Amid Trump-GOP infighting, Clinton is the real winner

The Republican show of unity on display at the GOP convention last month seems to be eroding under the weight of multiple controversies. Rifts re-appeared after presidential nominee Donald Trump got into a verbal back-and-forth with the parents of a Muslim U.S. soldier killed in Iraq.

For that, Trump faced criticism from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), and even New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an ardent Trump supporter who nonetheless said his comments were inappropriate. Trump responded by saying he would not support McCain’s reelection bid in Arizona. He also took a shot at Ryan, refusing to support his reelection campaign and echoing the speaker’s own words when reporters asked him several months ago whether he would endorse Trump: “I’m just not there yet.”

The infighting highlights Trump’s tendency to return fire each time he faces criticism. Those conflicts often dominate the news cycle for several days, distracting not only from Trump’s message but also from Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s troubles, which could benefit Trump and Republicans if they got more media coverage.

For instance, the Internal Revenue Service just opened an investigation into the Clinton Foundation. And more top Democratic National Committee officials have stepped down after embarrassing emails surfaced online exposing favoritism toward Clinton during the primary races. The hacked emails even revealed some party officials disparaging her rival Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., leading CEO Amy Dacey, chief finance officer Brad Marshall, and communications director Luis Miranda to resign Tuesday.

Meanwhile, one of the architects of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance program said the government has Clinton’s missing emails, allegedly deleted from a personal server she used while secretary of state. William Binney, who turned whistleblower after spending more than 30 years with the NSA referenced the testimony of then-FBI Director Robert Mueller in 2011. Binney said Mueller described the FBI’s ability to access secretive databases.

“The NSA and a number of other agencies in the U.S. government also have those emails,” Binney said in an appearance on Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. “So if the FBI really wanted them, they could go into that database and get them right now.”

While Clinton’s email scandal might not be behind her, she did get some good news in the polls this week: a big bump from the Democratic convention. Five of the six major polls released this week show Clinton leading Trump by an average of 5 points. The latest, a CNN/ORC poll of nearly 900 registered voters, has Clinton up by 9 points.

And July was the best month yet for Clinton fundraising. She took in almost $90 million for her campaign and the Democratic Party, while Trump and the GOP raised roughly $36 million the same month. Trump must either pick up the pace in the fundraising department or sink a lot of his own money into the race. Otherwise the two campaigns will have a sizable discrepancy in spending power leading up to Election Day.

Listen to “White House Wednesday” on the Aug. 3, 2016, episode of The World and Everything in It.