RNC launching 'Hillary's hiding' campaign

Nearly two dozen Republicans are in the early stages of clawing at one another over the 2016 presidential nomination, but that’s not stopping national party leaders from lobbing new attacks at Hillary Clinton ahead of the Democrat’s all-but-certain presidential campaign rollout.

The latest front in Republicans’ anti-Clinton effort launched Tuesday morning, with the Republican National Committee’s “Hillary’s Hiding” campaign designed to highlight the former secretary of state’s recent lack of straightforward political activity despite her presumed precandidate status.


The RNC’s effort will include billboards in early primary and caucus states — such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — op-eds, and videos like the 2-minute post it plans to unveil Tuesday featuring edited clips of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, White House press secretary Josh Earnest and Clinton, branding her candidacy as “#Obama’s 3rd term.”

“What’s the only way not to seem like she’s campaigning?” asks RNC communications director Sean Spicer in the planned campaign kickoff memo. “Go into hiding.”

The memo notes that Clinton has not held a news conference in over 200 days and has not been to either Iowa or New Hampshire since November’s midterms. It also details 28 times Clinton’s camp has declined to comment on the record for news stories since May.

Clinton allies largely maintain that there is no need for her to start campaigning yet given her strong position in preliminary polling, and that as a noncandidate there is no reason for her to hold news conferences.

The former senator and first lady has not yet formally embarked on a 2016 run, but a number of high-profile Democratic operatives have already signed on to her effort, while other potential contenders for the nomination — including former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders — struggle to gain traction. Clinton has avoided political appearances since the midterms, and Spicer’s memo alleges that her silence is part of a “strategic decision that the only way to ensure she is the Democratic nominee is to make everyone think she’s inevitable.”

Asked whether this was a strategic decision, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill responded: “Is it that, OR, that she isn’t a declared candidate. You pick. If she runs she will take nothing for granted, and she will fight for every vote. Anyone who thinks otherwise should think again.”

The memo also highlights liberal efforts to draft Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run for president, despite her insistence that she is not running.

Democrats and Republicans alike have publicly worried about the possibility that Clinton could face little Democratic opposition, and the RNC offensive is expected to recall low points of Clinton’s failed 2008 bid for the nomination, when her campaign was plagued by staff infighting and an overall sense of inevitability that backfired. A research guide attached to Spicer’s memo compares the ongoing precampaign state of Clinton’s candidacy to that run and specifically points to the Monday resignation of Clinton ally David Brock from the board of the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA as a sign of trouble.

But the RNC campaign also comes as a broad array field of current and former Republican public officials spreads out across the country to garner financial and political support before the party’s primary season, when the group is eager to avoid a scramble reminiscent of 2012’s drawnout nominating battle. Clinton’s likely 2016 candidacy has been a target of national Republicans for over a year, and her record as secretary of state is regularly mentioned by GOP White House contenders campaigning across the country.

So as Republican aspirants frequent Des Moines ballrooms and Manchester cafes, the “Hillary’s Hiding” campaign is just one in a series of RNC efforts to paint Clinton in a negative light. It is officially distinct from the “Hiding Hillary” Facebook page set up by Republican opposition research group America Rising on Friday, but the similarity indicates Republicans’ universal wish to combat Clinton’s candidacy early on.