Hillary Clinton surrogate Rep. Steve Israel (D., N.Y.) said Wednesday that he feels like a nervous New York Mets fan about the outcome of the presidential race, although he added his anxiety "has nothing to do with" Clinton.
Fox News host Neil Cavuto asked Israel if he felt "nervous" about the race, which has become far closer over the past month. Polling prognosticator FiveThirtyEight has Trump’s current odds of winning the presidency at 43.2 percent, which trails Clinton’s 56.8 percent chances. However, six weeks ago, the same site listed Trump’s chances at 20.5 percent.
"You know, Neil, I’m a fan of the New York Mets, and I know that my team can have a five-run lead in the ninth inning and still lose, so it has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton. I’m just nervous as a Met fan," he said. "Fact of the matter is this. In every campaign that I have ever been in or watched, at the end of the day, I ask would I rather be me or my opponent? I’d rather be Hillary Clinton’s campaign right now."
Israel touted her easier path to an Electoral College victory and the fact that Clinton was out-raising and outspending Trump on the campaign trail.
On Sept. 16, the New York Times published an article about Clinton backers who initially thought she could not lose but are now having doubts:
But as Hillary Clinton lurches toward Election Day, her supporters at times seem overwhelmed by a tsunami of unease, exacerbated by Mrs. Clinton’s bout of pneumonia and a slow-footed acknowledgment of the illness. They are confronting a question they had assumed, just a few weeks ago, they would not need to consider in a race against the most unpopular presidential nominee in modern times: Could Mrs. Clinton actually blow this?
"It’s like someone dropped ice water on the head of America," Julie Gaines, the owner of Fishs Eddy, a home goods store in Manhattan, said of Mr. Trump’s increased odds. "Everyone sobered up. This could happen."