In an appearance on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) made an appearance to discuss his home state’s upcoming primary.
During that appearance, host Andrea Mitchell asked Reid if he thought given the outcome of the New Hampshire primary, which was an overwhelming electoral victory for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), if Sanders should have gotten the bulk of the delegates instead of a 15-15 split with his opponent Hillary Clinton.
According to Reid, high white populations of Iowa and New Hampshire make the superdelegate system appropriate despite acknowledging it isn’t a good system.
“The process was totally unfair before — eight years ago,” Reid said. “Eight years ago, I looked at this and I thought, how in the world could we have the future of this country be dependent on Iowa, which is 93 percent white, and we have New Hampshire which is 97 percent white, no diversity. No diversity in Iowa. And have the final decision made as to who is going to be the president of the United States based on those two states, it was wrong. We now have Nevada and South Carolina before we get into the rest of the country as to who’s chosen where. This is better, so much better than it was before. So, think what it would be if this campaign didn’t go to Nevada and South Carolina. It was just determined by what happened in Iowa, she won, and you just indicated that even though he won the election by a big margin in New Hampshire, the delegates came out even. It was not a good system. It’s getting better.”
(h/t RCP Video)
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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