Nobody thought Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee, least of all Hillary Clinton and her team. In fact, Clinton and her allies had been preparing for a showdown against Jeb Bush since before the 2014 midterm elections, Politico Magazine reports. Trump's candidacy, on the other hand, had long been a joke with the staff, an impossible dream scenario. Until suddenly it wasn't a scenario anymore:
Clinton aides finally started to see Trump as more than a tool to destroy Bush. In fact, [Robby] Mook took him so seriously that his team's internal, if informal, guidance was to hold fire on Trump during the primary and resist the urge to distribute any of the opposition research the Democrats were scrambling to amass against him. That hoarding plan remained in place deep into 2016 as some senior aides stayed convinced that a race against Trump would be a dream for Clinton, but as others kept insisting on tweaking the long-term plans against [Marco] Rubio and [Ted] Cruz — convinced the GOP would ultimately coalesce around the Floridian.Much of the original playbook was still intact: As late as the last week of October 2015, a private memo from Mook to top bundlers invoked Bush's fundraising power. And it wasn’t until the December holiday season — when Cruz and Trump emerged as pack leaders, and Podesta was telling fundraisers in closed-door meetings that he thought the Texan would win — that the team realized it was not prepared, strategically or tactically, for what many saw as a dream scenario. [Politico Magazine]
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Expressionists: a 'rousing' exhibition at the Tate ModernThe Week Recommends Show mixes 'ferociously glowing masterpieces' from Kandinsky with less well-known artwork
-
The Mighty Five: a guide to Utah's mesmerizing national parksThe Week Recommends From Arches to Zion, you should wander them all
-
How is your mortgage rate determined?The Explainer The Federal Reserve is partly to blame, but so are various personal financial factors
-
Ukraine cheers House approval of military aidSpeed Read Following a lengthy struggle, the House has approved $95 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel
-
Poland, Germany nab alleged anti-Ukraine spiesSpeed Read A man was arrested over a supposed Russian plot to kill Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
-
Israel hits Iran with retaliatory airstrikeSpeed Read The attack comes after Iran's drone and missile barrage last weekend
-
Peter Murrell: Sturgeon's husband charged over SNP 'embezzlement' claimsSpeed Read SNP expresses 'shock' as former chief executive rearrested in long-running investigation into claims of mishandled campaign funds
-
Mark Menzies: Tories investigate MP after 'bad people' cash claimsSpeed Read Fylde MP will sit as an independent while party looks into allegations he misused campaign funds on medical expenses and blackmail pay-out
-
Why Johnson won't just pass Ukraine aidSpeed Read The House Speaker could have sent $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine — but it would have split his caucus
-
Sudan on brink of collapse after a year of warSpeed Read 18 million people face famine as the country continues its bloody downward spiral
-
Trump's first criminal trial starts with jury picksSpeed Read The former president faces charges related to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels
