Many Democrats are dreading Hillary Clinton's book tour and the re-litigation of her 2016 loss that will ensue, calling it "the final torture" -- a reminder of a year most of them would rather forget.
Politico reported on Thursday morning that "Democratic operatives can’t stand the thought of her picking the scabs of 2016, again" and political reporters are loath to return to the topic of a campaign that seemed endless and soul-crushing the first time around.
"Alums of her Brooklyn headquarters who were miserable even when they thought she was winning tend to greet the topic with, 'Oh, God,' 'I can’t handle it,' and 'the final torture,'” wrote Politico's Edward-Isaac Dovere and Gabriel Debenedetti.
Clinton will appear on "CBS Sunday Morning" on Sunday to promote her campaign memoir What Happened. Barnes and Noble is helping plan a major rollout and book tour. Politico, however, was hard pressed to find anyone outside of the former Secretary of State's inner circle who seems genuinely excited about the book.
“Maybe at the worst possible time, as we are fighting some of the most high-stakes policy and institutional battles we may ever see, at a time when we’re trying to bring the party together so we can all move the party forward — stronger, stronger together,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA). “She’s got every right to tell her story. Who am I to say she shouldn’t, or how she should tell it? But it is difficult for some of us, even like myself who’ve supported her, to play out all these media cycles about the blame game, and the excuses.”
Democrats united in their resistance to the Trump presidency, Huffman said, do not want to return to the internecine squabbles that divided Clinton and Sanders supporters in the months before the election.
“There is a collective groan,” he said, “whenever there’s another news cycle about this.”
When Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) was asked about Clinton's book, she said, "Beg your pardon?"
When the question was repeated she walked away shaking her head.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) told Politico, "I’ve always been a looking forward kind of a guy. I think I’ll leave it at that.”
"I think she should just zip it, but she's not going to," said one top Democratic donor.
