Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) took a page from his "good friend" Donald Trump on Sunday by taunting his chief competitor about her flagging poll numbers.
"Let me talk about polling. As Secretary Clinton well knows, when this campaign began she was 50 points ahead of me," Sanders said at the Democratic debate in South Carolina.
"Guess what? In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is [now] very, very close," Sanders said.
In recent weeks, Sanders has seen a surge of support from left-wing Democrats disaffected with Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment.
The socialist senator is polling ahead of Clinton in the critical early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire, throwing a scare into the Clinton campaign.
Clinton, still considered the favorite given her mammoth fundraising operation and strong poll numbers in southern states, leads in national polls by a comfortable margin—although Sanders pointed out the margin is much smaller today than it was last summer.
Sanders sought to deny Clinton one of her main selling points with wary progressives by pointing out that he might be the most electable Democratic candidate, despite his identification with socialism.
"In terms of polling, guess what? We are running ahead of Secretary Clinton in terms of taking on my good friend, Donald Trump, beating him by 19 points in New Hampshire, 13 points in the last national poll that I saw," Sanders said.
Transcript below:
BERNIE SANDERS: Let me talk about polling. As Secretary Clinton well knows, when this campaign began she was 50 points ahead of me. We were all of 3 percentage points. Guess what? In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is very, very close. Maybe we're ahead in New Hampshire. In terms of polling, guess what? We are running ahead of Secretary Clinton in terms of taking on my good friend, Donald Trump, beating him by 19 points in New Hampshire, 13 points in the last national poll that I saw.