09/02/2016

FranticcampaigningoneveofNewHampshirevoteCNNPolitics.com

Frantic campaigning on eve of New Hampshire

vote
By Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 0916 GMT (1716 HKT) February 9, 2016 | Video
Source: CNN

Story highlights
Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is trying
to bounce back from a rocky debate
performance
Former President Bill Clinton launched a
caustic attack on supporters of Vermont Sen.
Bernie Sanders

(CNN)The race to the New Hampshire primary is

getting nastier by the hour as presidential candidates
desperately seek to woo undecided voters on the eve
of a contest that could change the dimensions of the
White House race.
Donald Trump and Jeb Bush are trading deeply
personal taunts, Marco Rubio is trying to bounce back
from a mauling at the hands of Chris Christie in
Saturday night's Republican debate and history seems
to be repeating itself for Hillary Clinton as her possible
loss to Bernie Sanders in the first-in-the nation primary
fuels rumors of a shake-up in her campaign.

Former President Bill Clinton is also in the thick of it after a caustic attack on supporters of the Vermont
senator, while his former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, is getting heat for saying "there's a special
place in hell for women who don't help each other" -- i.e. Hillary Clinton.
The latest CNN/WMUR daily tracking poll on Monday showed Sanders with a handsome 26-point lead over
Hillary Clinton. On the Republican side, Trump maintained the lead he has held for months, 31% to nextbest Florida Sen. Rubio with 17%. Three-quarters of the polling was completed before Saturday's debate,
so it was unclear whether he had been hurt by his rocky performance.
Among other candidates, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was third with 14%, significantly ahead of Ohio Gov. John
Kasich at 10% and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 7%. Christie received 4%.
There are good reasons for the candidates, who
collectively had at least 30 events in New Hampshire
on Monday, to campaign right up to the finish line.

Related Video: Bill Clinton slams Bernie

Sanders' supporters 01:15

In the latest CNN/WMUR tracking poll, for example,

30% of likely Republican voters hadn't made up their
minds, nor had 16% of likely Democratic voters.
That reality is thickening the blizzard of attacks
blanketing the Granite State because some
candidates know that the primary could set the
contours of the race for those who move on and
snuff out the White House dreams of some
Republicans who falter on Tuesday.

The two biggest questions heading into Tuesday are

whether Rubio's stumble under Christie's ferocious
fire at Saturday's GOP debate will trigger a late slump
in his support, and whether Trump's wide lead will
translate into strong voter turnout. The Democratic establishment, meanwhile, is waiting to see just how big
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Sanders' expected victory will be.

READ: 5 takeaways from the Republican debate
Christie is crowing that his assault, which led a rattled Rubio to repeat the same line four times while playing
into an impression that he is over-rehearsed, had changed the entire race and could stave off a predicted
winnowing down of establishment candidates.
He also intensified his claims Monday that Rubio was not ready to lead.
"When the lights get that bright, you either shine or you melt, and we can't afford to have a president who
melts," he said at a campaign event in Hudson, New Hampshire.
Bush also drilled down on the idea that Rubio is not yet ready to be president on CNN's "New Day" on
Monday: "He's a gifted speaker, he's a gifted person, but he has nothing in his background to suggest that
he could make a tough decision."
Christie, Bush and Kasich are hoping that Rubio's rough night halts momentum he built up coming third in
Iowa. A strong second place in the Granite State would enhance Rubio's case that he is best-positioned to
consolidate opposition to Trump and Cruz.
Rubio is trying to repair the damage from Saturday's stumble, in which he repeatedly took refuge in what
seemed a scripted attack on President Barack Obama when he was being challenged on his own record by
Christie. The exchange played into the New Jersey Governor's argument that his opponent is a slave to
talking points.

Rubio has tried to turn the episode, which is still

sending shockwaves through the campaign two days
later, into an attack on journalists he claimed were
desperate to halt his momentum and keen to defend
the President -- and defiantly rolled out exactly the
same line he deployed in the debate.
"I don't care how much it outrages the media, I'm
going to keep saying it: Barack Obama is trying to
change the United States of America," Rubio wrote in
a fundraising appeal to supporters.

Related Video: Rubio was on message at

the GOP debate 01:14

Trump, for his part, hinted Sunday that he

understands how crucial New Hampshire is to his
campaign.
"I could say to you if I came in second and third I'd
be thrilled, okay? I know all about expectations,"
Trump told CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday. "If I came

in second I wouldn't be happy, okay?"

Bush, who for once equaled or even got the better of Trump on the debate stage on Saturday, has been
mounting a last stand in New Hampshire and on Monday lashed out at the former reality TV star on Twitter.
"You aren't just a loser, you are a liar and a whiner," Bush wrote in an apparent reference to Trump's claims
of irregularities in the Iowa caucus results.
Trump had a scathing response in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer: "He's a stiff. He's not a guy that can
be president. He doesn't have what it takes."
He continued, "He's a desperate person. He's a sad and, you know, he's a pathetic person. He doesn't
even use his last name in his ads. He's a sad person who has gone absolutely crazy. He's a nervous wreck."
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The Democratic race between Clinton and Sanders is also getting increasingly testy, with a clash over the
former New York senator's ties to Wall Street and her campaign's attacks on his foreign policy.
On Sunday, Bill Clinton slammed the Vermont senator's supporters who he said subjected opponents to
"vicious trolling and attacks that are literally too profane often -- not to mention sexist -- to repeat."
"The online campaign is, 'Anybody who doesn't agree with me is a tool of the establishment,'" Clinton
argued.
Michael Briggs, spokesman for the Sanders campaign, called the comments "disappointing" in a statement
to CNN.
But the former president told CNN that Sanders is fair game.
"It bothers me to be in an election where debate is impossible because if you disagree you are just part of
the establishment," he said.
Albright was also drawn into the crossfire following her remarks over the weekend, reflecting concern in the
Clinton camp that Sanders is beating the former first lady among younger women.
"I said that I think that people need to understand who has been really fighting on their behalf on issues that
are of interest to women, and clearly Hillary Clinton has," Albright told Time Magazine.
And only hours from the primary, new clouds gathered around the Clinton campaign following a Politico
report that the candidate and her husband were disappointed with the direction of her campaign and that a
staff shakeup could be in the offing.
But Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta dismissed the report.
"There is zero truth to what you may be reading. It's wrong. Hillary stands behind her team, period," he
wrote on Twitter.
Cassie Spodak contributed to this report.

Bill Clinton rips Sanders backers 'sexist,'

'profane' attacks
New Hampshire primary updates, live from the campaign
trail

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Donald Trump: Jeb Bush 'melts' when he attacks me

Donald Trump's lead in New Hampshire grows, while Bernie

Sanders' edge

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