Thursday, Hillary Clinton swiped — and swiped again — her Metro Card as part of an authenticity blitz ahead of New York's April 19 primary. Our Josh Robin explains.
It probably wasn't the greatest time for Metro Card failure, but aboard the 4 train Hillary Clinton looked as calm as you would expect in a packed subway car.
How is Hillary Clinton? Eager to have New Yorkers see her as one of their own.
"I am a proud New Yorker, and I want to be a good president for New York and for the rest of our country," Clinton said.
Next stop: beating Bernie Sanders. The pair, for now, seemed to inch towards slight reconciliation after tangling over who is ready to be president.
The former secretary of state questioned whether Sanders is qualified, but she did not go as far as the Vermont senator did Wednesday:
"I don't believe that she is qualified," Sander said.
"Well, it's kind of a silly thing to say, but I'm going to trust the voters of New York," Clinton said.
Sanders was in Philadelphia on Thursday, speaking at a pair of labor union events.
He said his record shows he opposed policies that have been disastrous for the American middle class — policies that Clinton supported.
"People might wonder about your qualifications, when you supported virtually every trade agreement, trade agreements which have cost the American worker millions of decent paying jobs," Sanders said. "Not only did I vote against all of these disastrous trade agreements, I helped lead the opposition to all of them."
Sanders has been the winner in seven of the last eight Democratic nominating contests, though he still trails Clinton in the delegate count by close to 250.
Clinton has a new ad promoting her own experience, and a week after Sanders wowed thousands in St. Mary's Park in the South Bronx, Clinton took her first subway ride in years, chugging above River Avenue in the same borough.
Flanking her was Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz, Jr. Clinton says she's long had a personal connection with the Bronx.
"When I first started running for the Senate, I came to the Bronx," Clinton said. "And I came back many, many times, and worked to support the great things that are going on in the Bronx. I am so proud of the progress that's been made."
Clinton also had a campaign event scheduled in Colorado later Thursday.
Handlers, guards, and reporters pressed cheek-to-cheek with regular straphangers on the subway ride, who didn't seem annoyed to have Clinton interrupt what's usually their cherished private time.
"I was just reading a book and I was shocked," one straphanger said.
Two stops later, on 170th Street, Clinton disembarked, in basically the same condition, for more glad-handling with stunned Bronx residents.
Needless to, say people on East 170th Street were a little surprised when the Democratic frontrunner walked by and then headed into Munch Time Diner.
"They tell me Hillary Clinton is around and I say 'That's the lady that we need here!'" one woman said.
"I would tell her, if God willing she were president, work with us, the poor, because we need a lot of changes in this country," one man said in Spanish.
After taping an interview, Clinton emerged, to a cheering crush, and was gone.
East 170th Street returned, it's people left with but hope and memory.