Want Sanders to Win

Clinton's New Pitch to Iowa Voters: Republicans Want Sanders to Win

They're being helped, she says, by Karl Rove, the "errand boy for the billionaires."

By Patrick Caldwell

Hillary Clinton's campaign has recently turned to a new tactic to convince Iowa Democrats that they should caucus for her over Sen. Bernie Sanders: Republicans, the campaign says, want Sanders to win.

Clinton and her surrogates have taken to pointing out that Republican super-PACs and donors have started to air ads that appear intended to boost Sanders' campaign. "The best evidence that I have the best plan is that the Republicans and their billionaire allies are running ads against me," Clinton told a crowd at a middle school in Marshalltown, Iowa, on Tuesday night. Clinton was referring to the news that Joe Ricketts, a major Republican donor, is funding a super-PAC to air ads in Iowa that could serve to bolster Sanders' caucus bid by describing him as "too liberal."

"Now you've got to stop and think, why are they spending all this money trying to convince Democrats not to support me?" Clinton said.

She also lashed out at former George W. Bush guru Karl Rove, who since his former patron left the White House has founded a top conservative super-PAC, which is running ads portraying Clinton as beholden to Wall Street. "Along came Karl Rove, the errand boy for the billionaires," she said. "He's now running an ad against me."