DES MOINES, Iowa — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders chuckled on Saturday at Hillary Clinton’s suggestion that she will be the candidate to do more “than just give a speech for [voters], not just sort of appeal to their emotions.”
“I think they’re getting nervous,” Sanders said after addressing AFSCME union members at an event in Altoon, Iowa.
“I think the secretary’s people are getting very nervous about the kind of enthusiasm and energy our campaign is bringing forth,” he added. “But let me be very clear, I think everybody knows this. We’re not just giving big speeches. We’re not just drawing huge crowds.”
On Friday in an interview with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, Clinton addressed tightening poll numbers and whether her candidacy, like 2008, is slipping.
“You can, you know, wave your arms and give a speech, but at the end of the day, are you connecting with and really hearing what people are either saying to you or wishing that you would say to them?” Clinton said, in part.
Clinton clarified on Saturday in New Hampshire whose speeches she was criticizing.
“First of all, I was talking about Donald Trump yesterday,” Clinton said in New Hampshire. “It’s certainly clear that my campaign is focused on the Republicans — that’s who I talk about, that’s who I criticize because I think they’ve earned it.”
A Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll Iowa voters released last week put Sanders just seven percentage points behind Clinton. And Public Policy Polling, in a survey of 370 Democratic primary voters, put Sanders seven points ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire.
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“I think what our task right now is that things are moving so fast, frankly, for us here in Iowa and New Hampshire and elsewhere, that our political infrastructure is having a hard time keeping up,” Sanders said.
Last week in Des Moines, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, whose brother, Julian Castro, is considered a potential vice presidential pick for Clinton, questioned Sanders’ commitment to the Latino population, saying Sanders “has not reached out to the Hispanic Caucus in Congress” and had yet to visit Latino communities along the Texas border. He said: “I respect him a lot … but this community matters.”
Hillary Clinton will campaign in Iowa on Sunday.
Vaughn Hillyard is a senior White House reporter for MS NOW.