Clinton Campaign Forced To Focus On "Turmoil"

If you are the Clinton campaign preparing for a debate that has been deemed critical to your candidate’s primary prospects, this is NOT what you wanted to be doing today.

P.S. Please excuse the rough transcript.

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MSNBC: Terry McAuliffe

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TAMRON HALL: Reports today suggest Hillary Clinton’s campaign is in turmoil and that bill Clinton may be coming to the rescue. New York daily news says "alarmed by his wife's slide in the polls and disarray within her backbiting campaign, a beside-himself bill Clinton has leaped atop the barricades and is furiously plotting a cure or coup." The new York times says aides described former president bill Clinton as increasingly frustrated that his wife's campaign has not fought back. They said that Mr. Clinton had warned for weeks that they were taking a toll on his wife's candidacy. It sounds like the former president is dusting off his superman out fit and ready to jump atop and save the day. I'm going to bank that you say this is not true.

TERRY MCAULIFFE: I can tell you, bill Clinton just got back from two days of campaigning for his wife in Iowa, talking about the change, that she is the change agent. He is excited about the campaign. I can unequivocally put to rest any rumors, there r no staff shake-ups. Everybody was there, will continue to stay there. Hillary has one of the most dedicated, loyal staffs in any campaign that anybody could ask for.

HALL: Are there frustrations? Maybe no shake-up, maybe no people being booted out of their jobs. But is there frustration?

MCAULIFFE: I'm excited. I speak for bill Clinton. I speak to the president all the type. I was just with Hillary out on the west coast. I'll be with president Clinton again today. I spoke with both of them almost every day. We know what we're facing. We're excited about where we are. We feel very good at the position Hillary is in. The poll had Hillary up three points in Iowa. These polls will move all over. The bottom line is that Americans want change. Hillary Clinton has a record of bringing about change, things she's involved in. That's what she's going to do. She will get everybody covered on health care, get her troops out of Iraq as fast and as safe as possible, fix education. She is a change agent. She has the most experience. That's what ultimately, to the voters, matter. I spoke to Hillary this morning. She's ready for the big debate coming up in Iowa tomorrow.

HALL: I was going to bring up the big debate, of course. We've seen in a couple of debates where it's been described as a pile on of her. Numbers incredibly close. A lot at stake before this last debate before the caucuses in Iowa. What is your plan?

MCAULIFFE: If look at all the debates we've had so far in the primary caucuses, Hillary has done exceptional well. If you look at the polls in 34, 36 states, she easily wins the general election today. Today is not the general election. We have a long way to go. We've got great democrats running, but Hillary, you watch and listen to Hillary Clinton and you know that she has the experience, she has what it takes to bring about the change that everybody wants in this country. 35 Years of fighting for these issues separates her from everyone else. The world in turmoil and all the issues we have, we don't have time for on-the-job training. Hillary Clinton will be commander in chief tomorrow. That's what the voters want.

HALL: We have to be honest, we know it's because of her husband. Will he be out in full force in these last few weeks?

MCAULIFFE: He's out in full force. He just got back to Iowa. I'll be with him in new jersey. I'm going through Florida and south Carolina. Hillary will be out in full force. Everybody is out. We're about 23 days to Iowa. Finally, voters will get to cast a vote, say who they're for, which is what we've been waiting for. Our campaign has done exceptionally well. We're ahead in the pos and have plenty of money. We have broken every record in the history of the fund-raising books and Hillary is out there. People are listening to her. They like what they see. When she goes out and campaigns and they see her and listen to her, they want change. It's Hillary Clinton that is the change agent. You want to fix Iraq, health care and education, you want to get us off this dependency on foreign oil, Hillary Clinton can bring that change for us.

HALL: I hate to trivialize it all, but we'll see in that Iowa caucus.

MCAULIFFE: Thank you so much.


Danny Diaz