The Atlantic’s Molly Ball on Monday compared Hillary Clinton’s campaign re-launch to her failed "reset" policy with Russia as secretary of state.
Ball appeared on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, where the panel discussed concerns the Democratic Party has about Hillary Clinton’s campaigning strategy.
Show host Andrea Mitchell said many Clinton-allied Democrats view the campaign re-launch, which is scheduled to occur Saturday on New York City’s Roosevelt Island, with concern.
"There’s a lot of concern among Democrats right now who are not sure what the strategy is" behind the re-launch, Mitchell said.
Ball said she had heard "a lot of grumbling from people in Clinton world" about the second announcement, saying that they thought it was "weird."
Clinton announced her candidacy in a video earlier in the year. Saturday’s event in New York City is seen by some as an attempt to reintroduce Hillary to the public after a rocky start.
"It’s interesting that this is almost like Hillary’s famous Reset button from when she was secretary of state," Ball said.
In early 2009, Secretary of State Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a "reset" button to symbolize her commitment to fostering better relations with the Russian government, which had invaded Georgia the previous year.
The reset strategy proved an embarrassment from the beginning, not least because the word "reset" was misspelled on the physical button that Clinton and Lavrov posed with for photos.
Clinton continues to defend her reset policy in spite of recent Russian affronts. In addition to its expansionist campaign in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, the Russian government is supporting the Iranian nuclear program, selling arms to other rogue regimes, and cracking down on political dissidents at home.
This is the second time in so many days that Ball has criticized Clinton. On Sunday, Ball said that Clinton would have to run on policy "because she can’t really run on character."
Clinton has been plagued by ethical questions following revelations about her secret email server and foreign government donations to the Clinton Foundation.