Hillary Clinton campaign: Bernie Sanders will fail after New Hampshire
Hillary Clinton's campaign manager is trying to tamp down worries of a competitive Bernie Sanders heading into New Hampshire, the next nominating contest after Monday's kickoff Iowa caucuses.
"The reality is that Sanders needed a decisive victory in Iowa in order to have a viable path to the nomination," Robby Mook said Tuesday in a memo he penned to top fundraisers, obtained by CBS News. "His own campaign said repeatedly that Sanders needed to win in Iowa, which based on demographics and ideology, should have been one of his strongest states."
On "CBS This Morning," Sanders responded to the Clinton memo, dismissing its concerns from Monday's caucuses.
"They started off 50 points ahead, they started off as the anointed candidacy and they ended up winning by 2/10ths of one percent," he said early Wednesday, referring to Iowa's close caucus results. "They're worried about my campaign?"
Sanders, who performed well in Iowa among first-time caucus-goers and among those who were more likely to align themselves as ideologically "liberal," would not benefit from the demographics of upcoming states, according to Mook.
"It's important to remember that while the first four states receive a lot of attention, they only represent 4% of the delegates needed to win the nomination," he wrote. "The states with primaries and caucuses in March represent 56% of the delegates needed to win the nomination, with nearly half of those delegates awarded on Super Tuesday alone. Seven of the 11 Super Tuesday states have large minority populations -- including Alabama, Georgia and Texas, which are expected to see majority-minority turnouts."
Of Sanders' significant lead in New Hampshire polls, the Clinton campaign called it "not surprising."
"New Hampshire is Bernie Sanders' backyard. Vermont shares a media market with New Hampshire, and the voters of New Hampshire have a history of supporting candidates from New England," the note read.
The memo ended with an attempt to allay any fears that the Clinton campaign was taken by surprise by Sanders' strong performance.
"From day one, we've said that we expect this primary to be competitive," Mook wrote. "Running for president isn't supposed to be easy."
But, he added, "that's why we've built a national organization designed to secure the delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination. We are on a path to do just that."