As part of its three 2016 campaign segments on Monday, ABC’s World News Tonight featured Clinton campaign correspondent Cecilia Vega fretting that the campaign’s “grueling pace” may have “seem[ed] to catch up” with Hillary Clinton as she coughed multiple times during an appearance and had to take a drink of water.
About halfway through her report, Vega explained that along Bernie Sanders consistently drawing bigger crowds than Clinton, “[t]he grueling pace” was “seeming to catch up with her today” as Clinton paused and coughed during a speech in Des Moines to take a drink of water and tell the audience that “[y]ou do talk a lot in this campaign.”
Earlier, Vega again promoted the prospect of an independent run by the socially liberal former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg but, like she did on ABC’s Good Morning America, neglected to highlight his strident positions on gun control and launching of an advocacy group to advance these views.
The Clinton correspondent and Saturday World News Tonight anchor explained that Clinton’s recent and firm embrace of President Obama has been returned with the President admitting to Politico that she worked more than him in the 2008 campaign.
The President stated, in part, that: “She had to do everything that I had to do, except like Ginger Rogers, backwards in heels. You know, she had to wke up earlier than I did because she had to get her hair done. She had to handle all the expectations.”
The transcript of the segment from ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir on January 25 can be found below.
ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir
January 25, 2016
6:40 pm Easter[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Heated Race]
DAVID MUIR: Meanwhile, on the Democratic side tonight, the final sprint to Iowa as well and a new Fox News poll out just this evening showing Hillary Clinton with a slight lead over Bernie Sanders. Sanders going all out, Hillary Clinton focusing on the ground game too there and now, what could be a Bloomberg bombshell, the former New York mayor revealing he might get in. ABC’s Cecilia Vega on the newest billionaire considering a run tonight.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Race for 2016; Heated Battle; Dems Turn Up Heat; Bloomberg Considers Run]
CECILIA VEGA: Sources closer to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg tell ABC News if Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump win their party’s nominations, Bloomberg may run as an independent and spend $1 billion on his campaign. But tonight, a confident Hillary Clinton says he will not have to worry.
HILLARY CLINTON: I have the highest respect for him and I'm going to work hard to get the nomination so he doesn't have to jump into the race.
VEGA: The battle here in Iowa, fiercer than ever.
INDEPENDENT SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS (Vt.): Are you guys ready to make a political revolution?
VEGA: More than 1,000 people on this college campus turning out to see Sanders today. That's more than all of the supporters who showed up for Clinton's three stops combined.
CLINTON: You’ve got to caucus for me Monday night.
VEGA: The grueling pace, seeming to catch up with her today.
CLINTON [as she’s drinking water]: You do talk a lot in this campaign. [COUGHT]
VEGA: But all that love that Clinton has shown to President Obama —
CLINTON: I am proud of the progress we've made under President Obama [SCREEN WIPE] We’ve got to stand with President Obama. [SCREEN WIPE] President Obama —
VEGA: Now coming right back to her. The President calling her wicked smart and admitting she worked harder than he did in the 2008 campaign.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: She had to do everything that I had to do, except like Ginger Rogers, backwards in heels. You know, she had to wke up earlier than I did because she had to get her hair done. She had to handle all the expectations.
MUIR (live): And Cecilia Vega joins us now live from Iowa tonight. Cecilia, President Obama didn't say he was endorsing her, but it sounded like he came pretty close and how is Clinton interpreting it tonight?
VEGA: It certainly does sound like he came pretty close for a president who said he would not endorse anyone before there’s an actual nominee. Clinton's own interpretation just now coming in. She says Obama believes that she is the best-prepared candidate for this job, David.
MUIR: Cecilia Vega covers the Clinton campaign for us. Cecilia, thank you.
