‘Morning Joe’ on Clinton ‘Bolting’ to Texas: ‘She Must Be Reading the Tea Leaves’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
BRZEZINSKI: "John Kasich will join us in an hour so we’ll talk to him about that. A day after we showed you a poll in Nevada that has Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton virtually tied in that state, the Clinton camp announced an event in Houston, Texas, the night of the caucuses. The campaign says --"
SCARBOROUGH: "That’s not good. That’s not good at all. They’re leaving Nevada before the votes are counted?"
BRZEZINSKI: "They say they’ll get the results before she leaves."
SCARBOROUGH: "Wow. I don’t know what’s in Texas but it must be a lot of money because it’s not good announcing you’re leaving a state before the caucus ends."
BARNICLE: "They must be reading the tea level there is."
SCARBOROUGH: "Isn’t that shocking?"
JANSING: "She canceled a trip and stayed in Nevada and did three appearances when she was going to be going to Florida three days ago but they have known, they have had the feeling on the ground what we’re seeing in these polls in Nevada."
BARNICLE: "We justifiably focus our attention on the Republican race but this is a huge store."
SCARBOROUGH: "Hillary Clinton went into new Hampshire and fought into new Hampshire when people said she should have gone straight to South Carolina and Nevada. She ends up losing massively in New Hampshire after campaigning there. The second she gets out of that she finds out she’s fighting for her life in Nevada so she races across the country and goes to Nevada and now it looks like they’re pulling up stakes the night of the caucus, something that always suggests things are not going your way, what’s happening in this campaign, Pam?"
STEIN: "There’s a technical thing, victim wrong here, but I believe the Nevada caucuses happen during the day not at night so that might explain why she is bolting and going to Texas in the evening. The broader point is still there which is her campaign has consistently underestimated how hard this election was going to be against Bernie Sanders and they’ve consistently failed to find a way to chip at Bernie Sanders’ appeal. First they were attacking him from the left on certainish schuz made no sense because he’s a self-described democratic socialist so there’s not much room to maneuver there. Now they’re settling on the idea which that he is a one trick pony which may work but it’s a pretty late message to sell on. The biggest problem they face is this. She has to go to places like new York and Chicago on a routine basis to do these fund-raisers because she needs money to keep going. Bernie Sanders in his new Hampshire victory speech paused, said “I’d like to do a fund-raiser right now.” And asked for $27 donations from everyone tuning in. In th24 hours after he won he raised something like $6 million which is an insane amount. If he can continue doing that, he can continue going through maybe even to the convention."
SCARBOROUGH: "And Bernie Sanders is a one-trick pony. All he does is overperform and outraise Hillary Clinton. Secretariat was a one trick pony, too. In this case, though, Mika, what really has the Clinton campaign disturbed is the fact they’ll find themselves in a position they have never been in. They’re going to be running against somebody is that is going to have more money than them as they get past."
BRZEZINSKI: "And the only way they can has terrible optics, Bernie Sanders could prey upon her."
JANSING: "And you can’t afford time off the trail. Every time you go to California and New York to fund raise --"
BRZEZINSKI: "They have such a massive operation."
SCARBOROUGH: "And you get hammered. Is like when she went to the investment banker firm, you feed into your opponent’s narrative about you. The proponent is raising money on their cell phones."
BARNICLE: "And the larger underlying story here, which is why it’s so huge and will play out enormously is the potential double death of two dynasties, two political dynasties, two families that have been on the American political scene for 30, 40 years, the bushes and the Clintons."
BRZEZINSKIL: "And Alex pointing out to Sam’s point, the Nevada caucus, the polls open — the doors open at 11:00 A.M. So — A.M. Pacific time which means they could have the results fairly early in the day I guess."
SCARBOROUGH: "We shall see."