Chuck Todd: Clinton Camp Made ‘Strategic Decision’ for Bill to Not Engage Trump

MITCHELL: "This is a big task for her."
TODD: "Let me deconstruct this moment, Andrea, watching you there. First of all, nobody does rope line like you do rope line. Bill Clinton’s ear was so attuned to you. I thought you saw for a flash when you asked him the Trump question. He had an answer that he know -- then somebody said, he was reminded whatever it takes, don’t create a story with Trump today, Mr. President. I’m sure that’s the advice he got. He listened to that advice. By the way, did you notice you had the aide next to you who then quickly said, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you.' That was the minute they heard 'Trump.' Look, there was a strategic decision made by the Clinton campaign today. Whatever it takes, Mr. President, do not try to engage Donald Trump. He’ll engage you. Don’t engage back. Do your best not to create that story. So that’s number one. On the point on New Hampshire -- by the way, he is speaking of Democratic primaries. We know that John McCain I think beat Mitt Romney there in ‘08. So on the Republican side, that hasn’t always been the case, but I believe -- and that was going through my head, I believe he’s right. I want to go back and double-check ‘84 and ‘76. But essentially, he’s right and look, all the local polls have shown he actually, Sanders is ahead right now. So it’s not as if he’s throwing something out there that seems crazy. That’s what the polls are saying right now. But here’s what this means, Andrea. I can tell you what the Clinton campaign is thinking. If they can sweep Iowa and New Hampshire, they can save millions of primary dollars and start focusing on the general election. They lose one or both of these two early states, that’s three more months that they are going to have to beat back Bernie Sanders. They will beat him back, but that’s $30 million, $40 million, $50 million down the primary drain that prevents you from finding out if Georgia’s a swing state, Arizona’s a swing state, doing what you need to do to win Florida, which is an impossible task sometimes. So that’s what winning Iowa and New Hampshire means for Hillary Clinton."