Sanders to release letter from his doctor before Iowa caucuses

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are clashing across the Sunday morning talk shows, with Sanders on the defensive over gun policy.

Hillary Clinton has her sights set on Bernie Sanders’ long legislative record in a critical Democratic presidential debate tonight in SC. “Obama and his campaign took that on, they disproved it, it became the source of their victory”. As for the politically established Clinton, her challenge is to maintain her presence among voters at this time when insurgency is rampant.

Clinton has made bold statements about changing the religious beliefs of people, as she does around eight and half minutes into her speech past year (see video below).

The Clintons believe she can still win the February 1 caucuses in Iowa and the February 9 primary in New Hampshire despite Sanders’ now being virtually tied with her in many polls. A latest Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register survey suggests that both Clinton and Sanders are actually in a virtual tie in Iowa.

The debate will air live on local NBC stations at 9 p.m. ET. Even with such strong support in the Palmetto State, Clinton vowed to work hard.

But on “Meet the Press”, Sanders insisted it was “not really” a shift and that it had been consistent with his comments months ago that “I was willing to rethink [about the issue]”.

Clinton entered the 2016 race as the prohibitive favorite for the nomination, and she has spent much of her time tangling from afar with Republicans, arguing she is best candidate to build upon President Barack Obama’s agenda.

With the Iowa caucuses a couple of weeks away, there are few levers Clinton’s campaign can pull to slow Sanders down.

The new poll also finds 79 percent of Democratic primary voters saying that they could see themselves supporting Clinton, versus 18 percent who couldn’t (+61) – essentially unchanged from December’s 82 percent-to-17 percent score (+65).

In a string of Sunday show interviews, Clinton applauded Sanders for “flip-flopping” on the question of legal immunity for gun manufacturers, and called on the Vermont senator to support the closing of other “loopholes” in the background check system.

But during the past week alone, the Clinton and Sanders campaigns both released ads during that appeared to implicitly criticise the other on issues of gun control and Wall Street regulation. A majority of Americans, including 73 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans, said Bill Clinton does not factor into their opinion of Hillary for president. “I don’t think his presence will have an effect”.

He needs some big moments to revive his hopes, while Sanders and Clinton will try to connect with ideas that will excite their followers and encourage them to get to the polls. Mr. Clinton campaigned for Hillary Clinton in Sioux City and Marshalltown earlier in the afternoon.

Rep. Adam Schiff, one of the Democrats behind the new bill to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), said Sanders’s backing of the bill puts him among those trying to correct a “serious mistake”.