Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton's top political aide, wrote in a memo released Wednesday that, "we anticipate building on this lead even further making it increasingly difficult and eventually mathematically impossible for Sen. Sanders to catch up." | AP Photo Clinton campaign memo: There's no hope for Bernie

BURLINGTON, VT — Hours after Bernie Sanders’ two top aides used a news conference to pledge to keep fighting for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager shot back with a memo painting a grim picture for the Vermont senator.

“With a pledged delegate lead of more than 180 and momentum on our side, we anticipate building on this lead even further making it increasingly difficult and eventually mathematically impossible for Sen. Sanders to catch up,” wrote Robby Mook, Clinton's top political aide.


Making the case that Sanders would need to start capturing big delegate hauls in large states in order to catch up to the former secretary of state, Mook ran through Tuesday’s results to note Clinton’s wide margins of victory in big states and the resulting delegate hauls for her — including 44 net delegates in Georgia and 80 in Texas.

“We have no doubt that as long as Sen. Sanders remains in the primary, he will continue to win elections along the way, but it will make little difference to Hillary’s pledged delegate lead,” Mook wrote. "This upcoming Saturday will reinforce the point: although we continue to fight for every vote, Sen. Sanders has clear advantages and is investing heavily in two upcoming caucuses (Nebraska and Kansas). But even if Sen. Sanders does win in these states, we anticipate being able to win Louisiana by a larger margin and emerge from the day with more delegates."

“In other words, over the upcoming weeks, we intend to steadily add to Hillary Clinton’s already sizable lead in delegates, and as we do, it will become harder and harder mathematically for Sen. Sanders to ever catch up,” Mook added in the memo, which echoed his post-Iowa missive to top donors, when he told them Sanders was no longer a viable candidate.

Sanders won the caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado on Tuesday, adding to primary wins in Oklahoma and his own Vermont. But Clinton won a close race in Massachusetts in addition to sweeping victories in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

In the four-page note, which was distributed to reporters on Wednesday morning, the operative also took aim at the Sanders’ camp’s focus on Michigan’s March 8 primary as a major point of opportunity for the underdog.

Sanders’ team believes the organized labor-heavy state will swing his way after Sanders spends more time there, and makes the case that Clinton-supported trade deals devastated local economies.

“Sen. Sanders is competing very aggressively in Michigan, where he has already spent $3 million on TV. We are also competing to win in Michigan and feel good about where that race stands, but even if Sen. Sanders were able to eke out a victory there, we would still net more delegates in Mississippi, which holds its election on the same night,” Mook said of the state where Clinton hold a wide lead in the polls. “The end result is that Sen. Sanders will spend millions of dollars in Michigan but not make any net gain in pledged delegates because he isn’t competing in states like Mississippi."

The memo also pointed out Clinton’s strength with a diverse set of voters, unlike Sanders’ core strength among young white liberals, noting in particular that she won African-American voters by a 93-5 margin in Alabama, and Latino voters in Texas by 42 points — shortly after Sanders’ camp cheered his own winning margins among Latino-heavy counties in Colorado.