Clinton Spox Lowers Expectations in Nevada, Shifts Focus to South Carolina

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

KORNACKI: “Thanks for taking a few minutes. as soon as those results from New Hampshire came in a couple weeks — not a couple of weeks ago, a couple of days ago almost, you guys were saying, okay, we can take a loss in New Hampshire because the terrain is going to change. Nevada, South Carolina, they’re more diverse states, they’re states with a little bit more built-in appeal for Hillary Clinton. If you end up losing Nevada top of New Hampshire, what does that say?”
FALLON: “Well, Steve, I think there’s no question that the state of affairs in Nevada is tight. The cliche is it will depend on voter turnout. We have a seasoned team that knows the caucus. I think Senator Sanders has a little bit of wind at his back. His campaign has talked rather openly about how they’re targeting caucus states not just in Nevada but throughout march. I think it will be a tight contest. We’ll see what happens on Saturday. There’s no doubt about it, as you said, we are now enbe terg a new phase of the campaign where the electorate will be more diverse starting with Nevada on Saturday and continuing with South Carolina and we’ve had a pretty stable lead for the last several months and looking ahead to march where 56 percent of the delegates will be awarded. You see a very diverse electorate in some of those states on Super Tuesday so I think it will come down to who has the track record, who is speaking to the issues that really resonate in the Latino and black communities and I think when you compare their records there’s just no comparison between Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders.”
KORNACKI: “You use that phrase, Bernie Sanders out of New Hampshire may be getting a spike in Nevada because of that. I guess the term is momentum begets momentum. I know the polls are more favorable for you down here, but if he’s now coming off of two wins heading into South Carolina are you afraid there’s more slippage for your campaign as a result of that?”
FALLON: “Well, look, first of all, we’re contesting Nevada on Saturday. Flying out there tonight. Hillary Clinton’s going to be she’ll be there every day from now until Saturday doing events. We have a town hall tomorrow night. I think that CNN poll that came out said there is a significant percentage of folks making up their mind. We’re doing everything we can to mobilize our supporters. But the march states are very important, too. Like I said, 56% of the delegates get awarded then. Hillary Clinton on her way to Nevada will actually be stopping in Illinois which is one of those march states and talking about the breaking down of barriers that she wants to execute on as president. You know, she has in the last couple weeks really honed in on the fact that while Senator Sanders continues to talk about the need to enforce regulations strongly against wall street, which she shares the view that we need to do that, that that is not a solution. Breaking up the banks is not a solution to the panoply of issues that we see that affect those communities that are going to be represented in these march states. So yesterday she was in Holland talking about how we need to have a comprehensive agenda to deal with the systemic racism that too many black communities still encounter today, all the way from education issues where you see zero tolerance school discipline policies that are sending kids on a trajectory to the criminal justice system rather than to college to economic issues. She’s proposed $125 billion package to help her vitalize underserved communities. I think she’s talking to the issues that will hold her in good stead in those states that vote at the end of this month and into March.”
KORNACKI: “All right. Well, we see that the next phase in that post-New Hampshire Democratic campaign is this Saturday. It starts this Saturday in Nevada thank comes here to South Carolina. Brian Fallon, press secretary for Hillary Clinton, thanks for joining us.”