The “Morning Joe” panel ripped apart the Clinton campaign Thursday over reports that Hillary Clinton is going to ditch the Nevada caucus early for Texas.
On MSNBC’s morning show, co-host host Mika Brzezinski said, “[A] day after we showed you a poll in Nevada that has Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton virtually tied in that state, the Clinton camp announced an event in Houston, Texas, the night of the caucuses.”
According to a CNN/ORC poll, Clinton is polling at 48 percent and Bernie Sanders is polling at 47 percent in Nevada.
Co-host Joe Scarborough interjected, “That’s not good at all. They’re leaving Nevada before the votes are counted?”
Brzezinski claimed, “Well they say they’re going to get the results before she leaves, before she takes off.”
As the Washington Free Beacon notes, Scarborough said, “Hmm, wow. I don’t know what’s in Texas but it must be a lot of money because it’s not good announcing that you’re leaving a state before the caucus ends.”
MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle interjected, “They must be reading the tea level there.”
Scarborough said, “Wow, is it not shocking what is happening in the Clinton campaign?”
Later, Barnicle, added “We justifiably concentrate a lot of our energy and attention on the Republican side of the race because it’s very interesting, largely because of Donald Trump but this is a huge story.”
Scarborough agreed saying, “Hillary Clinton went into New Hampshire and fought in New Hampshire when a lot of people said she shouldn’t have, said she should have gone straight to South Carolina and Nevada. She ends up losing massively in New Hampshire after campaigning there. The second she gets out of that, she finds out that she’s fighting for her life in Nevada so she races across the country and goes to Nevada and now it looks like they’re pulling up stakes actually the night of the caucus, something that always suggests things are not going your way.”
The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein attempted to come to Clinton’s defense and suggested, “Well, there’s a technical thing and I could be wrong here, I have to check that, but i believe the Nevada caucuses happen during the day not at night so that might explain why she is bolting and going to Texas at the evening.”
“However, I think the broader point is still there which is her campaign has consistently underestimated how hard this election was going to be against Bernie Sanders and they’ve consistently failed to find a way to chip at Bernie Sanders’ appeal,” Stein said.
Stein noted that from the beginning of the race, the Clinton campaign has attacked Sanders “from the left on certain issues which made no sense because he’s a self-described democratic socialist so there’s not much room to maneuver there. And now they’re settling on the idea which that he is a one trick pony which may work but it’s a pretty late message to sell on.”
“But the biggest problem they face is this. Which is that she has to go to places like New York and Chicago on a routine basis to do these fundraisers because she needs money to keep the campaign going. Bernie Sanders in his New Hampshire victory speech paused for a little bit, said “I’d like to do a fundraiser right now.” And asked for $27 donations from everyone tuning in. I think in the 24 hours or so after he won, he raised something like $6 million which is an insane amount. And if he can continue doing that, he can continue going through maybe even to the convention,” Stein said.
However, Clinton might not be leaving so early for Texas on Saturday as her campaign has an event scheduled for 2:30 p.m. local time in Nevada on the day of the caucuses.