This Was Inevitable

The day after Bernie Sanders called Hillary Clinton unqualified, Donald Trump tweeted: "Bernie Sanders says that Hillary Clinton is unqualified to be president. Based on her decision making ability, I can go along with that!"

So it's no surprise that he's now publicly thanking Sanders for laying the groundwork for this line of attack:

WaPo:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday offered rare words of praise for one of his Democratic rivals: Sen. Bernie Sanders, who Trump said should keep attacking front-runner Hillary Clinton. "He's been tough on her. In fact, I'd like him to keep going because the longer he goes the more I'm going to like it," Trump told thousands of supporters during a campaign rally here in Harrisburg.

Here's the money quote:

Trump lauded Sanders for keeping pressure on Clinton and particularly singled out Sanders's comments attacking Clinton's judgment. He also credited Sanders with being the first to question Clinton's qualifications for office. "So Bernie Sanders, not me, said she is not qualified. So now I'm going to say, 'She's not qualified.' OK?" Trump said.

Yesterday on Morning Joe, Cokie Roberts correctly noted that these attacks aren't just potentially damaging to Clinton, but "that hurts her and the party. …I think it would be helpful to the Democratic Party if he stopped."

It sure would. Of course, as I've now noted half a dozen times or more, Sanders is running against the Democratic Party as a Democrat. So I'm not sure he has any interest in helping the Democratic Party.

The thing is, any time one of her opponents makes the "qualifications" case against Clinton, she shines—because she is eminently qualified. Significantly more so than anyone else in the race. So she could, and probably will, emerge just fine.

It's actually more concerning to me that the reverberating effect of attacking the Democratic frontrunner could hurt down ballot candidates, whom Clinton, if elected, will need to enact her agenda.

Sanders needs to stop these attacks moving forward for sure. But part of the problem is that the cat's already out of the bag. He never should have gone there in the first place.