Donald Trump and his team used "psychological warfare tactics" to triumph over Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and a whole host of other Republican contenders — and now the presumptive Republican nominee is gearing up for his biggest battle yet, likely against Hillary Clinton. Speaking with The New York Times, Trump and his advisers say they plan to publicly humiliate Clinton, banking on the fact that 57 percent of Trump's supporters are reportedly not casting a vote for Trump, but against Clinton:
Donald J. Trump plans to throw Bill Clinton's infidelities in Hillary Clinton's face on live television during the presidential debates this fall, questioning whether she enabled his behavior and sought to discredit the women involved.Mr. Trump will try to hold her accountable for security lapses at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and for the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens there.And he intends to portray Mrs. Clinton as fundamentally corrupt, invoking everything from her cattle futures trades in the late 1970s to the federal investigation into her email practices as secretary of state. [The New York Times]
"Just getting nasty with Hillary won't work. You really have to get people to look hard at her character, and to get women to ask themselves if Hillary is truly sincere and authentic," Trump said.
But Trump might be less successful than he hopes — while they didn't release the exact numbers, the Clinton campaign said data does not convincingly show that Trump's attacks hurt her. And certainly Clinton has her own ammunition for discrediting Trump.
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"The poll shows [Trump] could bring her vote down with sharp attacks, but that does not bring his vote up," a separate study by Mark Penn of the Center for American Political Studies concluded.
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