Longtime Clinton adviser Philippe Reines said Wednesday that Hillary Clinton has not ruled out running in 2020 and would consider doing so if she thought she had the best odds of beating President Trump.
“If she thought she had the best odds of beating Donald Trump I think she would think about it long and hard,” Reines told Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Reines’ remarks came a day after the New York Times reported that establishment Democratic donors have been discussing what a late presidential bid by Hillary Clinton would mean for the 2020 race.
Carlson then asked whether the Democratic Party has moved too far left since Clinton last ran for her to be a viable candidate in 2020.
“Well, look, this is a huge if, but if she would jump in for whatever reason, and the party has moved someplace that she hasn’t, then she won’t get the votes,” Reines responded. “If she would run and people would think she’s too left, too right, too center, or whatever you want to call it, that’s the beauty of it. They get to vote against whoever they want.”
Democratic bed-wetting over the 2020 primary has reached a previously unseen level.
Fear that the party doesn’t have the candidate to win is an evergreen aspect of the modern presidential race. In just about every presidential contest in recent memory, there have been moments of existential fear among Democrats.
But the worry this time, when the party will nominate a candidate to take on President Trump in an effort to end his time in office at one term, are like nothing seen before, say Democrats.
“This is like the Democratic bed-wetting of past cycles except everyone evidently drank a gallon of chardonnay before they went to bed,” said Democratic strategist Eddie Vale.
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The New York Times crystalized the fears in a story earlier this week about “anxious” Democratic donors wondering if the party would be better served with a new candidate, such as 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton or former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“You can count on the sun rising, an ironic Trump tweet from 2012, and Democratic bed-wetting over our field of presidential candidates,” said Democratic strategist Christy Setzer. “But the fears this year are greater because the stakes have never seemed so high.”
Democrats are worried that former Vice President Joe Biden is a weak candidate whose age is showing. They fear Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) could be an easy target for Trump, and that her policies might be too progressive for many voters.