With All Due Respect co-hosts John Heilemann and Mark Halperin ridiculed the Hillary Clinton campaign on Tuesday for announcing their "ham-handed" plan to showcase a more humorous and relatable candidate to Americans.
The two reporters mocked Clinton’s cold, cautious, and calculating persona by mimicking robots while reading out her campaign’s "objectives."
"It’s inexplicable… you do not tell people what your strategy is, you simply do your strategy," Halperin said. "They’re now promising all these things about joy and spontaneity, she should just go out and be a better candidate."
Heilemann noted the Clinton campaign made the same disastrous decision in 2007, when she was made fun of for trying to appear more likable.
"This day will go down in history as one of the stupidest things they’ve done," Halperin said.
"You are likable or you are not likable," Heilemann said. "If you announce you are trying to be likable, you come across like a phony, and that’s what she seems like to a lot of people anyway."
The duo lamented Clinton’s decision to detail her plan of appearing more human. Her plan to show a different side of herself only reinforces the narrative that she is calculating, according to Heilemann.
Even David Axelrod, the mastermind behind President Obama’s campaign, teased the Clinton campaign over their plan. The senior adviser scoffed the article read more like satire from The Onion.
.Today's @nytimes story on HRC read more like The Onion: Her detailed plan to show more authenticity and spontaneity. #Justdoit!
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) September 8, 2015