Overnight Campaign: No More Mrs. Nice Clinton

by Jonathan Swan - 01/21/16 7:06 PM ET

Welcome to OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN, your daily rundown from The Hill on all the latest news in the White House, Senate and House races.

Hillary Clinton is feeling the Bern, and does not appear to be enjoying the experience.

Rattled by recent polls that show Bernie Sanders surging in Iowa and New Hampshire — including a remarkable CNN/ORC poll released this afternoon that has Sanders overtaking the Democratic front-runner in the Hawkeye State — Clinton’s surrogates have been going after the Vermont Independent in ways they assiduously avoided until reality forced their hands.

Two of Clinton’s top aides held a conference call for reporters just a few hours ago, with the sole purpose of lambasting Sanders’s foreign policy positions and experience.

As The Hill’s Julian Hattem reports, senior Clinton foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan said that Sanders’s proposal “to more aggressively normalize relations and to move to warm relations with Iran not only breaks with President Obama’s policy, it breaks with the sober and responsible diplomatic approach that’s been working for the United States.”

“The proposal would not succeed,” Sullivan added, “but it would cause very real consternation among our allies and partners.”

A reporter on the call asked Clinton’s team why they were doing this now, and could it possibly have anything to do with recent political momentum, which is all with Sanders. The Clinton aides skillfully ducked the question.

For more on the battle between Hillary and Bernie, come back to TheHill.com tomorrow morning to read the latest from Jonathan Easley and Amie Parnes. And keep our website refreshed over the weekend for tons more from the campaign trail.

RACE TO 1600 PENN

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE IOWA: The Hill’s Rebecca Savransky reports: A spokesman for Sen. Bernie Sanders slammed an adviser to Hillary Clinton for saying she had delivered a speech meant to “shake some sense” into Iowans. Sanders campaign spokesman Michael Briggs called the statement, which was attributed to a Clinton adviser by CNN, a “strange” way to gain support.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? The New York Times reports:Conservative intellectuals have become convinced that Mr. Trump, with his message of nationalist-infused populism, poses a dire threat to conservatism, and plan to issue a manifesto on Friday to try to stop him.

BETWEEN AN AK47 AND A BOTTLE OF CYANIDE: The Hill’s Jordain Carney reports: Former Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham slammed his party’s two leading contenders — the way only Lindsey Graham can. “It’s all like being shot or poisoned. I think you get the same result, whether it’s quick or it takes a long time,” Graham told reporters on Thursday, when asked if Donald Trump would be a better nominee than Ted Cruz.

MORNING IN VERMONT: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Bernie Sanders is out with a new ad documenting the rise of his “political revolution” as Simon and Garfunkel sing along in the background. It’s reminiscent of the classic Ronald Reagan ad known as “Morning in America,” which combined the same, hopeful tone and images of Americans living their lives with uplifting narration praising the country’s future.

SEARCHING FOR CRUZCARE: The Hill’s Bradford Richardson reports: Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Thursday said he does not have healthcare insurance because of ObamaCare. “I’ll tell you, you know who one of those millions of Americans is who’s lost their healthcare because of ObamaCare? That would be me,” Cruz said at a rally in Manchester, N.H. “I don’t have healthcare right now.”

ODDS AND ENDS:

NO JOKE: The Hill’s Bradford Richardson reports: The White House is firing back after Donald Trump’s surrogate Sarah Palin pinned blame for her son’s domestic violence charges on President Obama. “I don’t know if the president saw the remarks. I can tell you that the reaction of some people is to make light of the rhetoric that we see on the campaign trail, particularly from Gov. Palin, but the fact is domestic violence is not a joke,” press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday at the White House briefing.

WAITING MCCAIN: The Hill’s Rebecca Savransky reports: 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain is sitting out the GOP’s presidential primary.McCain has “made up his mind” to not endorse a candidate, WPRI TV reporter Ted Nesi tweeted Thursday. The Arizona Republican had previously endorsed his friend Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); but Graham dropped out of the presidential race in December.

POLL POSITION

HAWKEYE TRUMP: The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes reports: Donald Trump has captured a double-digit lead in the first voting state of Iowa a little over a week before the caucuses there, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Thursday. Trump is supported by 37 percent of likely GOP voters in the Hawkeye State, followed by Ted Cruz, at 26 percent, and Marco Rubio at 14 percent.

CHRISTIE FADES AS KASICH RISES: The Hill’s Bradford Richardson reports: The second poll in as many days finds Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie falling off in the New Hampshire primary. A WBUR poll released on Thursday shows the New Jersey governor with just 4 percent support in the state, down from 12 percent just one month ago. Meantime, Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s fortune keeps improving in the Granite State — the state he’s throwing all his effort — with a key new endorsement and upward momentum in polls (he’s now second behind Trump.)

THE DAILY TRUMP

UNFOLLOW: The Hill’s Ben Kamisar reports: Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump took to social media to attack Glenn Beck for throwing his support behind GOP primary rival Ted Cruz, calling the conservative activist a “wacko” and a “lost soul.” “Wacko [Glenn Beck] is a sad answer to the [Sarah Palin] endorsement that Cruz so desperately wanted,” Trump said in a tweet on Thursday. “Glenn is a failing, crying, lost soul!”

BIBLICAL BLAME GAME: The Hill’s Bradford Richardson reports: Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump late Wednesday pinned blame for his scriptural gaffe — saying “2 Corinthians” instead of “Second Corinthians” — on evangelical activist Tony Perkins.

THEY SAID IT: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: Former top aides with Ben Carson’s presidential campaign predicted that GOP front-runner Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination — but that the next president may be a candidate not currently running. Carson’s former campaign manager Barry Bennett and former communications director Doug Watts on Wednesday night weighed in on the upcoming race, saying that an outsider candidate is likely to win the general election.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Hey you guys I just had the craziest dream–there was a revival of Cats and Donald Trump was naming Vince McMahon treasury secretary”

– John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary

CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS

ADVANTAGE ROSS: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) on Thursday endorsed Deborah Ross in her bid to unseat Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). The endorsement is a huge advantage for the former state representative as she tries to shore up support from the party’s establishment. The DSCC typically doesn’t endorse in the primaries.

EVERGREEN RACE: State Sen. Pramila Jayapal will run for the seat vacated by Rep. Jim McDermott. She immigrated to America at 16 and founded an immigrant advocacy organization in the state.

MONEY WATCH

WE’VE HEARD THIS BEFORE: Politico reports: With less than two weeks until the Iowa caucuses, a new super PAC has formed with the intention of taking down Donald Trump. The group, which is called Our Principles PAC, is founded by Katie Packer, a veteran Republican strategist who served as deputy campaign manager on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.

WHAT WE ARE WATCHING FOR TODAY, TOMORROW AND THE WEEKEND:

(All times Eastern)

Hillary Clinton is joined by singer Demi Lovato in Iowa City, Iowa, at 8:30 p.m. today. She holds two town hall meetings in New Hampshire on Friday, and also attends the NARAL Pro-Choice NH Roe v. Wade Dinner, Concord that evening.

Marco Rubio will be on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” on NBC tonight at 11:35. He holds an afternoon town hall in Ames, Iowa on Friday and another in Indianola on Saturday evening.

Bernie Sanders holds a 7 p.m. Town Hall Meeting today in Wolfeboro, N.H. and at the same time on Friday in Hudson, N.H. He then goes to Iowa for three events on Saturday.

Rand Paul, Jim Gilmore, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum and Marco Rubio speak Saturday at the New Hampshire Republican Party’s 2016 #FITN (First in the Nation) Presidential Town Hall in Nashua.

Donald Trump holds two rallies in Iowa on Saturday, one at noon and one at 3:30 p.m., and one on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Chris Christie holds a town hall in Hooksett, N.H. on Saturday afternoon.

Martin O’Malley holds two campaign events in New Hampshire on Friday before traveling to Iowa for four events on Saturday and three on Sunday.

John Kasich will be a guest on Fox News’s “Hannity” tonight at 10:25 p.m., according to his campaign holds four rallies in New Hampshire on Friday, three on Saturday and one on Sunday

Jeb Bush holds three events in New Hampshire on Friday, four on Saturday.

Ben Carson will join former TV actor Kirk Cameron for Revive714 in Sioux City, Iowa on Saturday.

Ted Cruz is interviewed by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday’s “Good Morning America.”

TWEET OF THE DAY

47 pages of policy, that’s only half a loaf of bread. If you want the full loaf → https://t.co/maLYepJzF3 https://t.co/Gc3Un4FU1K

— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) January 21, 2016