After President Barack Obama endorsed his former secretary of state on Thursday, presumptive presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump traded shots on Twitter in a particularly biting back-and-forth.
After Clinton’s campaign released the video of Obama voicing support for her bid for the White House, Donald Trump tweeted that a Clinton administration would just be a continuation of the current regime.
Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama—but nobody else does!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2016
Clinton’s camp then responded with what Mashable described as “the ultimate Internet burn.”
Delete your account. Https://t.co/Oa92sncRQY
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 9, 2016
Trump was—not surprisingly—quick to respond, firing back a few hours later.
How long did it take your staff of 823 people to think that up–and where are your 33,000 emails that you deleted? Https://t.co/gECLNtQizQ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2016
Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus also got into the mix, landing a particularly effective jab against Clinton.
.@HillaryClinton If anyone knows how to use a delete key, it's you.
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) June 9, 2016
Priebus’ tweet was a reference to Clinton’s admission in March 2015 that of the 60,000 messages in the private email system she used while secretary of state, half were “personal,” and she decided “not to keep” them. The emails Clinton sent and received on her private server have dogged her presidential campaign since the get-go, and they will no doubt be a frequent talking point for Trump in the general contest.
Both candidates, who have essentially locked up their parties’ nominations, have used Twitter (TWTR) to attack each other before, but Thursday’s sparring was particularly direct, proving—if nothing else—that the 2016 presidential cycle is unorthodox and unprecedented on just about every level and there are still five months to go.