A single-digit victory for Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhat Senate Republicans have said about election-year Supreme Court vacancies Bipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death Trump carries on with rally, unaware of Ginsburg's death MORE in the New York primary should be seen as an “embarrassment,” Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 Biden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security MORE’s campaign manger said Tuesday ahead of the results.

"They elected her senator here twice. If she comes out of here with a single-digit win, my god it's an embarrassment," Jeff Weaver said.

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"Bernie Sanders won Vermont with 86 percent of the vote,” he added, referring to the senator’s home state.

Weaver’s attempt to manage expectations drew swift pushback from Christine Quinn, a former New York City Council speaker who has endorsed Clinton. She accused the Sanders campaign of moving the goalposts.

"You can't flip around on this. You, the campaign and you, personally have said 25 or 26 times, you need to win. You didn't say you need to lose in single digits; you didn't say you need to lose by 5," she said.

That’s a popular barb from the Clinton side as of late. Correct the Record, a political group that is supporting the Clinton campaign, sent out a blast to reporters Monday night stating the "Sanders campaign has indicated at least 27 times they would, could or must win tomorrow" in New York.

Weaver denied that the campaign had ever framed the race through that lens and argued that splitting the delegates in New York with Clinton would be a big win.

Clinton is expected to win in New York, which will likely net her more delegates than Sanders. Even if he comes close to splitting the delegates with her, he is running out of opportunities to cut into her lead in pledged delegates, which now stands at over 200.

The rhetoric from both candidates has sharpened ahead of the New York primary. Sanders has questioned Clinton’s ties to big banks and suggested she isn’t qualified to be president. Clinton has assailed Sanders’s gun record, invoking the families of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Weaver pushed back at host Chris Matthews's assertions that the Sanders campaign was trying to "knock [Clinton's] head off.”

Quinn said the campaign's statements suggest otherwise.

"The Sanders campaign can't throw the kind of statements out there, and your statements have gotten more ratcheted up as the secretary gets more and more delegates," Quinn said.