In an interview with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, Bloomberg Politics host Mark Halperin said that former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley could do “serious damage” to Hillary Clinton in Iowa next year.
Halperin did say this with reservations, though, adding that he is “skeptical” that O’Malley is the one to enter the race with the mindset to defeat Clinton. (RELATED: O’Malley: Presidency Isn’t ‘Some Crown To Be Passed Between Two Families’)
“I still am very skeptical that Martin O’Malley is going to be the person who enters this race with a determination to defeat Hillary Clinton,” Halperin said. “He is very close to the Clintons. I still believe he’s in this race because, to a large extent, he’s got nothing better to do. There’s a vacuum right now, and he’d like to be kind of a sparring partner for her in the debates, I think more to protect her from some of these other candidates than to actually beat her.”
“But that remark has caught my eye as it did yours, and I think that perhaps he feels like the vacuum he wants to fill is not just someone to be out there talking, but someone who could take her on. If Martin O’Malley really went after this, I don’t rule out that he could do serious damage to her in Iowa.”
O’Malley’s told ABC “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos Sunday that the presidency “is not some crown to be passed between two families.”