Bloomberg reporter Mark Halperin said Friday that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is "in danger" if she can’t find an effective line of attack against her surging competitor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.).
National polls show a tightening race between the two candidates, with Clinton ahead but polling below 50 percent. Polls from the early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire show Clinton trailing Sanders.
"They don’t have a solution that they have settled on on how to stop Sanders. Until they do, she’s in danger," Halperin said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
If Sanders wins the first two Democratic primaries, it would likely prolong the Democratic contest and energize his supporters.
"His fundraising explodes if he wins these two states," Halperin said.
The Clinton campaign tried to coexist with Sanders last year, when his candidacy seemed more quixotic than it does today. In recent weeks it has abandoned this strategy in favor of strident attacks on the socialist senator’s progressive credentials.
The polls have not yet responded to these efforts, and Halperin said this is a cause of great concern to the Clinton campaign.
"Sanders has got momentum here right now. Look, the Clinton people are not panicked but they are deeply worried," Halperin said.
Transcript below:
MARK HALPERIN: Let’s see what happens in the first two states. Nobody can tell you what the world looks like. The latest poll has the race high. Sanders is building a coalition of Obama voters. Sanders has got momentum here right now. Look, the Clinton people are not panicked but they are deeply worried. You see every day this week they’ve done something. Yesterday Sanders put out an ad that didn’t mention Hillary Clinton. Hillary did a conference call. They don’t have a solution that they have settled on on how to stop Sanders. Until they do, she’s in danger.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: She may be in danger here. I think we need to keep everything in perspective. Eight years ago it was Barack Obama saying if I can win in Iowa, a state basically that is this white, I can win in South Carolina. That’s a completely different argument than what Bernie Sanders has eight years later.
HALPERIN: He doesn’t need to win South Carolina. He can come back and has other opportunities. His fundraising explodes if he wins these two states.