CNN’s Borger: Trump Coverage Means Hillary Can Avoid E-Mail Scandal Questions

September 11th, 2015 3:54 PM

While discussing the latest 2016 polling data on Thursday’s Anderson Cooper 360, CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger opined that a number of controversial comments made by GOP candidate Donald Trump is “manna from heaven” for Hillary Clinton and frees her from the obligation of answering questions about her e-mail scandal. 

Just in the moments prior, Anderson Cooper asked Borger to consider the “noise surrounding Donald Trump” this past week and then determine whether or not the media frenzy toward the GOP frontrunner “create[s] almost a diversion for Hillary Clinton opportunity to improve her campaign.”

Borger began by gushing that any attention Trump draws to himself acts as “manna from heaven” for the scandal-ridden candidate “because she doesn't have to apologize or not apologize for what she did with her e-mail account, you know, while at the State Department.”

Applying a baseball analogy to her larger thought, Borger hyped that Trump’s attack on fellow candidate Carly Fiorina’s was akin to him having “teed up the ball” for Hillary to “hit it out of the park.” 

When it comes to criticism and verbal attacks on women, the CNN analyst ruled that women’s issues are where Clinton “is so comfortable and more of herself, so yeah, anytime Donald Trump is in trouble, she has got to love it.”

The relevant portion of the transcript from CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on September 10 can be found below.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360
September 10, 2015
9:09 p.m. Eastern

ANDERSON COOPER: Well, I mean, Gloria, any time there is noise surrounding Donald Trump, which is pretty much always, but even more this week. Does that create almost a diversion for Hillary Clinton opportunity to improve her campaign?

GLORIA BORGER: Oh, it’s mana from heaven for Hillary Clinton because she doesn't have to apologize or not apologize for what she did with her e-mail account, you know, while at the State Department. What Donald Trump said about Carly Fiorina today was something Hillary Clinton – it was like they teed up the ball for her and she could hit it out of the park, talking about the candidate who insults women. So she gets the gender issue going again. That’s where she is so comfortable and more of herself, so yeah, anytime Donald Trump is in trouble, she has got to love it.