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Getty Clinton on the defensive over Sanders' youth vote

The kids are all right, Hillary Clinton insisted Wednesday, as she and her campaign faced a fresh line of questioning after another anemic showing among younger voters and comments that could have the effect of marginalizing a group that has overwhelmingly backed Bernie Sanders.

Some of the backlash came from comments Clinton made in an interview with POLITICO published on Wednesday, in which the former secretary of state said she felt Sanders’ youth supporters are buying the falsehoods his campaign is spreading about her.

“There is a persistent, organized effort to misrepresent my record, and I don’t appreciate that, and I feel sorry for a lot of the young people who are fed this list of misrepresentations,” Clinton said. “I know that Sen. Sanders spends a lot of time attacking my husband, attacking President Obama. I rarely hear him say anything negative about George W. Bush, who I think wrecked our economy.”

David Axelrod, who served as a top adviser to President Barack Obama, warned Clinton on CNN against portraying Sanders’ young supporters as “dupes” instead of taking a hard look at why they’re attracted to the Vermont senator.

Axelrod said that it is understandable Clinton feels frustrated because the Sanders campaign keeps hitting her, but he cautioned Clinton against being dismissive of Sanders’ appeal to young voters.

“One thing I would stay away from, I would stay away from the insinuation that these young people who are inspired by Bernie Sanders are dupes and they are being fed misinformation and that is why they are enthusiastic about Bernie Sanders,” Axelrod said.

Sanders throughout the Democratic primary has been dominating with young voters, who have been drawn to his message of economic populism. The trend continued on Tuesday night in Wisconsin, which Sanders won by 13 percentage points. Exit polls suggested the youth vote was a major factor, with those 44 and younger voting for Sanders by a significant double-digit margin.

And a new McClatchy-Marist poll released Wednesday suggested it could be difficult for Clinton to woo the youthful Sanders supporters over to her side. According to the survey, one-in-four Sanders supporters said they would never back Clinton in the general election if she is the Democratic nominee, compared to just 14 percent of Clinton supporters who said the same of Sanders.

Clinton herself sounded a note of frustration on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” the first of two cable network interviews she sat for on Wednesday.

“Look, I think it's exciting to be in effect protesting,” she said of Sanders’ supporters, adding, “I remember I did that a long time ago when I was in my 20's, and I totally get the attraction of this.”

Remarking upon numbers she has seen about who is backing Sanders, “a lot of the young people like both of us, they really like me, they admire what I've done, what I stand for and they really, really like him,” she said.

“So I'm not as worried as the numbers might show about how he has attracted so many young people because I think that it is important to bring them into the process, and I give him a lot of credit for doing that,” Clinton continued. “My argument basically is, look, we are electing a president and a commander-in-chief. We are electing the Democratic Party standard bearer to go up against whoever the Republicans wind up nominating and we really need to be sure that we elect someone who can walk into that Oval Office on January 20, 2017, and start making decisions about people's lives and livelihoods. And when folks look at that, I feel very confident both in the nominating process and in the general election.”

Axelrod to Clinton: Don't call Sanders supporters 'dupes' David Axelrod has a bit of advice for Hillary Clinton: Don't call Bernie Sanders supporters 'dupes,' as if they have been conned into believing his message.

In discussing his boss’ remarks later on MSNBC, chief strategist Joel Benenson flatly rejected the notion that Clinton’s comments to POLITICO or MSNBC were in any way dismissive or diminishing of concerns about the youth vote, particularly among young women.

“No, not at all. I don’t even know why you would suggest that. What she said was, you know, these young voters have been enthusiastic, he has made a very strong argument on the diagnosis of what’s wrong, and people are out rallying around that. But the enthusiasm in the race takes place at the ballot box,” Benenson said. “She’s made a stronger case about which one of these candidates will actually get things done that will make a difference in people’s lives. That’s why she’s got a 2.4-million vote lead over Sen. Sanders in the popular vote, and that’s what’s going on in the election.”

“There’s no question he is building up energy at these rallies," Benenson continued. "We’re going to have to turn this energy towards defeating the Republicans in November, and hopefully he’ll be helping do that, because I believe Hillary Clinton is going to be the nominee.”

