Former White House senior adviser David Plouffe argues in a new interview that Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has “zero” chance at securing the party’s nomination.
“It’s over,” Plouffe said in an interview published Thursday with fellow Obama White House alum David Axelrod on his podcast “The Axe Files,” joking that he has as much chance as Sanders to win.
“I mean zero,” Plouffe said.
{mosads}The interview was conducted before Tuesday’s primary results in New York, where Clinton extended her delegate lead over Sanders, who later insisted, “We still have a path to the nomination.”
Still, Plouffe, who served as Obama’s 2008 campaign manager against Hillary Clinton but is now supporting her, acknowledged the former secretary of State has some areas to improve.
Clinton’s lack of support among young people is a “huge problem for the campaign,” he said, adding that her lagging trust numbers are “undeniable” and not good.
“Hillary Clinton’s biggest challenge is can she create the passion on the ground, both to get the turnout but the organization to bring people out?” Plouffe asked.
The Democratic strategist also weighed in on the GOP side of the 2016 race, suggesting that Democrats would be better served facing Ted Cruz over the more unpredictable Donald Trump.
“I’d prefer to run against Cruz,” Plouffe said.
“With Cruz, I think you know what you’re dealing with. He doesn’t have a lot of elasticity. I still think you can win comfortably if you run a strong race and get good turnout,” he said.
“If not, you know, a Cruz-Clinton race could get uncomfortably close. But with Trump I also just think that the execution and prosecution of the campaign day-to-day will be gruesome,” he said.
Plouffe argued that “80 percent of Sanders and Trump speeches are kinda the same. They differ a little bit on the culprit and a lot on the remedy, but they’re both tapping into something real out there.”