Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager told supporters in a memo today that the only way Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will clinch the Democratic nomination is by “overturning the will of the voters.”
The Sanders camp feels confident going into Wisconsin on Tuesday — he holds a slim lead within the margin of error in the polling average — and hopes that a win there will turn the tide in New York.
But Robby Mook, who’s helming Hillary’s campaign, said the former secretary of State’s lead is “insurmountable.”
Clinton has 1,243 pledged delegates and 469 superdelegates. Sanders has 980 pledged delegates and 31 superdelegates.
Bernie’s team has said they hope to convince some superdelegates to respect the will of voters and withdraw support from Hillary if the Vermont senator keeps winning.
“Contrary to the claims of the Sanders campaign, in measure after measure, Clinton has shown the broadest support of any candidate currently running for president. We know that the misleading spin will continue, but we wanted you to know the facts about the real state of the Democratic primary,” Mook wrote.
“With each passing week, it’s becoming increasingly unlikely that Senator Sanders will be able to catch up. In order to do so, Sanders has to win the four remaining delegate-rich primaries — New York, Pennsylvania, California, and New Jersey — with roughly 60 percent of the vote. To put that in perspective: Sanders has thus far won only two primaries with that margin: Vermont and New Hampshire. Needless to say, the size and demographic makeups of New York, Pennsylvania, California, and New Jersey are decidedly different than Vermont and New Hampshire,” he continued. “And these figures don’t even include superdelegates, where Clinton has an overwhelming lead.”
The Sanders campaign has touted consistent polls showing Bernie faring better over the GOP candidates in head-to-head matchups than Hillary would — though they both lead Donald Trump by double digits.
Mook claimed that Hillary is the “only candidate tough enough” to defeat Trump in the general election.
“Although both candidates consistently beat Trump in polls, Clinton maintains her lead even after sustaining millions of dollars of negative Republican attacks. Sanders has yet to have a Republican attack ad run against him in this campaign, but certainly would in the general election — and general election polling at this stage in the race would not predict the full impact of those attacks,” the campaign manager said.
“…While many political experts question the validity of general election polls this early in the race, only one candidate actually has earned more votes than Donald Trump.”
Mook argued that a Sanders strategy of trying to flip delegates at the state level as well as superdelegates goes against the will of voters.
“For most of the campaign, Senator Sanders has criticized the role that superdelegates play in the nominating process, but as he now campaigns without a clear path the nomination that relies on the voters, he’s aggressively courting their support,” he said.
After a tiff between the campaigns over when they would next debate, the two candidates agreed to face off in Brooklyn on April 14.
Sanders’ spokesman, Michael Briggs, said they’re moving the date of a large planned rally to make the debate.
“We hope the debate will be worth the inconvenience for thousands of New Yorkers who were planning to attend our rally on Thursday but will have to change their schedules to accommodate Secretary Clinton’s jam-packed, high-dollar, coast-to-coast schedule of fundraisers all over the country,” Briggs said.
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