Stumping for her mother for the first time in 2016 on Tuesday, Chelsea Clinton directly criticized Bernie Sanders on health care policy, echoing Hillary Clinton’s recent attacks on the Vermont senator.
Asked about mounting enthusiasm for Sanders among young people, the daughter of the Democratic presidential frontrunner urged younger voters to focus on the “specifics” of Sanders’ policy proposals.
“Sen. Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare, dismantle the CHIP program, dismantle Medicare, and dismantle private insurance,” she said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. “I worry if we give Republicans Democratic permission to do that, we’ll go back to an era — before we had the Affordable Care Act — that would strip millions and millions and millions of people off their health insurance.”
Clinton also took a question about Sanders’ policies on education — the focus of Chelsea Clinton’s New Hampshire swing.
“There’s a $19 trillion gap in what Sen. Sanders has proposed and how he would pay for what he’s proposed, so that to me is particularly troubling” she said.
The attacks are similar to charges made by Hillary Clinton herself in recent days. But they show that Chelsea Clinton, who has largely avoided the campaign spotlight, is not shy about using her role as a campaign surrogate to hit Sanders on policy issues.
While Clinton leads Sanders among Democrats nationally by 15 points, according to a NBC News|SurveyMonkey online poll released Tuesday, the former first lady struggles against Sanders with young people. Among Democratic voters under 24 years old, 68 percent say they back Sanders, while just 26 percent support Clinton.
Earlier Tuesday, Chelsea Clinton also described the birth of her first child as “one of the real reasons” why Hillary Clinton decided to pursue another presidential run.









