First Look on TIME How Hillary Clinton Is Targeting Republican Candidates
Hillary Clinton's campaign released a video on Thursday attacking the Republican candidates for seeking to roll back President Obama's policies, according to an exclusive preview provided by an aide, in a peek at how the Democratic frontrunner would contrast herself with the GOP in a general election. The 28-second campaign video provides a window into the kind of contrast Clinton will set with the Republicans in a general election, with the campaign painting Republican candidates as backward-looking and out of touch. The video begins with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio saying "This election is about the future." The Republican candidates are then featured in a quick montage saying they want to roll back the policies set by President Obama. "Repeal every rule that Obama has" former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is seen saying. "Obamacare has to be repealed," Carly Fiorina says. The debate segments of the candidates saying "repeal" are then shown next to scenes from Clinton's campaign announcement video and film footage of Obama emerging from Air Force One, all played backwards. "Americans have come too far to see our progress ripped away," Clinton says at the end of the video in a line taken from her campaign launch in June. Clinton has emphasized her closeness to President Obama in this election cycle, saying that she would preserve Obama's legacy and seek to build on his policies. She has also said she would go further than the President in a number of issues, including on immigration and Wall Street reform. Left unsaid in the video is the contrast between Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton's chief challenger for the Democratic nomination, who wants to replace Obamacare with a single-payer system, and said in 2011 that Obama would benefit from facing a primary challenger. Clinton began stepping up the rhetoric against Republicans this summer, criticizing Republicans for being too extreme on issues ranging from abortion and immigration to gun control and Wall Street regulation. She will seek to make the argument that Republican Party is far out of step with the American mainstream, an argument that bears out in some polls the GOP had a 32 favorability rating, according to a Pew survey, compared with 48 favorability for the Democratic party. The candidates in the primary debates have expended much of their energy attacking the leaders of the other party already. Most of the shots in the Republican debate were directed at Hillary Clinton Fiorina said a Clinton presidency would be disastrous for veterans, Donald Trump again called her the worst Secretary of State in history, Ted Cruz said Clinton "embodies the cronyism of Washington" and many boasted they could defeat Clinton in a general election. Read more Here's What Democratic Operatives Thought of the Republican Debate