SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Hillary Clinton snapped at a Greenpeace protester. She linked Bernie Sanders and tea party Republicans. And she bristled with anger when nearly two dozen Sanders supporters marched out of an event near her home outside New York City, shouting "if she wins, we lose."
"They don't want
to listen to anyone else," she shot back. "We actually have to do
something. Not just complain about what is happening."
After a year of
campaigning, months of debates and 35 primary elections, Sanders is finally
getting under Clinton's skin in the Democratic presidential race.
Clinton has spent
weeks largely ignoring Sanders and trying to focus on Republican front-runner
Donald Trump. Now, after several primary losses and with a tough fight in
New York on the horizon, Clinton is showing flashes of frustration with the
Vermont senator — irritation that could undermine her efforts to unite the
party around her candidacy.
According to
Democrats close to Hillary and former President Bill Clinton, both are
frustrated by Sanders' ability to cast himself as above politics-as-usual even
while firing off what they consider to be misleading attacks. The Clintons are
even more annoyed that Sanders' approach seems to be rallying — and keeping — young
voters by his side.
While Hillary
Clinton's team contends her lock on the nomination as "nearly
insurmountable," the campaign frequently grumbles that Sanders hasn't
faced the same level of scrutiny as the former secretary of state, New York
senator and first lady. Her aides complain about Sanders' rhetoric, claiming
he's broken his pledge to avoid character attacks by going after her paid
speeches and ties to Wall Street, and they point to scenes of Sanders
supporters booing Clinton's name at his rallies.
Actress Rosario
Dawson's
15-minute speech at a New York City rally on Friday, in which she rallied
the crowd by crying "shame on you, Hillary" and noted that Clinton
could soon face an FBI interview over the email controversy while at the State
Department, underscored the growing tensions between the campaigns.
Clinton hopes that
big victories in New York on April 19 and five Northeastern states a week later
will allow her to wrap up the nomination by the end of the month.
But aides acknowledge
that Sanders, who's raised $109 million this year and has pledged to take his
campaign to the party convention in July, is unlikely to feel significant
political or financial pressure to drop out of the race, even if it becomes
clear he cannot win the nomination.
Clinton stayed in the
2008 contest against Barack Obama until the bitter end, though her
initial advantage with superdelegates, who later flipped to the Illinois
senator, gave her a stronger case for the nomination.
Unlike eight years
ago, when California Sen. Dianne Feinstein brought Clinton and Obama together
for a meeting, few Democrats are in position to broker peace between Clinton
and Sanders. For most of his political career, Sanders identified as an
independent — not a Democrat — leaving him with far weaker ties to party
powerbrokers.
According to an
Associated Press analysis, Sanders must win 67 percent of the remaining
delegates and uncommitted superdelegates — party leaders and officials who
can support any candidate — through June to be able to clinch the Democratic
nomination. So far he's only winning 37 percent.
Joel Benenson,
Clinton's chief strategist, said: "We're going to get to a point at the
end of April where there just isn't enough real estate for him to overcome the
lead that we've built."
Still, any kind of
truce is probably weeks, if not months, away.
For now, Sanders is
costing Clinton significant time, money and political capital. His victories
in recent Western caucuses underscored her weaknesses among younger and white
working-class voters, important elements of the Democratic coalition. He's
favored in the Wisconsin primary Tuesday.
Sanders is drawing
sizable crowds in New York, attracting 18,500 to rally in the South Bronx on
Thursday. A victory in that state, which Clinton represented for two terms in
the Senate, would deal a significant psychological blow to her campaign,
rattling Democrats already worried about her high national disapproval ratings.
Clinton is more
reliant on traditional fundraising than is Sanders, who's raised the bulk of
his money online. Even as she prepares for New York's primary, she has
scheduled fundraisers before then in Denver, Virginia, Miami and Los Angeles —
at the home of actor George Clooney.
She needs to continue
raising primary dollars because June contests in California and New Jersey will
be expensive.
Sanders faces fewer financial anxieties.
Sanders adviser Tad
Devine said the senator was not encouraging his supporters to disrupt Clinton's
events and was focused on his own message. But he also said the campaign would
respond when Clinton mischaracterizes Sanders' records and positions.
Her attacks, he said,
only help Sanders.
"When your
attacks against your opponent feed the biggest weakness that you have, you are
undermining yourself," said Devine.
