I wish people would stop conflating intelligence and populist talk by politicians. That statement doesn’t have anything to do with being smart or dumb, it’s just a statement that is more likely to win her office because she knows her audience well. Her audience doesn’t want a strong independent woman there, they want someone who will tell them they’re right in their sexism. If it’s a woman, even better! They have an argument that “even that woman says so.”

So if anything, either she or her advisors are definitely smart enough to recognise that.