7 most memorable, potent attacks of presidential race
Can they overcome the attacks?
The presidential candidates have just two weeks to improve lackluster poll numbers — or to elbow aside the current Iowa front-runners, Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The Des Moines Register asked more than a dozen campaign operatives to point to the “best” attacks of the 2016 presidential race — meaning the most memorable or potent criticism, words a candidate is still trying to overcome 15 days before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation vote on Feb. 1.
The impact of some attacks, especially the freshest ones, may have yet to fully play out.
7. GOP RIVALS ON CLINTON on emails.
After the New York Times in March broke the story about Clinton’s use of a private, home-based email server to conduct government business in her high-security-clearance job as U.S. secretary of state, just about the entire GOP field jumped in to try to capitalize on the underlying issue of Clinton’s trustworthiness.
The enduring attack was encapsulated in Thursday night’s sixth GOP debate when former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush delivered a line that several Iowa Republican caucusgoers told the Register was one of the most memorable of the night: “If she gets elected, her first 100 days, instead of setting an agenda, she might be going back and forth between the White House and the courthouse.” (That also served as a subtle reminder that Cruz might have the same problem, strategists said.)
6. CLINTON ON SANDERS on guns.
Clinton's constant references to Bernie Sanders’ record regarding gun legislation has put a dent in his halo, strategists said.
At the first debate, she dinged the Vermont U.S. senator for voting against the Brady Bill, which imposed waiting periods and background checks to buy handguns; against banning assault weapons; and against giving gun manufacturers greater liability exposure. (It was in that same debate in October when Sanders nearly folded his campaign with his own line about how people are “sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails,” thus validating Clinton.)
5. RUBIO ON BUSH on attacking.
One of the turning points in the GOP race came in October during the third debate when Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio turned the tables on Bush’s criticism of his record of missed U.S. Senate votes, saying: “You know how many votes (Arizona U.S. senator and 2008 presidential candidate) John McCain missed? Jeb, let me tell you, I don’t remember you ever complaining about John McCain’s vote record. … The only reason you’re doing it now is because we’re running for the same position. Someone convinced you attacking me is going to help you.”
It was the beginning of Rubio's rise, strategists said.
4. GOP RIVALS ON RUBIO in a big pile-on.
Rubio is now getting rocked from all sides, portrayed as being a show horse instead of a workhorse: for skipping important U.S. Senate national security meetings, wearing fashionable high-heeled boots, and even for gulping his water.
Cruz, a Texas U.S. senator, has gone hard after Rubio on immigration, saying the reform legislation Rubio championed in 2013 posed a threat to national security. After Rubio hounded New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for being aligned with President Barack Obama on certain stances, Christie rapped him for trying to “slime his way to the White House.”
3. TRUMP ON CRUZ on citizenship.
New York businessman Donald Trump said the fact that Cruz was born in Canada leaves a constitutional question mark about his legitimacy to be president.
Cruz said during Thursday night’s debate that he has spent his “entire life defending the Constitution before the U.S. Supreme Court,” and “the chances of any litigation proceeding and succeeding on this are zero.”
But if the attack peels away even a small portion of Cruz's voters, it could help Trump, who trails Cruz by just 3 percentage points in Iowa.
2. TRUMP ON CLINTON on womanizing.
The thrice-married Trump posted on Twitter on Dec. 28: “If Hillary thinks she can unleash her husband, with his terrible record of women abuse, while playing the women’s card on me, she's wrong!”
That one tweet dredged up a wave of news coverage about the former president’s history of sexual misadventures. Both Hillary and Bill Clinton went instantly silent on the topic.
The episode went further than any other attack on Hillary Clinton so far in suggesting Trump could defeat her in November 2016, strategists said.
1. TRUMP ON BUSH on low energy.
Trump labeled Bush “low energy,” a powerful attack that had nothing to do with policy or even the facts, strategists said.
But Bush now sits at 4 percent in Iowa, down from a high of 9 percent in May.
Some Iowans have pointed out that other candidates have spent much more energy in Iowa than Trump: more days here, longer hours each day, or both. Trump typically jets in and out of the state for single campaign rallies.
Trump on Friday made his first retail campaign stop. He stopped by an event his campaign organized at a Pizza Ranch restaurant, a mainstay of the GOP campaign trail.
He stayed less than 10 minutes.