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Jim Messina: 'Not a Chance' That Bernie Supporters Flock to Trump
Monday, May 23, 2016 11:46 AM
By: Cathy Burke
There's "not a chance" supporters of Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders will flock to presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump in the general election, a former campaign manager of President Barack Obama said Monday.
In remarks to MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, Jim Messina scoffed at a prospect Trump has predicted if Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton gets the party's nomination.
"Oh, come on! There's not a chance someone who is going to vote for ... Bernie Sanders in a primary is then going to go to Donald Trump in a general election," Messina said. "I promise you, that's not going to happen."
Messina explained that he saw a "pretty parallel" situation between the primary fight between Clinton and Sanders and that of then-Sen. Barack Obama and Clinton in 2008.
And this time around, Clinton will benefit from Sanders's enthusiastic crowds of young supporters, Messina predicted.
"The question isn't what's going to happen now, it's going to be, what's going to happen the day after the primary," he said. "People forget that [in 2008] Hillary Clinton flew to New Hampshire, endorsed Obama, and started campaigning for him very quickly."
"And so the question is how quickly Bernie will do that. And I think primaries are always difficult and everyone always freaks out, but this is going to be OK," he added.
Sanders's supporters will get out and vote for Clinton in the general election, he asserted, because "I think his supporters will look at Donald Trump and say, there's no way we're going to allow this guy to become president of the United States."
"And in the end, people are going to look at this election, and be very clear about the historic difference between the two campaigns," Messina said, "and I think it's going to help Hillary with turnout in the general election."
