ADVERTISEMENT

MSNBC: A Sanders Win in California is a 'Political Earthquake'

June 2, 2016

The panel on MSNBC's Morning Joe Thursday raised the issue that Hillary Clinton has trouble going into the Democratic California primary, with host Joe Scarborough saying a win by rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) would be a "political earthquake."

Co-host Mika Brzezinski showed a couple of polls in California, including two which showed Clinton is beating Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) by only two points.

Scarborough pointed out how due to the demographics of California, Clinton should be able to win the state.

"You know what's interesting, Mika, is that we saw a poll a couple of days ago that suggested this race was over. It was out at Stanford, had a 13-point lead for Hillary Clinton and that really made a lot of sense because Bernie Sanders has never won a state in this entire process when the state was more demographically diverse than the rest of the country and Hillary hasn't won a state where a state was less demographically diverse than the rest of the country," Scarborough said. "So California should be an easy win for Hillary.

"The NBC poll yesterday, the field poll today, suggests this is a tight race. It's going down to the very end and it would be extraordinarily important if not in the delegate count, in the public relations game. A Bernie Sanders win in California is a political earthquake. It's that simple."

NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell pointed out some of the issues that Clinton faces in California.

"Look, Bernie Sanders has done well when he plants himself in a state and digs in and stays there, and you know, she's come back, she went to Kentucky, that's how she pulled that one out. She needs to be in California if she's going to have any chance of surpassing him here," Mitchell said.

"This state, even though as you and Joe are pointing out, it's a more diverse state. It's also far more liberal, far more progressive and in many ways it is more tailor-made for him because there is a procedure under which independents can ask for ballots and vote in the Democratic, so it's a partially open race, which is something that he has wanted. So she's got to put this to rest. As Joe just said, this is an earthquake.

"There's no way to try to heal things between now and the convention, between June 7th and the convention, even if as we all expect she goes over the top on June 7 with New Jersey before the polls are even closed, no chance that that's going to happen," Mitchell said. "If he wins this, this will be a huge momentum."