Is Hillary Clinton panicking? We've seen the polls showing the Iowa race closing to within the margin of error, and Hillary losing in New Hampshire. But could Clinton's internal polling be even more calamitous?
The question arises because Hillary is suddenly trying to rival Bernie Sanders in bashing the rich. Nine months after announcing her candidacy, Clinton suddenly called into Chris Hayes' MSNBC show tonight to announce her proposal for "a new fair share surcharge." C'mon Hillary. You only talked about "multimillionaires." Really wanna be like Bernie? Gotta kvetch about "billionaires"—with a bona fide Brooklyn accent.
Pathetic to hear Hillary trying to mimic the far left of the Dem party and hug Bernie as hard as she can. Cue the Jaws theme.
Note: Hillary's pre-recorded chat with Chris aired while the Fusion "Black and Brown" presidential forum was taking place in Iowa.
BERNIE SANDERS: You have a Clinton campaign that is now in trouble and now understands that they can lose.
CHRIS HAYES: Hillary Clinton is expanding her efforts to challenge Bernie Sanders on his signature issue. That would be economic inequality. Rolling in a brand new plan to impose what she's calling a "fair share surcharge." A 4% tax on people making over $5 million a year. I got a chance to speak earlier with Secretary Clinton, joining me by phone from Iowa. We discussed everything from the electability question to what Bernie Sanders said today about her campaign. But I started by asking about her proposed tax hikes for the highest earners.
HILLARY CLINTON: You know Chris, the super-rich and big corporations are using every trick in the book to game the system to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes. And that's just not right. So today I am proposing adding what I'm calling a new "fair share surcharge" on multimillionaires and closing loopholes to make it harder to game the system. I'm also pushing for the Buffett rule, which sets a minimum rate for those at the top and other reforms like closing the carried interest loophole that allows some hedge fund managers to pay a lower rate than teachers or nurses. I'm proposing every idea I can, finally to make those at the top actually pay their fair share.
