James Hohmann, national political correspondent for The Washington Post and author of the 202, joined Mollie Hemingway and David Harsanyi, senior editors at The Federalist, to talk about why this election is stuck in the past.
Nearly every day now we see either the Trump or the Clinton campaign bringing up either the good things about their careers they’ve done in the past, or the negative scandals and political gafs about each other’s careers. “It feels increasingly like it’s going to be a lesser of two evils election,” Hohmann said. “When it’s an unpopularity contest, you win the unpopularity contest by making the other person look unpopular and the way you do that is by talking about the past.”
They debated on the permission structure in the Republican Party and the differences among Republican leaders who have or have not endorsed Donald Trump. “It gives cover to a lot of people who are uneasy about Trump. It frames the election as, ‘I don’t like Trump, but I hate Hillary Clinton,'” Hohmann said. “The stunning, breath-taking, juxtapositions between some of the comments will not look good in history.”
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