AMES, Iowa — Hillary Clinton wrapped herself in gun control on Saturday as she sought to get to the left of Bernie Sanders and hold off the surging socialist who suddenly threatens her path to the Democratic presidential nomination.
Introducing an energetic Clinton at a campaign rally on the campus of Iowa State University were her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and national gun control advocates and beloved Democratic figures Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who five years ago survived an assassination attempt, and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly. Kelly said that he and his wife support Clinton because she will “stand up to the gun lobby” in Washington.
“For too long, the gun lobby has had a stranglehold on Washington, D.C.,” Kelly said. “We watched, and looked at the candidates’ records — all of the candidates. We’ve looked closely at their records, and we have come to realize that there is only one candidate that is going to build on the progress that has been made over these last eight years and not roll it back. And there’s only one candidate that’s willing to take on the tough fights.”
Pushing for more federal constraints on firearms isn’t new for Clinton, the former first lady, ex-New York senator and secretary of state under President Obama. But with the Iowa caucuses just two days away and Sanders gaining on Clinton in the Hawkeye State and leading her in New Hampshire, her focus on gun laws — the one issue where she outflanks the Vermont senator on the left — was a clear sign of the headwinds she faces.
The one-time presumptive Democratic nominee can’t escape the shadow of an email scandal relating to her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.
The State Department has periodically released batches of Clinton emails that she turned over as part of an investigation into her records instigated by House special select committee on the Benghazi terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2012. On Friday it was reported that some of those emails were being withheld because they contained top secret information. Clinton has long maintained that she did not receive or send classified information via her private email account.
Meanwhile, Sanders is hounding her from the left, exciting liberal Democrats by supporting a wish list of progressive policies like universal, government-run healthcare, free college tuition and a sharp minimum wage increase. Sanders trails Clinton by 3.4 percentage points in Iowa, according to the RealClearPolitics average. He’s beating her by more than 14 points in the Granite State.
Committed Clinton supporters aren’t perturbed by the email scandal, viewing it as a Republican plot. But they are worried about the heat from Sanders and the energy surrounding his upstart campaign.
“It’s a concern. She’s not as charismatic as Obama or Bill,” Shirley Huck, 65, from Ames, said, referring to former President Bill Clinton. Huck attended Clinton’s rally in Ames Saturday afternoon, and said she will caucus for Clinton on Monday.
Sanders, 74, has excited younger Democrats. Some of them are more prone to voice concerns about the controversy surrounding Clinton’s use of private email. Some view her as politically calculating and shifty, and wonder if she would change her positions she voices on the campaign trail if elected president. Abhijit Patwa, 22, an undecided voter and ISU student from Ames who attended the Clinton rally, told the Washington Examiner that he doesn’t “know what to make” of her.
“I like her stances on a lot of issues, but I also know that she has a record of changing her stances, so I don’t like that about her,” Patwa said. “I just read a new article today that says, the State Department also today claims that there were 22 top secret emails. Yes it’s definitely being made more than what it is, but I think it’s an issue.”
Clinton stumped before an attentive crowd of several hundred, in the first of three scheduled Saturday events across Iowa.
She vowed to push for gun control and build on Obama’s agenda on healthcare. In a bid to grab Obama’s mantle and fault Sanders, who supports moving to a healthcare system that is entirely government-run, Clinton played up her ties to the president’s landmark healthcare law.
“You know, before it was called Obamacare, it was called Hillarycare,” she said.
The remark referred to her bid in the early 1990s to develop a national healthcare on behalf of her husband’s administration. Of Obama’s stewardship of the economy, Clinton added: “I don’t think President Obama gets the credit he deserves that we didn’t fall into a great depression.”
