Clinton defends progressive record against Sanders critique

Sanders’ nearby home state of Vermont has been hit particularly hard by heroin addiction. But a win is a win, and she wants it to stay that way through the New Hampshire contest Tuesday and beyond.

The decision expands the total number of Democratic debates from six to ten, and suggests both campaigns are prepared for a drawn-out primary battle that will extend at least until May.

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire earlier in the day, the former secretary of state called Sanders attacks on her ideology a “low blow”, before listing a series of liberal accomplishments that she described as progressive, including her work on expanding access to children’s health insurance, advocating for women and gay people and pushing for gun control measures.

“We’ve been fighting the progressive fight and getting results for people for years”, Clinton said. “I plead guilty”, she told the crowd in Columbus.

It’s not clear which pundits Clinton was referring to, and CNN could not identify any public suggestions by political pundits that she should skip the state. He insisted he’s the underdog, “taking on the most powerful political organization in the country”, the Clinton operation.

It’s a show of fundraising prowess from Sanders that comes right as he and Clinton square off in New Hampshire. “This is going to be a very close election here in New Hampshire”. A CNN/WMUR poll released on Sunday found Sanders leading Clinton 57% to 34% in the Granite State.

Her campaign on Tuesday began airing its first TV ad in SC, which will hold its Democratic primary February 27, featuring former Attorney General Eric Holder. Former President Bill Clinton traveled to SC on Wednesday.

In the final debate before the New Hampshire primary, Hillary Clinton, front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, will look to alter her strategy after her narrow win over Bernie Sanders in the Iowa caucuses Monday.

“I am here and I will be here all week, in small groups and large, making my case, answering questions”, Clinton said Tuesday night in Hampton.

Clinton has unveiled a billion plan to boost treatment and recovery programs, ensure that first responders have drugs needed to stop opioid overdoses from becoming fatal and direct states prioritize treatment over jail for nonviolent and low-level federal drug offenders.

In fact, her campaign has a dozen offices in the states and thousands of volunteers. When asked to confirm a Washington Post report that put the April debate in Pennsylvania, he said his campaign “would still also like one in NY”.

And they have their work cut out.

If he wants to remain a viable candidate in the Democratic candidate, Sanders will have to appeal to more than white voters.

“The debate is on”, he said. Obama beat Clinton by 20 percentage points among voters younger than 30.

The DNC, which was initially reticent to add debates to its primary schedule, said earlier this week that it would sanction and manage any debates that both the Clinton and Sanders campaign agreed to attend. The Derry high schooler said she knows friends who like Sanders and his proposal for free tuition at colleges, but she considers it “not realistic”.

Political observers say Clinton should not attack Sanders, but instead focus on courting those younger voters and liberals.

“Their argument is – and it has got some strength to it – look, you are behind here, you are in your opponent’s backyard”, she said. “Because if it’s about our records, hey, I’m going to win by a landslide”.

Clinton also has struggled throughout the campaign with voters who say she is not honest and trustworthy, now a major challenge for her candidacy.

More than 80 percent of those who think honesty is the quality that matters most in a candidate backed Sanders in the Iowa caucuses, according to entrance polls. O’Malley, for example, often attacked Clinton and Sanders, occasionally bringing up the generational differences between him and the others.

“What we are hearing from young people is a real disgust with the campaign finance system in which billionaires and Wall Street are putting in money”, he told MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday.