Hillary Trumps Trump

Al-Shabaab recruiting "tool" Donald Trump in Michigan

On this first Sunday of 2016, Hillary Clinton is arguably feeling a measure of vindication in the wake of the Al Qaeda affiliate group in Somalia known as Al-Shabaab releasing a 51-minute recruitment video featuring a clip of Donald Trump calling for the barring of Muslims from entering the United States.

As CNN reported, the video also warns "Muslims in America that the country has a long history of racism and discrimination and will turn on its Muslim community." 

The video also features clips of 1960's activist Malcom X speaking in addition to Trump.

Trump's feathers were clearly ruffled a couple weeks ago after Hillary accused The Donald of being ISIS' "best recruiter" during the Democratic presidential debate back on Saturday December 19th in reference to his many insults of Muslims and his absurd calls to ban anyone of the Islamic faith from entering the U.S.

During the debate Hillary specifically warned, "They (terrorists) are going to people showing video of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists."

The next day Trump demanded an apology from her on Twitter, then two days later at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Monday December 22nd, he shot back at Hillary in front of 6,000 people declaring, "She's a liar!" before spewing an array of juvenile misogynistic comments about Clinton; including mocking the fact that she took a restroom break during the debate and using the vulgar term "schlonged" to describe her primary loss to President Obama back in 2008.  

Now I'm a fan of the Website Mediaite.com, but I disagree with Joe Concha's article released earlier today that makes the claim that the American media were "being played for fools again." and that Hillary is somehow being let off the hook for "predicting" the existence of the Trump terrorist recruitment video.

I think she already knew of the video's existence. Why?

My sense is that Hillary intentionally set Trump up with the comment about his being used by Islamic extremist groups as a recruiting tool fully knowing that he would take the bait and make an ass of himself.

With all due respect to Joe Concha's take on the story, here's my reasoning.

Speaker Newt Gingrich & Clinton's rocky relationship defined the 90's

Slandering the Clintons has practically been a pillar of the Republican party since Bill Clinton was elected to his first term in the White House in 1992.

Remember conservative activist / lawyer Ken Starr who was appointed by Republicans to head up the Whitewater investigation of a failed land deal the Clintons invested in?

Starr spent five years and over $24 million in taxpayer funds to determine that the Clintons lost money but broke no actual laws in their failed co-investment in a waterfront property with James and Susan McDougal; the owners of an Arkansas Savings & Loan.

Far too many conservatives in this country make the mistake of underestimating Hillary Clinton by allowing the legacy of their borderline-obsessive hatred of the Clintons to cloud their awareness of just how intelligent, shrewd and politically connected and experienced she and her husband are.

Bill is a former two-term president who heads a global foundation that's raised billions of dollars from influential power brokers all over the world.

It's well known that former presidents receive regular intelligence briefings on issues of national security and foreign relations as they are sometimes called on to assist or advise the White House (usually behind the scenes) in certain situations even long after leaving office.

Then Sen Clinton at a Senate Armed Services hearing

Hillary is a former two-time First Lady who served as a U.S. Senator from 2001 to 2009 (including six years on the Senate Armed Services Committee) and later served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 under President Obama.

So between Bill and Hillary, based on their extensive political and personal connections, it's fair to say that they are privy to a fair amount of foreign intelligence on a wide array of issues - certainly far more than Donald Trump is.

I'd wager that either Bill or Hillary were briefed about the fact that Trump's offensive comments about Muslims were being used in terrorist recruitment videos before the December 19th debate where she first made the claim publicly.

Hillary is way too shrewd to throw out an accusation like that about Trump during a live televised political debate without knowing it to be based on facts.

Remember, Trump and the news media were both pretty quick to pounce on Hillary because (at the time) there was no direct proof of Trump's words or image being used in a terrorist recruitment video.

But I personally think she was not only aware of the existence of such videos, she knew Trump's reaction to her claim would be predictable and vulgar - and it was.

Remember, in response to the media's claim that she offered no proof of such a video, her spokesperson said only that Hillary wasn't referring to a specific video - I interpret that as her not wanting to reveal that she (or Bill) had already seen intelligence showing the proof of such videos.

A CNN still of the Al-Shabaab recruitment video

Now that the video has been shown to exist, Trump looks like even more of a buffoonish reactionary than he's already shown himself to be.

It's now been proven that Hillary wasn't lying about the recruitment videos as he claimed.

There is now definitive proof that Trump's divisive bigotry against Muslims is in fact aiding terrorists and putting innocent lives in danger.

It also calls into question the wisdom of his decision to actively channel and agitate anti-Muslim rhetoric in America as a major plank in his presidential campaign in the first place, and paints him as a foreign policy amateur.

Plus all that childish misogynistic vulgarity he used against Hillary can now be used by her own campaign (or by any of the pro-Hillary super-pacs) in anti-Trump television ads once the presidential race kicks into high gear in the coming months.

So in my opinion, Hillary was thinking four moves ahead of Trump on the political chess board.

She used some serious political Jujitsu to use Trump's own energy and predictability against him while at the same time enhancing her own credibility and foreign policy savvy and demonstrating who the superior presidential candidate is.

In short, Hillary trumped Trump.