Transcript: Brutal new ad blasts Trump – with his own ugly words about women

Sargent: You find yourself in a very interesting tension. On the one hand, as you said, she’s not focusing on the historical nature of her candidacy, but on the other hand, she’s speaking directly to women about women’s issues and she’s actually speaking a cultural language that is very much about this being a moment is for women. That’s just fascinating. I think you did a really good job. Also, unfortunately, Hillary was probably the wrong icon to do that, and Harris might be the right one. What’s the difference there? Why? Harris is incredibly smart culturally, isn’t he? She’s really in tune with what’s going on beneath the surface.

Mercieca: She’s running a great campaign. Hillary Clinton is a very smart person, as is Kamala Harris, not to take anything away from either of them. The difference is in the power of persuasion. When you’re running a presidential campaign, you want to be able to tell your story and introduce yourself to the nation. You want them to be open to learning who you are, and you want to be able to tell that story in a way that resonates with people. Hillary Clinton didn’t have that opportunity. Everyone thought they knew who Hillary Clinton was. They had made a decision, whether it was good or bad. And in 2016, she did not get the chance to tell her story as a presidential candidate. That story had already been told. She was already defined.

Kamala Harris, even as vice president, people were like: WHO? I don’t really know her. I don’t know two facts about Kamala Harris. So she really had the opportunity to tell her story. And the way she has chosen to tell her story is that she is someone who wants to protect others, that she has spent her career standing up for people who don’t yet have a voice, that she has done so in an impartial way. and that as an elected official she has continued to work to solve problems, help people, defend people who need to be defended, and protect people who need to be protected. In a way, she uses a lot of very masculine tropes, like I will be a protector for you, I will help you, but she does it in a way that takes all those women’s interests into account I see you, I see you struggling to raise your family and take care of your parents, I know how impossible that is. So she’s been able to connect who she is and who she wants us to see, who she wants to present with her story, in a way that Hillary Clinton just couldn’t do. In that way, I always thought Hillary Clinton was a bad candidate in 2016 just because she couldn’t define herself.