People aren't buying Hillary Clinton's "product," even though she has a "100 percent name ID," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Monday, slamming the former secretary of state roundly as her second presidential campaign officially got underway.
"She's at pure saturation," Priebus said on the MSNBC
"Morning Joe" program, "and she's losing in battleground states to many of our candidates, who have name ID of like 30 percent. And what that actually tells you is it has a lot to do with the fact that people aren't really buying the product of Hillary."
Clinton
launched her campaign on Sunday with a tweet and a video for social media, and Priebus ridiculed the quiet launch, saying that her campaign knows that people aren't buying what she has to say.
"That's why they decided to launch a campaign this way," he said. "They have really no big events, no press gaggles, no stops on this great minivan tour from New York to Iowa. It's not a brilliant strategy, guys, it's really the only strategy."
The former first lady began her first presidential campaign in 2007 with a video, following it with a large rally in Des Moines, Iowa. But this time around, she's looking to connect more intimately with voters at a community college and a small business roundtable set in two of Iowa's small towns.
She is the first Democrat to officially launch a campaign for the 2016 nomination. She is joined on the trail by three official Republican candidates, Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio.
Rubio
announced he was running on Monday.
Priebus' comments echoed statements he made on Sunday, when he told CBS'
"Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer that he knows the eventual GOP presidential nominee will have to be "just about perfect" to win the 2016 election, but at the same time, Americans are saying they don't trust Clinton.
"The majority of people in battleground states say she is untrustworthy," Priebus told Schieffer, noting
Quinnipiac poll numbers from states like Colorado, Virginia and Iowa show voters say they think she is a strong leader, but is not honest and trustworthy.
The RNC chief said the nation's electoral map gives Democrats higher numbers in national elections, leaving Priebus with "no doubt that we have to be about perfect ... and the other side can be about good. And so the fact is that we do have the higher burden."
The GOP is taking steps to attract more minority voters, said Priebus, noting that if Mitt Romney had gathered more African-American and Hispanic votes in 2012, he may have defeated President Barack Obama's re-election bid.
"But it means not just showing up once every four years, five months before the election," Priebus told Schieffer. "It means talking for two and three years, in these communities, about things that we have in common before you go in and sell the final product. It's not the most exciting topic, as far as mechanics. But this is how you win presidential elections."
Priebus commented Sunday that Clinton also needs to account for the money the
Clinton Global Initiative received from foreign contributors.
Sunday night, Clinton resigned from the board of her family's foundation, with the official reason given that she would need to concentrate on her campaign.
Priebus complained Sunday that while politicians and their PACs can receive great amounts of money from private contributors, the difference is that individual candidates "can't take money from kings of Saudi Arabia and Morocco and Oman and Yemen, and that's what Hillary Clinton did."
Last month, Priebus
sent a letter to Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama, asking for answers about the foundation's fundraising practices.
His comments about the Clinton Foundation contributions were along the same lines as
concerns voiced by Sen. Paul on two different Sunday talk shows.
The Clinton Foundation, best known for reducing the cost of drugs for people with HIV in the developing world, has said collaboration with foreign governments is essential for its humanitarian work.
Americans are also saying Clinton's use of a private email server while in office was inappropriate, said Priebus.
Watch the video here.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.