslide because they're so detested seems hard for me to believe...Maybe four points, but not ten. Maybe three which would be a lot."
However, Hayward made the point to say that Donald Trump stumbled severely after refusing to stop criticizing a judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University and the ramifications could linger into the fall.
"That was a really huge mistake he made and one of the reasons is the timing. He was starting to do the job of pulling the party together. People were making their peace with him. [Speaker of the House Paul] Ryan finally gave him that weird, kind of, back handed endorsement. He was finally closing the deal and then he does this and it's something that's just toxic. They feel like they can't be associated with that in any way and out there in the hinterlands, the perception is that Trump is prioritizing his suit more than he is his presidential campaign and that scares people who are thinking he might have a chance. The polls go south for him roughly at the same time. It was just a really bad moment."
