Candidates sling mud before snowy N.H. vote
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Wit h a snowstor m bea ri ng down, presidential candidates scurried across New Hampshire on Monday, leveling inflammatory attacks against one another while pleading with voters for their support in today’s primary election.
Donald Trump held a sizable lead in the Republican race and appeared poised to win his first contest of the 2016 campaign af- ter finishing second in Iowa a week ago. But behind Trump, five other candidates waged a fierce battle for coveted top-tier finishes and bragging rights when the campaign heads next to South Carolina.
In the Democratic race, Sen. Bernie Sanders maintained his double-digit lead over former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
After winning only narrowly in Iowa, Clinton, the once-presumptive nominee, was bracing
for defeat here and hoping to keep the damage from spilling over into upcoming states where she long has been dominant.
Sanders is capitalizing in part on the fact that he represents a neighboring state, Vermont, though his campaign has been fueled more by widespread discontent with the political system among many liberals and the enthusiasm of young voters for the promise of a “political revolution.”
For Republicans, the campaign trail Monday was like a game of political billiards, with attacks flying fast and in all directions, reflecting the jumbled field and the uncertain fates that await so many of the candidates.
Jeb Bush fired at Trump, Ted Cruz, Joh n Kasich a nd Marco Rubio. Chris Christie savaged Rubio, and Rubio smacked back. And Trump slammed Bush and Cruz.
Kicking off the day at a town hall meeting in Salem, Trump accused Cruz, the senator from Texas and winner of the Iowa caucuses, of being “politically correct” and “very queasy” on the issue of interrogation of terrorism suspects. Then he cut into Bush, calling him a “stiff,” accusing him of acting like a “spoiled child,” and mocking him for bringing out his mother to campaign for him.
Bush offered a Trump-style retort on the mogul’s preferred mode of communication, tweeting at him, “you aren’t just a loser, you are a liar and a whiner.”
The Democratic side was hardly harmonious as Clinton sharpened her knife to bloody Sanders. He has attacked Clinton repeatedly for her long ties to Wall Street and her ac- ceptance of campaign contributions and personal speaking fees from major financial firms.
On Monday, Clinton tried to turn the tables, portraying Sanders as hypocritical because he had accepted “about $200,000” from Wall Street firms through the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver called that suggestion “false” and “beyond preposterous.”
But the race seemed to be Sanders’ to lose.
At his stops on Monday, he did not directly criticize his opponent, instead restating his broad assault on the corrupting influence of money in politics and the power and wealth of Wall Street and corporate America.
“We are running a very radical campaign because we are telling the American people the truth,” Sanders said in Manchester.