First Read: Why calling Trump ‘risky’ won’t work for Democrats

First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day’s most important political stories and why they matter.

Risky Business: Why calling Trump “risky” won’t work for Democrats

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Earlier this week while campaigning in Kentucky, Hillary Clinton slammed Donald Trump for being “a loose cannon” and for his “risky” talk. She said, “I’ve never heard such reckless, risky talk from somebody about to be a nominee for president than I’ve heard from Donald Trump when it comes to nuclear weapons.” But there’s a downside for calling someone risky — you’re suggesting that he brings some potential benefits, too. As Guy Cecil, who’s heading the pro-Clinton Super PAC Priorities USA, told Politico: “I frankly don’t think ‘risky’ captures it, because ‘risk’ implies potential upside.” Strikingly, Clinton yesterday dropped the risky/loose cannon rhetoric and bluntly said that Trump isn’t qualified in her interview with CNN. “I think in this past week — whether it’s attacking Great Britain, praising the leader of North Korea, a despotic dictator who has nuclear weapons, whether it is saying ‘pull out of NATO,’ ‘let other countries have nuclear weapons’ — the kinds of positions he is stating and the consequences of those positions, and even the consequences of his statements, are not just offensive to people. They are potentially dangerous,” she said.