27 TIMES: BERNIE SANDERS OR CAMPAIGN SAID THEY WOULD, COULD, OR MUST WIN NEW YORK PRIMARY
- April 17: Bernie Sanders: “And with your help on Tuesday, we’re gonna win right here in New York state.” [Sanders remarks, Brooklyn, 4/17/16]
- April 13: Bernie Sanders: “I believe we’re going to win here in New York City, and we’re going to win here in New York State.” “SANDERS: I believe we’re going to win here in New York City, and we’re going to win here in New York State.” [Sanders Remarks At TWU Endorsement Press Conference, 4/13/16]
- April 13: Tad Devine: “I think we’re gonna win.” [MSNBC, 4/13/16]
- April 13: Bernie Sanders: “I believe we’re gonna win here in New York next Tuesday.” [Sanders remarks, Washington Square Park, 4/13/16]
- April 13: Sanders superdelegate: Winning New York is crucial for Sanders. “Sanders supporter Larry Murakami, a first-time superdelegate who is vice chairman of the Alaska Democratic Party, said he still believes Sanders can switch some superdelegates if he overtakes Clinton in pledged delegates before the convention but that other scenarios are harder to imagine. ‘If he can win the delegate count he can win,’ Murakami said. To that end, Murakami said New York’s contest on Tuesday is crucial. ‘It’d be best if he wins both New York and California.’” [Bloomberg, 4/13/16]
- April 12: Bernie Sanders: “We will win a major victory here in New York next Tuesday.” [Sanders remarks, Syracuse, 4/12/16]
- April 12: Bernie Sanders: “If there is a large voter turnout a week from today here in New York state, we are gonna win here as well.” [Sanders remarks, Rochester, 4/12/16]
- April 10: Bernie Sanders: “Our plan right now is to win this thing. And again, I think we are looking pretty good in New York.” “JOHN DICKERSON: So what Kennedy did was he contested the actual nomination in order to get his message across. Is that something you’ve contemplated? SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Well, our plan right now is to win this thing. And again, I think we are looking pretty good in New York, in Pennsylvania, in California, in Oregon.” [Face the Nation, CBS, 4/10/16]
- April 5: Jeff Weaver: “I think we can win it.” “Then, we’re going to go to New York. New York is a tough fight, there’s no doubt about it. The Secretary, you know, has a lot of political support in New York, but I think we can win it.” [CNN Tonight, CNN, 4/5/16]
- April 5: Bernie Sanders: “I think we have we have a chance, an excellent chance, to win in New York.” [Andrea Mitchell Reports, MSNBC, 4/5/16]
- April 5: Bernie Sanders: “I think we can, and we are going to work very, very hard to make that happen.” “ANDREA MITCHELL: Can you win New York? SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: I think we can, and we are going to work very, very hard to make that happen.” [Andrea Mitchell Reports, MSNBC, 4/5/16]
- April 4: Bernie Sanders: “We win in New York State, we’re on our way to the White House.” SANDERS: “If there’s a large voter turnout, we will win here. If we win here, we’re gonna have a bounce going into New York state, where I think we can win. If we win in New York State, between you and me, I don’t want to get Hillary Clinton more nervous than she already is, she’s already under a lot of pressure. So don’t tell her this, but I think we win here, we win in New York state, we’re on our way to the White House.” [Sanders rally in Janesville, WI, 4/4/15]
- April 4: Tad Devine: “New York is very important.” “WOLF BLITZER: The week after New York, at the end of April, you have Pennsylvania, and a few other states, Maryland, for example, the Northeast, and he just said, Joel Benenson, that that’s the goal line. They think they can wrap it up by then. TAD DEVINE: Okay, well, they said in February that it would be over by March and now it’s April. Okay, so, I know, I mean listen, we’re going to work hard to compete. New York is very important. Tomorrow, in Wisconsin, it’s a big, pivotal day in this process. We think we can compete with her in Pennsylvania.” [Wolf, CNN, 4/4/16]
- April 1: Bernie Sanders: “We are going to win New York.” “A little more than two weeks ahead of the primary in his home state of New York, Bernie Sanders said Friday that his campaign would win the state, which is also the adopted home of Hillary Clinton. ‘We are going to win New York,’ the Vermont senator told ‘CBS This Morning’ in a segment teasing his longer sit-down interview with the hosts and his wife, Jane Sanders. Sanders noted the 18,000 people who attended his rally in the South Bronx on Thursday evening, calling it a ‘good start.’ ‘We’re going to do rallies all over the state, and I think we have a good shot at this,’ he said.” [Politico, 4/1/16]
- March 31: Bernie Sanders, asked if he’ll win NY: “Yes, we will.” “JOE TOOHEY: Will you win in New York? BERNIE SANDERS: Yes, we will.” [News at 10, Fox 5 (New York), 3/31/16]
- March 31: Bernie Sanders said he would have a lead in New York by Election Day. “BLANCA ROSA VILCHEZ: We began our interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders with the polls that show him losing in NY and winning in WI. BERNIE SANDERS: We are closing the gap and there were polls that had us 30pts down, we’re 12 pts down now and I think by Election Day we’ll be ahead.” [Noticiero Univision (Internal Translation), Univision, 3/31/16]
- March 25: Tad Devine: “We’re going to have to beat her in big battlegrounds […] even here in New York.” “TAD DEVINE: We’re going to have to have some big wins along the way. But we think we can do it, it’s going to take all the way to the end of the process. We decided after Nevada that going into Super Tuesday we had a choice, we could try to win as many delegates in as many states and probably lose almost every state, maybe not Vermont, or we could try to beat her in statewide races, we chose five that day-we won four- we chose three the next weekend-we won all three- we targeted Michigan- we won Michigan and we’re going to have to beat her in big battlegrounds tomorrow and coming up in places like Wisconsin and even here in New York.” [MSNBC Live, MSNBC, 3/25/16]
- March 17: Bernie Sanders said he had a “fighting chance” to win New York as part of “a path toward victory.” “STEVE IRVIN: Sanders admits he got hammered in the South and hammered again last Tuesday in the Midwest. but he believes he can make up ground in the western states, where he finds some of the most liberal voters in the country. BERNIE SANDERS (CLIP): We think we have a good chance to win in California, Oregon, state of Washington. We thing we have a fighting chance to win in New York State, Montana, in Utah and a number of other states. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but there is a path toward victory.” [KNXV/ABC 15, 3/17/16]
- March 16: Sanders strategist Tad Devine said he believed New York would play a “pivotal role in the nominating process.” “TAD DEVINE: If a frontrunner wants to keep those delegates in place I believe you need to continue to win and if you don’t win you are then going to be under pressure from your own people and your own delegates. I think the pressure that is going to build in the weeks and month ahead particularly if Bernie Sanders can get a winning streak that I believe he can get we look at the states that are coming onto the near horizon I see opportunities for victory in practically everyone of them: Here in Arizona, in Idaho, in Utah next week, in states like Alaska, Hawaii, in Washington state, in a big showdown state like Wisconsin, in early April, in Wyoming, even in New York where Bernie grew up and the state where Hillary represented as a Senator and a classic showdown state which has played a pivotal role in the nominating process in the past and I believe can do so again.” [Bernie Sanders Press Call, Soundcloud, 3/16/16]
- March 16: Tad Devine: “We just have to win some major showdowns, like in New York.” “‘We’re now entering a period where we think we’ll win most if not all of the contests before the April 19 primary in New York,’ said Tad Devine, a senior adviser to Mr. Sanders. ‘Regardless of how much momentum we have after Tuesday, the calendar is shifting in our favor. Now we just have to win some major showdowns, like in New York and New Jersey, to raise questions about whether she can really win the presidency.’” [New York Times, 3/16/16; Bernie Sanders Press Call, Soundcloud, 3/16/16]
- March 16: Weaver said New York was one of six states where “we’re going to have to do very well.” “If you look at the states to come, what our calculations show, is that we can, in fact, pass the Secretary in pledged delegates but there are going to be some important showdowns. Over the next few weeks here, we have six states where we’re going to have to do very well, including Arizona where I’m calling you from. And then after that, we’re going to have Wisconsin. Obviously a big showdown in Wisconsin. And then, ultimately, a big showdown in New York in April.” [Weaver remarks, Sanders Campaign Press Call, 3/16/16; 3:50]
- March 9: Nina Turner predicted a win in New York. “CRAIG MELVIN: What can Bernie Sanders do beyond delaying Clinton’s pivotal — her pivot, rather, to the general election? NINA TURNER: Well, it’s good to be with you, Craig. He’s going to do what he’s been doing, which is to continue to rally across this country. You know, giving the voters the voice. We still have many more states to go, Craig. And as you know, places like New York and California, we believe, are going to overwhelmingly support Senator Sanders. So, we’re going to keep on pushing. CRAIG MELVIN: New York? NINA TURNER: Yes. CRAIG MELVIN: You guys think — You’re predicting a win in New York? NINA TURNER: I’m hoping so. New York, California, absolutely.” [MSNBC Live, MSNBC, 3/9/16]
- March 8: Tad Devine pointed to New York as a “big showdown” where Sanders has “got to beat her.” “Sanders’ senior strategist Tad Devine did not dispute Mook’s claims that they need big wins to survive. ‘We know we’ve got to beat her in some big showdowns,’ he said, pointing to New York, where Clinton served as senator for eight years, as a prime target. ‘It’s his home state, too,’ Devine told POLITICO on Tuesday. ‘When we go to a place and spend ten days campaigning there, it’s going to be big.’” [Politico, 3/9/16]
- March 5: Tad Devine: “I think the guy from Brooklyn can beat her there and we’re gonna try really hard to do that.” “JOHN HEILEMANN: Tad, let me just push you a little bit on that. It is the case, as you know, in your party, you’re a famed delegate counter, your party with proportional representation, no winner-take-all states, the Clinton campaign came out today and said, look, we have a bigger lead right now than Barack Obama ever had over Hillary Clinton and Hillary Clinton couldn’t come back from that lead in 2008. So, just explain how it could be. What kind of victories you would need to score because you’d have to score not just victories but some pretty big victories to make up that gap. TAD DEVINE: Well, we are going to have to win and we are going to have to win in big states. But listen, as I said before, if we had the ’08 process and calendar, which was so heavily frontloaded, I think we’d be in big trouble. But we don’t. This race is gonna be a lot more like ’80 and ’84, where Kennedy-Carter and the Hart challenged the Mondale. It’s going to be a long race, we’re gonna play it out, we’re going to need to beat her in big states and I think we can. If you look at the calendar as we get through the next couple of weeks. We start to move to states like Washington state, Wisconsin, we go, I think we’ll have a big showdown in New York and I know that’s her home state and she’s represented it in the senate, but we do not concede New York to Hillary Clinton. I think the guy from Brooklyn can beat her there and we’re gonna try really hard to do that.” [MSNBC, 3/5/16]
- March 4: Sanders strategist Tad Devine said Sanders was “gonna have to win” big states “even, you know, a state like New York.” “BETSY FISCHER MARTIN: And you’re not gonna have to just win a couple of these upcoming states. You’re gonna have to really, really beat her. TAD DEVINE: Well, you know, we are gonna have to win– BETSY FISCHER MARTIN: Decisively, right? TAD DEVINE: –a number of these states, particularly some of these big states by enough of a margin to get a delegate advantage. I mean, I concede that. But you know, there’s a lot of states left and there’s a lot of big states left. I mean, California is the most conspicuous example, but even, you know, a state like New York. And I think there’s a lot of states out there — Wisconsin, Washington state — where we have the potential of doing what we did yesterday in Minnesota and Colorado, which is to win a pretty decisive victory.” [Bloomberg, Masters in Politics podcast, 3/4/16]
- March 4: Tad Devine: “We’re gonna have to beat her in some decisive battleground states. Big states, like probably New York.” “We’re gonna have to beat her in a number of upcoming states, and we’re gonna have to beat her in some decisive battleground states. Big states, like probably New York, her own home state, and a state like California at the end of the process.” [Bloomberg, Masters in Politics podcast, 3/4/16]
- March 2: Tad Devine: “We think in places like California and New York even where we intend to compete fully and other big states that we can make up advantage.” “She has a substantial advantage. We believe we can make that up between now and June and we believe—he have, you know—we have run some scenarios as late as this morning based on what we think we can do in upcoming states that will get us to a pledged delegate advantage by the time we finish the voting in June. And it’s not going to come all in one place, we don’t have that kind of system the Democratic Party but we think in places like California and New York even where we intend to compete fully and other big states that we can make up advantage.” [Devine remarks, Sanders Campaign Breakfast, 3/2/16; 27:45:00]