Bloomberg's Mark Halperin said Thursday morning that everything that could possibly go wrong for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is going wrong for her following a crushing defeat in the New Hampshire primary and reported turmoil between her and her staff.
"Everything that could go wrong or be in a bad place in a Clinton campaign is going wrong with her campaign right now," Halperin said on MSNBC's Morning Joe. "There's distrust between the candidate and a lot of the staff. There's questions about the balance between fundraising, positive message, negative message. There's no doubt."
Halperin also quoted former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour as saying, "In politics, good gets better, and bad gets worse," adding that right now Clinton's primary opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt), "has momentum, he has money, he's got message."
After being the presumptive Democratic nominee for months, Clinton barely beat Sanders, a 74-year-old self-declared socialist, in the Iowa caucuses and then lost by more than twenty points to Sanders in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday night.
The Clinton campaign maintains that the former secretary of state enjoys widespread support among minority voters and will use that to her advantage going forward in the southern states, arguing that will counter Sanders's momentum and ensure victory for her.
The campaign has also been undergoing some turmoil amid reports that Bill and Hillary Clinton are considering a staff shake-up due to their dissatisfaction with messaging and digital operations. Clinton is reportedly at odds with some of her staff over a variety of issues, with both sides distrusting the other, which Halperin said yesterday was to be expected with any Clinton campaign.
Some political commentators have argued that, while Sanders has a clear message to go after the financial industry and wealthy Americans to fix what he views as an unfair economic system, it is unclear why Clinton is running for president. Sanders supports have also accused Clinton of changing her stances on various issues when it is politically convenient for her, which is one reason why the former of secretary has low poll numbers when it comes to honesty and trustworthiness.
Halperin pointed out Wednesday the real problem with Clinton is that "she’s not a great candidate, that her message is still really muddy and that she’s swimming upstream. She’s trying to run as the change candidate against a guy [Sanders] who is just always going to win on who represents change."