Bernie Sanders declared during the recent Democratic debate that “the American people are sick and tired” of focusing on rival Hillary Clinton’s “damn emails”, but the Vermont independent changed his tune in an interview released Wednesday.
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Sanders is also lagging in a metric that tends to be an important determinant of presidential primary outcomes: endorsements from party elites and leaders, the so-called “invisible primary”.
The Clinton and Sanders camps, meanwhile, sparred Thursday over whether Sanders was engaging in “personal attacks” regarding Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state.
Jim Cole/AP Bernie Sanders recently told the Wall Street Journal that there are “valid questions” about Hillary Clinton’s email practices. Tad Devine, Sanders’ chief political strategist, pushed back against the notion in that Sanders had shifted his approach. We are going to let voters make that decision. “I hope in that doesn’t happen”.
Last month Clinton’s campaign announced a list of more than 50 current and former African American mayors who had announced their support for her, including several in South Carolina: Anderson Taylor of Estill, Blain Crosby, of Bamberg, Terence Roberts of Anderson, Samuel Murray of Port Royal, Jefferson Johnson of Eutawville, Vernon Dunbar of New Ellenton, among others.
“We had to fight very hard in the last six months to get my name out there, to get my ideas out there”, Sanders said. While Clinton has opened up a almost 30 point lead in the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa, Sanders is still battling it out with her in New Hampshire. The other two candidates running in the primary received significantly lower support – U.S. Sen.
Sanders and his campaign team insist he said nothing new about Clinton’s e-mails in the Journal interview than he has said previously.
“South Carolina Democratic Primary Voters appear to be ambivalent about Trump, with more than one in five viewing him as the greatest threat”, Huffmon observed, “while almost four in ten speculate that opposing Trump would make the path of the Democratic nominee much easier”. From there, he’ll head to Las Vegas where he’ll address an immigrant rights organization. “I think he watched me”, she pointed out, referring to her cameo appearance during this season’s premiere episode.
“We’ve seen people rise and fall based on their debate performances”, Malyerck said, pointing out Newt Gingrich’s win in the Palmetto State in 2012. Many in a focus group of undecided Democratic women – so-called “Walmart moms”- held in Des Moines this week questioned her trustworthiness and loyalty, describing her as “shady”, “shifty” and “sold out”. “That still stands. Nothing has changed”, Devine said, arguing that Republicans are using emails as a political football and that they “made fools of themselves” at October’s hearing on Benghazi.
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Another poll this week, a Quinnipiac University survey, also showed Sanders and Clinton do comparable against Republicans. “There are a few obstacles for her to get past”.
