Folks, 2016 primary season is pretty much over, and Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have emerged as the prohibitive favorites for the Democratic and Republican nominations for president respectively. Trump trounced Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) earlier Tuesday night. The Hoosier State was the last stand for the Cruz campaign, which had recently picked Carly Fiorina to be Cruz’s running mate days prior to Election Day. It was a Hail Mary that failed. Now, Hillary Clinton is tweeting that Trump is the “presumptive” nominee, and has actively begun fundraising off his win.
Clinton is banking heavily on the overwhelming demographic advantage Democrats have heading into November, but things have been unpredictable since Trump has entered the race. In a crowded field of Republicans who were either in politics or business, all of whom with much more political experience than Trump, who thought this bombastic and capricious billionaire could steamroll everyone with such ease in a matter of months. He’s spent almost nothing compared to his rivals, while earning $2 billion on free media. Certainly his Republican challengers did not, many of whom not having serious opposition research divisions to look into the real estate magnate since they thought he would fizzle out. That wasn’t the case.
Donald Trump is the presumptive @GOP nominee.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 4, 2016
Chip in now if you agree we can't let him become president: https://t.co/BSrJDaGSOe
Yes, Trump has appalling numbers with women voters. If they maintain, this election will be a disaster for Republicans, some already think it is with his pathway now cleared to clinch 1,237 delegates. But all is not lost. Given the unpredictable nature of this election year, former Mike Huckabee communications director, Hogan Gidley, said a week ago that in the past three instances where Trump and Clinton went after one another—Trump emerged as the victor. He admitted that when he invoked the women’s card to attack Clinton after dominating the I-95 primaries was a bad move. It’s gender-specific, and plays into the misogyny games liberals love to play with conservatives. But saying that Hillary is “crooked” doesn’t fall into that category. In fact, he noted that’s how many Americans feel about her, including Sanders supporters. Lastly, when Hillary came after Trump for being sexist, Hidley said Trump responded by saying she some nerve attacking him for that, given her marriage to Bill. The whole conversation then turned into whether Bill Clinton was “fair game” to attack this cycle.
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The man knows how to work the media, while Clinton knows how to avoid them like the plague. When it comes to fighting Trump, she can’t do that.
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