Donald Trump Is ‘Master Brander,’ Says Bill Clinton on ‘Colbert’
Bill Clinton, once dubbed by President Obama as “Secretary of Explaining Stuff,” dropped some knowledge on Tuesday’s episode of The Late Show, telling Stephen Colbert why Donald Trump is holding strong in the polls. “Because he’s a master brander,” Clinton said, flatly. “And he’s the most interesting character out there.
“And because he says something that overrides the ideological differences,” he continued. “If you look at the first debate, a lot of those guys were competing for who could be the most politically correct on the answers. Trump says, ‘OK, I’ve supported Democrats; I’ve supported Republicans. Yeah, I used to be friends with Bill Clinton – who cares? I run things, and I build things. And you need somebody who’ll go in there and fix it. And if they don’t let me fix it, I’ll just get them out of the way.'”
Clinton admitted that Trump’s campaign “may have a short half-lifem” but emphasized the “macho appeal” by saying, ‘I’m just sick of nothing happening. I make things happen. Vote for me.'” The former Commander-in-Chief also dispelled rumors that he urged Trump to pursue his presidential run.
“No. I get credit for doing a lot of things I didn’t do like that,” he said, with a playful grin. “His daughter told my daughter that he had tried to call me, and I didn’t get the message. So I simply called him back. And I don’t know whether he’d ever intended to discuss this with me or not … I think by the time I got him back, he’d forgotten why he called me in the first place … Had a very pleasant conversation with him, and it wasn’t about running for office. So I missed the chance.”
Clinton also addressed the appeal of his wife Hillary’s biggest competition, popular Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. “There are a lot of people all over the world who … think the system is rigged against them and the rich get all the gains,” he said. “And in America, a lot of them believe that Republicans … reward people who go the furthest to the right, so the Democrats would be even more effective if they move further to the left.”