Trump brought notes to attack Clinton to his North Carolina rally Tuesday night—the kind of free-wheeling event he's used to attack former Republican rivals, mock the disabled, and make sweeping judgments based on ethnicity. He largely echoed the party's message of the day, but, in addition to his praise for Hussein, also veered from topic to topic, taking more than an hour to get through his short, prepared statement.
The Republican attack was two-pronged. On one hand, Trump and Ryan helped whip up conspiracy theories over the FBI process that include a recent meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton. The attack line was sure to rally the base, but may do little to convince general-election voters that Comey was a tool of the Democratic machine.
“I don’t think it will have any impact with independent voters, with the votes that she needs to win the election,” Robert Shrum said. “It’s the same old story, this is Whitewater all over again.”
Additionally, and perhaps more effectively, both Republicans as well as the Republican National Committee also sought to amplify deep misgivings among voters about Clinton's honesty by underscoring Comey's comments that her e-mail practices were “extremely careless.” Trump was judged more honest and trustworthy than Clinton, 45 percent to 37 percent, in a Quinnipiac University national poll of registered voters conducted June 21-27.
“The unifying person of the party may not be Donald Trump, but Hillary,” Brown said. “While many people may not like him, they are going to vote for him, because they don't like or trust her.”
“What is it about Hillary Clinton that allows her to get away with all this stuff?” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in an interview. “She's a terrific liar.”
Trump's immediate reaction on Twitter also echoed many of his usual campaign lines. He said Clinton jeopardized national security with her use of private e-mail, and painted her as a member of the political establishment who gets special treatment from a “rigged system.”
If it was business-as-usual for Trump, Team Clinton also proceeded as if nothing had changed.
“We think the matter is done,” Podesta told reporters at a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“It's like many other things—Benghazi,” he said, comparing the e-mail scandal to a House Republican panel created two years ago to investigate attacks on a U.S. diplomatic compound, but was largely beset by partisan accusations. “They go after her, go after her, go after her. But it's done.”