Hillary Clinton campaign deploys Donald Trump’s own words against him
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is launching a new Twitter account and hard-hitting television ad on Thursday in order to bash Donald Trump with his own past statements.
The Twitter page, “Literally Trump,” will begin publishing messages at 10 a.m. ET. It will be paired with a matching Tumblr page. The tweets will feature quotes and anecdotes from Trump’s long time in the spotlight as a real estate developer, reality television star and current Republican presidential hopeful.
“Donald Trump literally said these things,” the account description says.
According to the Clinton campaign, some of the first posts on the “Literally Trump” page will include tweets noting Trump criticized his primary opponent Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish, a 1990 magazine profile that claimed one of Trump’s ex-wives told her lawyer he kept a box of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s speeches by his bedside, and Trump’s controversial “taco bowl” tweet he used to honor the Mexican Cinco de Mayo holiday.
“Donald Trump literally thinks the fact that he eats taco bowls means he loves Latinos,” the tweet will say along with a link to Trump’s original message.
This “Literally Trump” account is in keeping with the Clinton campaign’s robust social media efforts, much of which are written in fluent Internet speak. Liberal — and oftentimes technically incorrect — usage of the term “literally” is commonplace online.
“Literally Trump” is one of two attacks the presumptive Democratic nominee’s campaign is debuting on Thursday that were in large part authored by Trump. Clinton’s team also launched a television ad called “Role Models” on Thursday morning that featured footage of children purportedly watching Trump issue some of his most infamous statements, including his declaration that the Mexican government is sending criminals and rapists over the border, the campaign speech in which he appeared to mock a physically disabled reporter and a pair of instances in which he made quips about people getting shot or hurt.
“Our children are watching. What example will we set for them?” the ad asks.
Adrienne Watson, a rapid response spokesperson for the Clinton campaign, told Yahoo News that her team plans to hold Trump responsible for past comments they say are derogatory.
“We want to show people what Trump has actually said and done, rather than just telling people. The outrageous words that have literally come out of Trump’s comments are firsthand evidence of his divisive and discriminatory policies,” Watson said.
