Tom Vilsack Does Hillary Clinton’s Dirty Work

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


There’s a delicious lack of self-awareness on display in these comments by former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack (D). He suggests, without bringing up specifics, that there is trouble in Rudy Giuliani’s personal life — the “number of marriages,” the “relationship he has with his children.” And then, in the same breath, Vilsack transitions to Hillary Clinton’s history of familial problems and says, “We ought to be focused not on scandals. We ought to be focused on the direction of this country.”

Let’s talk for just one second about the wisdom of a Clinton aide drudging up someone else’s sordid personal life. This is either a terrible idea, because it reminds everyone that if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency we’re going to have years and years of headlines and TV newscasts filled with psychodrama, or it’s a dangerous but marginally okay idea because voters see Hillary as the wronged party in her relationship and don’t assign her blame the way they would to Rudy.

Either way, that doesn’t seem like a particularly strong political play. How about we cool it, Vilsack?

(H/T PrezVid)

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate