New book reveals Hillary Clinton's campaign worked to boost Trump in 2016 GOP primaries — here's why

A new book detailing Hillary Clinton's failed 2016 campaign confirms one of the campaign's main goals during the primary season was to bolster Donald Trump's campaign because they thought he would be an easy general election candidate.

The book, "Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling," is set for release on Tuesday. Amy Chozick, a New York Times reporter, is the author.

What are the details?

During the primaries, Clinton's campaign had meetings on how to best "maximize" Trump. The Daily Beast reported:

An agenda for an upcoming campaign meeting sent by [Campaign Manager] Robby Mook’s office asked, ‘How do we maximize Trump?’” Chozick writes, describing a time when the GOP primary was still crowded.

Even as Trump surged in the polls, the Clinton camp still saw him as a danger to stronger candidates rather than such a candidate in his own right, Chozick reports, so that in August 2015, “when the main GOP debate came on, everyone pushed their pizza crust aside and stared transfixed at the TV set… [Campaign Manager] Robby [Mook] salivated when the debate came back on and Trump started to speak. ‘Shhhhh,’ Robby said, practically pressing his nose up to the TV. ‘I’ve gahtz to get me some Trump.’ Robby thought Rubio would be the nominee. Podesta was bullish on Kasich. Bill and Hillary, still stuck in the 1990s, feared the Bush surname most of all.”

By the time of the conventions, though, as Trump was selected as the Republican nominee, the Clinton campaign was still trying to figure out how to improve her negative favorability ratings.

Indeed, the day after Clinton's devastating loss in 2016, Politico published similar claims about the Clinton campaign's desire to boost Trump, thinking Clinton would easily defeat him in a general election.

What else did the book reveal?

In the book, it is also revealed that the Clinton's "reacted furiously" when learning then-Vice President Joe Biden was exploring a presidential run. Biden, too, was weary. He reportedly told the White House press corps, "You guys don’t understand these people. The Clintons will try to destroy me."

In addition, Chozick wrote that Clinton's infamous "basket of deplorables" line was "no slip of the tongue" and that she separated potential Trump voters into three "baskets."

"The Deplorables always got a laugh, over living-room chats in the Hamptons, at dinner parties under the stars on Martha’s Vineyard, over passed hors d’oeuvres in Beverly Hills, and during sunset cocktails in Silicon Valley," Chozick writes in her book.