Earlier today, we reported on the revelation that former FBI director James Comey and Donald Trump’s awkward post-election bro-hug was a result of Comey’s reticence toward being seen embracing the man he was thought to have helped elect. Thus Comey uses his larger vantage point to maintain a handshake even as Trump moves in to create a hug. Thus: a perfect bro-hug. (This reticence is also why Comey tried, in vain, to blend in with a curtain in the White House.)
It turns out that Hillary Clinton, too, was prepared to avoid a Trump hug. Today her former advisor Philippe Reines tweeted some behind-the-scenes footage of a debate prep session. In it, the team’s Trump stand-in moves in for an aggressive, domineering hug, which she tactfully evades, then just flat-out runs away from.
The narrative during the debates was that Clinton was the master preparer, endlessly doing mock debates and studying such that she might better school him on national television—and it worked! She did! She just then also lost the election. The true masters at avoiding physical contact, it appears, are those who have been doing it for decades:
Assuming we have an election in 2020—it’s a coin flip right now—the Democrats ought to enlist Tiffany Trump as an advisor.