Bloomberg Politics managing editor Mark Halperin says that “the days are over” to take the nomination away from Bernie Sanders if Hillary Clinton runs into legal trouble.
As a panelist on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday, Halperin argued that “it is clear” that Clinton was “cavalier” about handeling classified information while Secretary of State, adding that even the Democratic leadership is “uncomfortable with what she did.” (RELATED: Report: Feds Moving Forward With Plan To Interview Hillary In Email Investigation)
Host Joe Scarborough asked Halperin, “What are you hearing behind the scenes from the Democratic leadership?”
Halperin said, “The Clinton aides who are named in the Los Angeles Times story to be interviewed, these are people who know a lot about Hillary Clinton, know a lot about her email practices, and you just don’t know what happens when they get called in to be interviewed.”
“If you look at the calendar and you look at how long it’s going to be where Bernie Sanders will be in the race, through June and California, there’s the prospect of, for him, the alignment of political victories and nervousness within the Democratic Party of nominating someone who would be potentially under criminal investigation, potentially.”
“And so it is obvious for him if he wants to be the Democratic nominee to be as strong as possible,” Halperin said. “I think the days are over when people think that if she does run into legal trouble that someone could take this nomination away from Bernie Sanders, and that argument only grows stronger the more delegates he wins if it comes to the point where there is more nervousness, because there is clearly nervousness now.”
Halperin then argued that the Democrats “were so distracted by her fight with Bernie Sanders, they got over focusing and obsessing on the investigation, but these two stories will bring that back to the fore, and when this interview takes place, she will be under pressure to explain — because whether she broke the law or not, whether a Democratic Justice Department indicts her or not, or makes her a target or not, it is clear that she was cavalier about this, and people are uncomfortable with what she did.”