ABC News panelist Cokie Roberts cited sexism for Hillary Clinton's poor polling on leadership questions during a Sunday appearance on This Week, saying that was "all about being a woman."
Discussing potential vice-presidential picks for Clinton with the national convention less than a month away, Roberts said choosing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) could pose problems for her candidacy.
"I think Elizabeth Warren is the real problem," Roberts said. "Not only does she not need her in terms of the Democrats—Hillary Clinton in our last ABC poll had 88 percent of the Democratic vote. Barack Obama got 89 percent of the Democratic vote when he won in 2008. It's fine. Having two women on the ticket is a real issue. We have looked at implicit bias, and you look at the polling where you see that Hillary Clinton is losing on leadership. That's all about being a woman."
A recent Quinnipiac poll had her and Republican candidate Donald Trump in a statistical dead heat among voters. Trump defeated Clinton 49-to-43 percent on who would make a stronger leader. Quinnipiac didn't ask whether voters felt that way because Clinton was a woman, unfortunately.
Also, a plurality of voters in that poll cited honesty and trustworthiness as a key issue in deciding on a president. Clinton has historically low favorability ratings for a Democratic nominee and has had consistently terrible polling on those traits over her private email scandal and handling of the Benghazi terrorist attack.
In addition to the sexism charge against Clinton doubters, Roberts complained on Morning Joe earlier this year that the FBI was devoting too many resources to the criminal investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server, asking whether they had other problems to worry about. She's also said that Clinton "knows everything about every issue."