NASHUA, N.H. — Despite barely scraping out a win over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Iowa’s Democratic caucus Monday night, Hillary Clinton kept most of her New Hampshire stump speech on Tuesday focused on her Republican opponents.
“I want to ask you during these next few days to go out there, talk to your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues about what is at stake. It could not be more stark between what I offer and what the Republicans offer,” Clinton told a few hundred voters at her first campaign stop in New Hampshire after the caucuses.
Clinton herself waited until Tuesday morning to declare victory over Sanders, who finished just three-tenths of a percentage point behind the former secretary of state. But Clinton was already over her razor-thin victory on Tuesday, and instead, she hurled punch after punch at the 11-person Republican field, criticizing their platform on women’s rights, climate change and income inequality.
“When I listen to the Republicans, it chills me,” Clinton said. “They are against so many of the advances we’ve made to lift people up.”
“When you have leading Republicans who insult American Muslims … that’s not only offensive and harmful, that’s dangerous,” she said. “That’s exactly the intent of the terrorists. It isolates and marginalizes people that we want to be part of our first line of defense.”
When Clinton did mention Sanders, she stuck to attacking his plan to shift the U.S. to a single-payer healthcare system, and kept her criticism brief.
“Sen. Sanders shares my goal of 100 percent coverage, but he has a different approach,” Clinton said. “He wants us to start over and have another contentious debate over health care. I fundamentally disagree.”
Deborah Savage, a Democratic primary voter from nearby Amherst, appreciated Clinton’s willingness to “hold the Republicans accountable,” but suggested she focus on highlighting Sanders’ flaws in the final week before New Hampshire’s Feb. 9 primary, since state-level polls show the socialist senator edging her by nearly 20 percentage points.
“I think she has to draw distinctions between herself and Sanders, especially for people who are on the fence,” Savage told the Washington Examiner. “I really think she needs to do that.”
Clinton supporter Nancy Spears appeared to agree, admitting that her candidate-of-choice faces an uphill battle in the final week before voters cast their ballots in the Granite State.
“She’s going to have a tough time,” Spears said. “But if people think long-term, I think she’ll become the nominee.”
