Bernie Sanders is aiming to dent Hillary Clinton’s momentum Tuesday at a CNN Democratic town hall meeting, as he faces pressure to change the dynamics of a presidential race that is starting to trend against him.
After losing to Clinton in Saturday’s Nevada Democratic caucuses and another loss likely looming this weekend in South Carolina, Sanders needs a strong performance going into the multiple contests on Super Tuesday.
In the coming weeks, Clinton is counting on a strong showing in Southern states likely to showcase her dominance among African-American voters, putting the onus on Sanders to try to broaden his support or face falling behind. The Vermont senator clearly appreciates the urgency and is taking an increasingly tough line against the former secretary of state.
He opened the town hall in Columbia, South Carolina, by reiterating his call for Clinton to release transcripts of paid speeches that she made to Wall Street banks after she left the State Department.
“I am happy to release all of my paid speeches to Wall Street — here it is,” Sanders said, with a wave of his hands. “There ain’t none.”
Clinton, who will appear on stage later Tuesday evening, has said that she will release details of speeches she gave to bankers behind closed doors only when other candidates do the same.
The former secretary of state has spent weeks struggling with how to respond to her rival’s self-proclaimed grass-roots “revolution.” She has adopted a more populist tone of late, seeking to shrug off claims by Sanders that her reliance on big money donors means she is a typical product of the political class in thrall to what he says is a “corrupt” campaign finance system.
“I want to knock down all the barriers that are holding people back,” Clinton said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, striking a message that is aimed at minority voters and members of the struggling middle class alike.
“We have spent a lot of time talking with voters in the last week about the barriers they felt did impede their getting ahead,” said Clinton, who has been portraying Sanders as a single-issue candidate — implicitly arguing that while his anti-Wall Street rhetoric might be popular, it cannot alone be the basis for an entire presidency.