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Ineffective Clinton Surrogate Explains Michigan Loss

March 9, 2016

Former Michigan governor and apparently ineffective Hillary Clinton surrogate Jennifer Granholm explained Wednesday on MSNBC how Clinton managed to squander a victory in Granholm's home state.

Clinton led Michigan polls by averages of roughly 20 points heading into Tuesday night, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) won in an upset, halting Clinton's momentum in the Democratic primary fight. She remains far ahead of Sanders in the delegate count, but their race appears to be far from over.

"So what happened yesterday? It seemed as though Hillary Clinton was winning. All the polls showed her winning in the state and then, gone," MSNBC host José Díaz-Balart said.

"First of all, polls in Michigan are so notoriously unreliable, and we knew going in that it was going to be close. We were all saying it, don't believe those polls, because they were insanely huge margins," Granholm said.

Granholm congratulated Sanders on the victory.

"Here's how he won. He focused on the thing that Michiganders care so deeply about, which is jobs and the economy and trade," Granholm said. "There's two parts to this trade message, though. One is you have to have tough trade agreements. You have to make sure that you were not facilitating the off-shoring of jobs, but the second part is you have to have a robust economic development strategy to create jobs in America in a global economy.

"She has both parts of that message, but I think that last night signaled that she's really got to be loud and vocal about both parts of that."

Diaz-Balart brought up Clinton's consistent bugaboo on the campaign trail: trustworthiness. Sanders again carried voters by huge margins who cared about honesty in their candidate.

"Why do you think that still is a problem?" Díaz-Balart asked.

"I do honestly believe because of the years and millions of dollars that have been spent against her to try to make it look like she is dishonest ... It's hard for her to hear that as a person," Granholm said. "She's going to continue to try to make the case."

Granholm charged Tuesday that Fox News and the "right wing" were responsible for Clinton's trust issues with the public.