Bill Clinton walked into a Broward County church to rescue a Florida Democrat chasing Byron Donalds in the polls.
Then the former president stepped to the microphone and decided Florida needed a lesson in manners.
The clip hit social media and the replies served up a reminder no Clinton can ever live down.
Clinton Took the Pulpit for David Jolly
Clinton headlined an interfaith service at Koinonia Worship Center on October 20.
The man he came to save was David Jolly, the former Republican congressman now running for governor as a Democrat.
A Stetson University poll released October 13 had Donalds up 52 percent to 41 percent among likely voters.
The friendliest recent poll, from St. Pete Polls, could only manage a 45 to 45 tie.
Breitbart reported that the stop was Clinton's first public campaign appearance of the 2026 midterms.
Democrats do not haul an 80-year-old former president down to South Florida when a race is going well.
Then came the lecture.
Clinton told the crowd there is a cheap way to win an election, and he spelled it out – "you do it by demonizing whoever you're running against."
Clinton Mocked Byron Donalds From the Same Pulpit
The sermon on civility came with a side of ridicule.
Clinton told the crowd he "laughed the other day" when Donalds pulled references to President Trump off his campaign website.
He kept needling Donalds over a Trump agenda plank that disappeared from the site.
So in one appearance, Clinton warned voters about demonizing opponents and then turned his candidate's opponent into a punchline.
That is not civility.
That is a campaign hit wearing church clothes.
Clinton even joked that one blessing of turning 80 is getting to say whatever you want.
He used that freedom to scold Republicans about name-calling and then take a swipe at the Republican in the race.
Conservatives Pulled Up Hillary's Greatest Hits
The reaction online was instant.
One conservative account wondered whether Bill had ever been introduced to Hillary.
If anybody wrote the modern Democrat playbook on demonizing opponents, it was his wife.
In September 2016, she stood before donors at a New York fundraiser and lumped half of Trump's supporters into a basket of deplorables.
She called some of them irredeemable.
Those were not opponents on a ballot – those were tens of millions of ordinary American voters.
Losing did not cool her off.
In 2018, she told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that Democrats "cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for."
She said civility could return only once Democrats won back the House or the Senate.
In 2019, she suggested Tulsi Gabbard was a favorite of the Russians being groomed for a third-party run.
Gabbard, a decorated Army veteran, went on to serve as Trump's Director of National Intelligence.
In 2023, Hillary went on CNN and floated the idea that Trump supporters might need "a formal deprogramming of the cult members."
That is not a stray remark from a backbencher.
https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/2112880193597771866
That is the woman Bill Clinton has been married to for half a century, a former secretary of state and the 2016 Democrat nominee for president.
Jolly Brought in a Clinton to Preach Civility for Him
Bill Clinton is not the first Democrat to discover the virtue of civility the moment his candidate needs help.
He told the Broward crowd that politicians have told him a campaign has to be built around defining an enemy.
Republicans know the feeling, because his party has been defining them as the enemy for a decade.
Joe Biden stood in front of a blood-red Independence Hall in September 2022 and told the country MAGA Republicans threatened the foundations of the republic.
When Democrats are winning, conservatives are deplorable, irredeemable and in need of deprogramming.
When Democrats are losing, suddenly everybody needs to stop name-calling and come together.
Jolly knows both sides of that routine.
He walked out of the Republican Party in 2018 and rebuilt himself as a cable news Trump critic before deciding Florida Democrats were his ticket to Tallahassee.
Now he is running against Byron Donalds, the Trump-endorsed congressman from Southwest Florida, with a former president on stage preaching that attacking opponents is the cheap way to win.
Florida voters do not need etiquette lessons from the family that gave America the basket of deplorables.
Jolly wanted a sermon on decency, and Florida got a reminder of exactly who has been doing the demonizing all along.
Sources:
- Kyle Becker, "Bill Clinton Gets Hilarious Wake Up Call After Lecturing Americans About Partisan Rhetoric," RedState, October 21, 2026.
- Mariane Angela, "Democrats Turn to Bill Clinton for Late Campaign Push in Florida," Breitbart, October 14, 2026.
- Joseph Quesada, "Bill Clinton Arrives in Florida to Campaign for David Jolly," The Floridian, October 21, 2026.
- Alex Pappas, "Hillary Clinton: Democrats 'Cannot Be Civil' With Republicans Anymore," Fox News, October 9, 2018.
- Ben Wilson, "WATCH: Hillary Suggests 'Formal Deprogramming' of Trump 'Cult Members'," Washington Free Beacon, October 6, 2023.
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