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Tom McCarthy in Concord, New Hampshire (now), and Alan Yuhas (earlier)

New Hampshire voters question Clinton as Christie packs town halls – as it happened

The weird week in politics: your two-minute wrap.

We’ll be picking up our campaign coverage in tonight’s live blog for the Republican presidential debate, which starts at 8pm ET on ABC.

Behind the scenes of the Republican debate … with reporters. Ben Jacobs does a walking tour of the arena at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

NB: Ben’s peers filmed the video on Periscope, so mobile users need the app. On a computer should work fine, though.

But are you?

Chris Christie might be onto something in New Hampshire, reckons Adam Gabbatt in Bedford, New Hampshire. If the crowd at one of his rallies on Saturday morning is anything to go by, he appears to have carved out a niche for himself as a sort of toned-down Donald Trump.

“I like Donald Trump but I don’t like the harshness that he has. Plus the fact that he belittles a lot of people,” said voter Paul Williams. To that end, he had decided to support Christie.

Williams, 62, said he liked Christie’s aggressive stance on national security and immigration. He also liked the New Jersey governor’s presence.

“He’s got a great personality,” Williams said. “I like his directness. He looks you in the eye and talks directly to you.”

At a packed event in Bedford on Saturday morning Christie did just that. He was introduced by Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker, who before ceding the floor gave a long speech that sounded as if he himself was preparing a presidential run.

While Baker talked up his own achievements, occasionally praising the New Jersey governor as well, Christie stared straight ahead, like a boxer before a fight.

When Baker finally offered Christie the mic he snatched it triumphantly.

“All right!” he shouted. There were cheers. “The longest week in American politics is only half over,” he said, referring to the week between the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary. The week was “like dog years”, he said.

Christie got in a quick dig at Hillary Clinton. “She is hungry to be in public housing again and we’re going to try and kick her out,” he said, before explaining why he was in the race.

“I’m running for the 45-year-old construction worker” who has seen his wage decrease, Christie said, mentioning also “a soldier” who was suffering due to a lack of leadership in the military. (So he’s running for two voters, by my count.)

A woman named Phyllis explained Christie’s appeal by contrasting him with Trump.

“I like what Donald Trump has to say,” she said. “But we’d probably be at war in six months.”

Christie finished his speech by talking about dealing with hurricane Sandy and its impact on New Jersey. He was the one who ultimately had to deal with it, he said. When a situation arises, he said, there is a point during discussions with aides “where the table goes quiet”. “And they look at you and say: ‘What do we do governor?’

“There’s no way a roll call in the Senate prepares you for that,” he added, in a transparent jab at Marco Rubio.

Before the governor took the stage, a supporter attempted to whip up the crowd with the most absurdly extended metaphor I’ve heard in a long time. Christie “doesn’t see the glass as half full or half empty,” the supporter said. “He sees the volume of the liquid and sees it as something that can drench someone’s thirst.”

Clinton: 'violence against transgender women is a terrible problem'

Clinton takes a last question, about anti-LGBT discrimination including economic discrimination.

“Violence against transgender women is a terrible problem in so many places in America,” she says.

She says addressing such discrimination and related problems would be a top priority of her presidency.

That’s it for Clinton in Henniker. She has one more scheduled stop in New Hampshire today, a get-out-the-vote rally in Portsmouth.

As your blogger typed those words, as the crowd began to file out, a young man was overheard to say, “That wasn’t as much fun as Bernie.”

Next question: What will you do for Muslims?

“There’s a struggle going on inside Islam,” Clinton says. It’s not just her assessment, it’s the assessment of Jordanian King Abdullah and other Muslim leaders.

What would be considered as authoritative? Whose voices would be listened too? I can assure you, as president, I would do everything I could to support Muslim leaders, academics.

But this is a very, very consequential period for Islam. You’ve got what is in effect a big split between Saudi Arabia and Iran. You’ve got terrorist groups laying claim to the caliphate and calling other Muslims infidels. You’ve got strife in other parts of the world against Muslim minorities.

Clinton says the president’s job is “not to take a public leading role in it” but to work behind the scenes to support Muslim leaders.

Clinton says she gives George W Bush credit for calling for religious tolerance, and that credit extends to Barack Obama.

That’s why Donald Trump and the other Republicans are so dangerous. That’s not just in the United States.. that’s broadcast around the world.

In fact we should be pulling the country together.

Clinton: women held to higher standard

Clinton says there’s still a double standard applied to women who run for public office, and “that’s still true for women in a lot of other high positions.”

As if it’s not true for women who are not in “high positions”?

Clinton says she was talking with a friend about Bernie Sanders. The friend’s guy friend said he liked Sanders because “his hair was a mess and he yelled a lot.”

“And I thought,” Clinton said, “boy, that would really work for any women we know!”

The crowd titters.

The fact is, I do have a somewhat narrower path that I try to walk. Sometimes it comes across as a little more restrained, a little more careful, and I’m sure that’s true.

“I’m trying to be the first woman president of the United States of America. And there has never been one before.

“And there’s just a lot of processing that people are doing in their heads. And I can see it in their eyes. I know that.”

She says she had an encounter with a waitress in Manchester this morning who told her, “you look so much better in person.”

Clinton laughs.

I take it as a compliment but you know, most people will never see me in person. So you’ve just got to live with that.

On immigration, Clinton repeats that she would go beyond the executive actions Barack Obama has taken, to the limits of the law:

“I would go as far as I could go… I want to go as far as I can, under the law, obviously,” she says.

Shut down family detention centers, private prisons… I want to end the raids, I don’t think we need to do that.

Did you hear about Marco Rubio in Iowa? He was second-runner up!*

“They told us it couldn’t be done,” Rubio said in his cheerful celebration speech following his third-place finish in Iowa. The speech would’ve worked just as well as an actual victory speech.

If the voters don’t remember who won, maybe the DNC won’t remember either, when it comes to convention time?

*At least the Republicans seem to have established a fairly secure correspondence between votes that were cast and results that were announced. The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs (@bencjacobs) has done some reporting that casts some doubt on whether the Democrats have done the same.

Updated

Clinton to youth: I support you, even if you don't support me

Clinton is asked: how do you understand the momentum towards Bernie?

She gives an answer, in this town hall for students, that concedes Sanders’ strength with young people.

“I am really happy to see so many young people involved in the political process,” Clinton says. She says the first time she came to New Hampshire was to campaign for Eugene McCarthy to end the Vietnam War.

I know that Senator Sanders has a very big base of young voters, and they’re not supporting me. But I want you and any other young voters to know, I’m supporting you. This is not either-or.

She says a lot of Sanders supporters believe in free college or universal health care, but she believes in “debt-free college” and has worked decades on health care solutions.

She does not mention the appeal of Bernie Sanders for voters who object specifically to her.

Clinton is handing a question about debt. “This is crazy my friends! We haven’t even had interest rates in a decade!” Clinton says. “And we’ve got people in this room pain 8 and 11%? It’s wrong!”

Clinton calls on the wrong person at this Henniker town hall. The voter presents herself as a Democrat with “lingering questions.” Her lingering questions turn out to be a pretty competent recapitulation of the sharpest conservative talking points against Clinton, on her response to Benghazi and on her use of a private email server.

“I said I’m here to answer any questions and I appreciate your asking any, and any follow-up questions,” Clinton says, before a weary pause – and then a solid five-minute-plus answer that makes everyone feel as if they are stuck in a Trey Gowdy hearing.

“You can go back and look at my testimony, and all the independent reports,” Clinton begins:

Before we were attacked at Benghazi, our embassy in Cairo was attacked. But it’s a fortified, strong building. It was attacked because of the video.

When Benghazi happened, it was the fog of war. There was no clear understanding. And there wasn’t for many many days.

The first claim of responsibility came from a group… and after that happened, that’s when I communicated with my daughter.

Between the time I told my daughter that and the next day, that group withdrew their claim.

All during that week, we had facilities under attack from Tunisia to India over that video.

When we finally arrested one of the ringleaders of the attack in Benghazi, [he cited the video].

I know this is a meme… but all you have to do is look at the timeline. Did the video play a part? … Did the ringleader.. say it played a part ?

Those are not in contradiction.”

“I don’t understand the constant effort by some, particularly in the press, to constantly parse this, when the people on the ground were working very hard to get the best possible understanding,” Clinton continues.

Then Clinton concludes that the issue has been politicized and “I just think it’s wrong.” Weak applause. Awkward moment.

Clinton: keep guns 'out of hands of haters'

Clinton takes a question about Black Lives Matter and fatal use of force by police officers.

Clinton says that criminal justice reform has been a long-term focus. “We have to help protect innocent people in their communities.

Somebody takes a life and they’re wearing a uniform... then it has to be investigated, their actions have to be justified,” or there should be consequences.

Then Clinton keeps up an attack she’s been regularly deploying on the stump, against the gun lobby.

She calls for closing the “Charleston loophole,” by which gun buyers can purchase weapons before background checks are complete. The perpetrator of the mass shooting at Emanuel AME “was able to get a gun he should not have gotten because the law permits him to get it after three days even though the check into his background was not complete,” Clinton says.

“And he pulled out that gun and he murdered nine of them.

“We’ve got to do more to get guns out of the hands of the haters, of the mentally dangerously ill.”

Clinton: Powell and Rice used private email

Clinton’s moved to New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, for a town hall with students – and we’ve moved with her. It’s a 20-minute drive she seems to have made in 15. But she has a pretty large and serious entourage.

Live from Henniker!

She’s struck an entirely different tone for the student crowd – pointed, aggressive, even displaying some degree of temper on the topic of her use of private emails as secretary of state.

“Secretary Powell? Secretary Rice’s closes aides? Used private email. Everybody knew that!” Clinton said, picking up on reports that both previous secretaries of state engaged in email hygiene as bad as her own.

Albright's 'special place in hell': old line, new context

Madeleine Albright closed her pitch in Concord for Hillary Clinton with the line, “Just remember, there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other!”

It’s a strong line – and it has been for years.

But the context, in this case, made the line land with particular force. After a section of her speech devoted to Clinton’s talents as a stateswoman, Albright had turned more personal, saying it was time for a woman president.

Then she addressed young women in the audience directly, falling into a lecture.

“Young women have to support Hillary Clinton. The story is not over!” said Albright. “They’re going to want to push us back. Appointments to the Supreme Court make all the difference!”

The “going to hell” line drew a great cheer from the Concord crowd, but it may not play as well retrospectively, with a glance back of just six days, when Bernie Sanders overwhelmingly won young voters in Iowa – by a margin of 6-to-1, including young women.

Did young women in Iowa see a path to immortal salvation that did not include voting for Hillary Clinton? Is Albright wrong – or are they?

Updated

Around the trail: David Axelrod, former adviser to Barack Obama, gives an update on the latest from Republican polls …

… the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein meets some Danish fellows who heard Ted Cruz’s line that Donald Trump is so reckless he’d nuke Denmark if he felt like it …

… and Hillary Clinton’s campaign has officially announced that the candidate will visit Flint, Michigan on Sunday, “to hear firsthand about the water crisis that is harming families and what our leaders need to do to fix it”.

The city’s residents have suffered toxic levels of lead in their water for more than 18 months, since state-appointed city managers began drawing water from the polluted Flint River as a cost-cutting measure. The campaign said in a statement that Clinton “will use her trip to urge the Republican-controlled Senate to approve the Senate Democrats’ $600 million amendment to help Flint”.

Bernie Sanders has also highlighted the water crisis there, and called for Rick Snyder, the governor who dismissed concerns from residents for months, to resign.

Tattoo parlors in Montpelier, Vermont, and Seabrook, New Hampshire, are inking the faces of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump onto people’s bodies, delighting customers who want to show off and/or visibly regret their political choices.

The Burlington Free Press reports that Aartistic Tattoo in Montpelier has had several dozen people get an outline of Sanders’ unkempt hair and thick-rimmed glasses. Tattoo artist Chad Fay said the free tattoo promotion will run as long as Sanders does. Between him and coworker Jessica Andrew, the parlor’s done 23 Sanders tattoos in the last week.

In Seabrook, the artists of Clay Dragon Tattoo are drawing Trump and his slogan “Make America Great Again” on people for free. “Trump is the only one that’s giving anybody any hope to do anything different in this country,” owner Bob Holmes told NH1.

He added that he’s never voted or been interested in politics.

“You can’t take life too seriously anyway, and if it’s a Trump tattoo, and if he wins which, it’s going to be hard pressed that he doesn’t win because he’s doing everything that no one else is doing,” Holmes said. He’s done one tattoo so far.

What.
What. Photograph: Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Updated

Chad Johnson, the NFL star and social media standout formerly known as Chad Ochocinco, votes his support for Jeb Bush, who’s had quite a turnout for his Saturday morning rally:

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson beats horse Restore The Roar, ridden by jockey P.J. Cooksey, by several lengths during a fundraising horse race event for Feed The Children at River Downs Saturday, June 9, 2007, in Cincinnati.
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson beats horse Restore The Roar, ridden by jockey P.J. Cooksey, by several lengths during a fundraising horse race event for Feed The Children at River Downs Saturday, June 9, 2007, in Cincinnati. Photograph: David Kohl/AP

(h/t @bencjacobs)

Updated

Clinton asks the crowd to vote for her and promises to fight “both by heart and by head” to make the progress you deserve. Big finale.

There’s a bit of Hillary-Hillary-Hillary chanting. And a fast flow for the exit.

Updated

Clinton tells the stories of a couple people she met while canvassing this morning in Manchester. The anecdotes culminate in a personal call from Clinton: “I want to take on the issues that are really tugging at people’s lives.”

“A young man came up to me and said I’m supporting you because you have made addiction a central issue in your campaign,” Clinton says. “I said, ‘Do you have personal experience with this?’

“He said yes.”

An athlete in high school, Clinton said, her new acquaintance got hurt and had surgery, afterwards becoming addicted to opiates. “I went to heroin because it was cheaper,” he told her. “I got help and I’ve been off it for two years. But it’s not easy. In this state particularly, it’s an epidemic.

“I want to take on the issues that are really tugging at people’s lives,” Clinton says.

Knock-knock.
Knock-knock. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

“One of the houses I stopped at, the husband has Alzheimer’s, a really handsome ex-Marine in his 70s. And I stood and spoke with his wife, and shook his hand.

“This is the kind of thing that a president should also be worried about,” Clinton says.

Strong applause for that line.

“When I talk about we will rise, I really mean it. We will rise, we will rise,” she says, allowing a hint of plaintiveness in her voice.

Updated

Clinton follows Albright. She’s the more deliberate, deeper-voiced, methodical speaker. The crowd quiets a bit. Listening closely.

“Each of us can serve,” Clinton says. “And right now we need to join together to make sure we serve each other and our country.”

She says “too many Americans” feel like they might not have the opportunity to rise. “Will you be pushed down and pushed back? I think about it a lot.”

As my husband has said, we probably have more yesterdays than tomorrows. But looking out at this crowd, I see a lot of people with more tomorrows than yesterdays.

We have to knock down the barriers that are erected by greed, special interests, powerful forces... they’ve been after me for decades. And you know what, I’m still standing.

There are other kinds of discrimination than those that are fueled by greedy economic interests,” she says. She mentions racism, sexism, discrimination against LGBTQ and the fight to overturn abortion rights.

Making the case that Sanders is a one-track candidate, and she the all-track candidate.

Albright: Clinton 'restored America's reputation'

Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state, is introducing Clinton in Concord. “When she was secretary of state, she restored America’s reputation,” says the former-former secretary of state of the former secretary of state.

“Those other people before made huge mistakes. They really undermined our reputation and our position in the world, and Hillary Clinton brought us back, she restored our position in the world,” Albright says.

“People are talking about revolution. What kind of a revolution would it be to have the first woman president of the United States?!”

That’s met with a chant of “Madam President! Madam President!”

Albright, the first woman to serve as US secretary of state, in 2003. Her memoir was called “Madam Secretary.”
Albright, the first woman to serve as US secretary of state, in 2003. Her memoir was called “Madam Secretary.” Photograph: Mario Tama/AFP/Getty Images

“Not only that,” said Albright. “But she’s just the best!”

Albright’s really lighting up the room. She closes with an even bigger applause line, with an allusion to the abortion rights fights:

“Young women have to support Hillary Clinton. The story is not over!” says Albright. “They’re going to want to push us back. Appointments to the Supreme Court make all the difference.

“It’s not done and you have to help. Hillary Clinton will always be there for you. And just remember, there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other!”

That’s a wildly popular thing to say, with this crowd.

Updated

Cory Booker, the US senator from New Jersey, is introducing Hillary Clinton to an excited crowd in Concord. He says that America has the right to rise, or something. He’s a good cheerleader, he’s got them cheering and clapping.

Here’s the start of his speech:

Booker intros Clinton.

Talk of the Republican race in New Hampshire is a lot about who’s coming from behind. For example one updated tracking poll has Ohio governor John Kasich in second place.

But you look at the new and latest tracking polls and realize just how far behind “behind” is – and only three days left... Trump at +17 and Trump at +21.

If you haven’t read it yet, we recommend Sabrina Siddiqui and Ben Jacobs’ report this morning on the state of the Republican race:

With four days until New Hampshire’s presidential primary, the state’s infamously late-deciding voters face a choice between Donald Trump and a five-car pile-up.

On the one end is Trump, the frontrunner who through bombast and showmanship has dominated the polls for months. On the other, a group of candidates vying to salvage the establishment’s standing in a race marked by frustration with Washington and the upper echelons of the Republican party.

Each contender brought a distinct style to the campaign trail this week, seeking to close in on voters who could still be swayed ahead of a contest that will drastically reset the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Read the full piece:

Updated

The crowd here in Concord is waiting for Clinton who’s said to be on the – hey! Door-knocking in Manchester?! That’s 20 miles from here.

“We want Hillary!” the crowd at the Concord middle school chants... briefly.

The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt is in Manchester, New Hampshire, with Ohio governor John Kasich, who has climbed to third place in the state, according to a Boston Globe / Suffolk University poll published late last week.

Kasich has staked his campaign on a strong finish in New Hampshire (second would do it?) and has a full slate of events over the next three days to make his closing argument to voters.

But he still had time for this (Kasich is left, Gabbatt right):

Updated

The Concord crowd (and your blogger) is/are waiting for Hillary Clinton to take the stage. Meantime the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino has spoken with Olivia Schribert, who came to the Concord event with her high school class from Mamaroneck, New York.

Schribert says her classmates are spread out across the state at various Bernie Sanders and Marco Rubio events.

Schribert, who will turn 18 before November, said she hopes the first vote she casts is for the first woman president of the United States.

Many of her friends are divided over who they support, and she says she “gets the appeal” of Sanders, who polls show is leading with young people.

In a play for a piece of Sanders’ young fan base, Clinton has advanced the argument in recent days that pragmatism, not passion, gets results. (She once told actress Lena Dunham in an interview: “if you can’t get excited, be pragmatic.”)

Clinton had found a disciple in Schribert – who, unfortunately for Clinton, is not a New Hampshire voter.

“I think Bernie’s ideas are really good but I think Hillary has a better chance of getting things passed,” Schribert said.

Updated

A Super Pac backing Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, has produced a video mocking ABC News for not inviting the Republican candidate to participate in tonight’s presidential debate.

ABC says Fiorina’s poll numbers (averaging 2.2 points nationally and 3.9/6th place in New Hampshire) aren’t high enough. Fiorina points out that in the Iowa caucuses, she did better than bro candidates Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, and they’re invited to the debate.

Former Massachusetts governor and most recent Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney weighed in on Fiorina’s side on Twitter the other day:

Here’s a picture of the loathèd stage. Let’s count those lecterns: seven. That would be Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Carson, Kasich, Bush and Christie. Not looking good for Fiorina.

Updated

Here’s an update that would seem to put the lie to the LA Times piece we featured earlier, about Hillary Clinton subtly conceding New Hampshire, as evidenced by Bill Clinton’s being assigned to campaign in faraway Nevada at the weekend.

It’s true that Bill Clinton is campaigning in Nevada today. But guess where he’ll be tomorrow? The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino reports:

Double act alert: Father-daughter stump speech

While Hillary Clinton visits Flint, Michigan, on Sunday, her husband and daughter will rally voters at two events in New Hampshire tomorrow – the second event promising to finish before the start of the SuperBowl.

The first event will be held in Keene and the second in Milford.

Scheduled for New Hampshire Sunday: father-daughter time.
Scheduled for New Hampshire Sunday: father-daughter time. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP

Updated

Hillary Clinton supporters aren’t just following her – they’re also pamphleteering a Bernie Sanders rally just wrappted at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire, reports Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts at the scene:

Franklin Pierce was the penultimate pre-civil war president (1853-57), and the only US president from New Hampshire, so far. And what would he think of Sanders?

Not pictured: cane, or executive desk, or Marmaduke, or something.

Updated

Is Clinton contesting New Hampshire? An LA Times piece this morning asserts she is not. Bill Clinton, whose 1992 candidacy sparked here, is campaigning in Nevada, which caucuses later this month, instead of in the Granite State. Real Clear Politics polling averages have Bernie Sanders up 16.7 points in New Hampshire, just three days before the primary.

Update: Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton to campaign in New Hampshire Sunday

I will win you over yet.
I will win you over yet. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

So “she isn’t working the state the way she did in 2008 when she pulled off an upset victory,” report Evan Halper and Michael Memoli in the Times:

While Clinton continued to express hope that a victory is possible in this state, where voters are prone to wild shifts in opinion up until election day, she isn’t working the state the way she did in 2008 when she pulled off an upset victory. By Friday, former President Bill Clinton had already been dispatched to Las Vegas to headline events aimed at organizing voters to turn out for the Nevada caucuses, which are taking on increased importance as a must-win firewall for his wife. The campaign released its first Spanish-language ads Friday, which it will start airing in Nevada.

But Clinton’s rally in Concord this morning, and her events schedule of two get-out-the-vote’s and a town hall on Saturday, feel nothing like a concession. Clinton will be in Henniker this afternoon and in Portsmouth this evening. Traveling with her are the natural duo of Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state, and Cory Booker, the US senator from New Jersey

I’ve always had a weakness for lost causes once they’re really lost.
I’ve always had a weakness for lost causes once they’re really lost. Photograph: Andrew Kelly/REUTERS

“You need to talk to your friends and neighbors about why this election is important to you, and important to your family,” says Clinton’s warm-up act in Concord. “We just have to hunker down and work really hard for the next three days.”

The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino is in the room with the blog, and catches a little taste of the action on video:

603 is New Hampshire’s area code.

Updated

Hello from a Hillary Clinton Get-Out-the-Vote event at Rundlett Middle School in Concord, New Hampshire, where a peppy weekend crowd of a couple hundred people – and counting – is filling a gym for an event set to start in a half hour.

Here was the scene this morning in New Hampshire:

Outside Northhampton, NH, on Saturday, 6 February.
Outside Northhampton, NH, on Saturday, 6 February. Photograph: Guardian

The snow hasn’t slowed the crowd from coming to Concord, where hardy Clintonfans have filled the present space. State senator Dan Feltes is “warming” them up:

New Hampshire state senator Dan Feltes warms up the Clinton crowd.
New Hampshire state senator Dan Feltes warms up the Clinton crowd. Photograph: Guardian

Surely aware that Tuesday’s vote will be his last stand - his last chance to have an impact on this race - Chris Christie is going negative to make his mark, writes Jonathan Freedland in Bedford, NH.

The New Jersey governor’s stump speech delivered just now in Bedford consisted of a barely-veiled attack on Marco Rubio - the man he clearly deems his biggest rival for the support of relatively moderate Republicans.

Without mentioning Rubio by name, he mocked the role of “first term US senators”, arguing that they lack the executive experience essential for the role of the presidency - experience that governors like him have in spades.

“The presidency is not a place for on the job training”, Christie said, adding there was “no owner’s manual” left in the drawer of the desk of the Oval Office.

Implicitly comparing Rubio to Barack Obama, he said the presidency should not be “handed to someone who can read a teleprompter better than anyone else.” He went on to liken the life of a US senator to that of a child at grade school - devoid of any real responsibility.

All that was missing was a repeat of the description Christie offered earlier this week of Rubio as “the boy in the bubble” , unable to function outside the comfort zone of scripted remarks.

Playing to the stereotype of the pugnacious New Jersey pol, Christie promised he “would leave nothing behind” during the hand to hand combat of tonight’s TV debate of Republican candidates.

But he couldn’t go without delivering a couple of swipes at Donald Trump too. “This job cannot go to an entertainer in chief. We need a commander in chief.”

“Showtime is over,” he said. “It’s game time. It’s time to pick a president.”

Governors Chris Christie (New Jersey), Charlie Baker (Massachusetts) and Larry Hogan (Maryland) in Bedford, NH. ‘Three conservative governors from three deep blue states,’ said Hogan.
Christie, Baker and Hogan. Photograph: Jonathan Freedland for the Guardian

Updated

Rupert Murdoch, the media owner, says Hillary Clinton’s candidacy is sinking and Democrats wish John Kerry would step in, so it must be true.

Been there, done that.
Been there, done that. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/EPA

Sanders: I feel like a rock star

Bernie Sanders is speaking at Franklin Pierce University in southern New Hampshire, a school named after our 14th and perhaps most obscure president. A large crowd of young people have gathered to hear him speak.

He’s doing his stump speech standards – the price gouging and chaos of the American healthcare system, the broken criminal justice system, etc. He’s speaking about climate change at the moment, saying it’ll cause more floods, drought, international conflict.

Sanders.
Sanders. Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

“What we’re doing to the oceans already is tragic,” he says. We don’t have a single Republican candidate who’s willing to stand up on the issue, he adds, because of the contributions they receive from the Koch brothers and other fossil fuel interests.

Somebody shouts: “We have you!”

Sanders gets into his riff on Wall Street, whose executives spent “billions of dollars [on lobbying] to say we want to get the government off our backs”.

After they got the government off of their backs, it turned out that their operations were basically fraudulent. That they were selling subprime mortgage practices that were worthless. That Wall Street teetered on the edge of collapse. You and your parents bailed them out.

He notes that two Goldman Sachs executives have become secretaries of the Treasury under Republican and Democratic candidates, and that dozens of executives have gone “in government and do the bidding of Wall Street”.

But he comes around to say that he wants to even the teams, and get the people represented properly in Washington again. He’s getting angry.

He takes off his jacket and the crowd goes wild.

“I feel like a rock and roll star,” he laughs. “Nothing more is coming off, that’s it.”

“Don’t accept reality just because it’s out there,” he urges the crowd. “Ask why. When you see somebody homeless sleeping out in the street, don’t accept that as normal. It is not normal.”

Updated

Hillary Clinton has not struggled to find income in the years since she left the White House and State Department. Edward Helmore reports on the finances of the former secretary of state.

Bill and Hillary Clinton have made more than $153m from paid speeches over the last 15 years, a CNN study has found, including at least $7.7m from 39 speeches to Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs, UBS and Bank of America.

The study found that between 2001 and the formal announcement of Hillary Clinton’s campaign last May, the couple gave 729 speeches at an average of $210,795 each. Hillary Clinton, who is facing campaign-trail scrutiny over her ties to Wall Street, earned more than $1.8m for at least eight speeches to large financial institutions, the study found.

Claims by Bernie Sanders that Clinton is an establishment politician who “throughout one’s life raised a whole lot of money from the drug companies and other special interests” provoked a sharp response during this week’s debate, when Clinton accused the Vermont senator of attacking her “by innuendo, by insinuation”.

“You will not find that I ever changed a view or a vote because of any donation I ever received,” Clinton said.

Her campaign has said it is considering releasing the text of speeches she gave to Wall Street firms.

According to CNN, Bill Clinton made the majority of the speeches, 637, earning $132m; his wife earned more than $21m from 92 speeches.

In 2013, the study found, Hillary Clinton made $775,000 from three speeches to Goldman Sachs and $225,000 each from UBS, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank.

The analysis show a steady increase in the couple’s billing. In 2004, Bill Clinton was charging $125,000 per engagement. In 2014, for a speech to Bank of America/Merrill Lynch in London, his fee was $500,000.

Hillary Clinton hit the big bank speaking circuit in 2013, after leaving the State Department. She spoke then at $225,000 per engagement. In 2014, her fee was $260,000 – a 15% rise.

Updated

The weird week in review: losers, tantrums, “say it to my face,” sticker face, Cruz counrty [sic], evasive children, doppelänger Sanders and more.

Thirty-five but still best known as a White House kid, Chelsea Clinton is on the trail for her mother. But maybe the excitement surrounding her mom’s opponent is getting to her … Lauren Gambino drops a line from New Hampshire.

Chelsea Clinton, the former and possibly future first daughter of the United States, is the product of two high-powered politicians whose address was once 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. She has worked for NBC, her family’s foundation, and had media training for years. But all the preparation in the world can’t always prevent slip.

Clinton has raised eyebrows as of late for her sharp attacks against the only man standing between her mother and the Democratic nomination: Vermont senator Bernie Sanders. But on the campaign trail in Minnesota this week, however, a slip of the tongue accidentally paid him a compliment.

Criticizing Sanders for his vote on a bill granting legal immunity to the gun industry, Clinton referred to her mom’s rival as “President Sanders”.

The media training kicked in immediately: “Senator Sanders excuse me, I hope not President Sanders!” The crowd laughed, and Clinton carried on.

Updated

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the electoral battle for New Hampshire, 2016 edition, three days out from the first-in-the-nation primary. With Iowa settled (more or less) in a victory for Republican Ted Cruz and a de facto tie for Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, New Hampshire has become a high-stakes fight for every candidate in the field.

For some, the Granite State is their last and only hope. Republicans Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Chris Christie have poured nearly all their time and money into New Hampshire in the hopes that its voters, more moderate than the evangelical base of Iowa, will turn the party away from the religious fervor of Cruz and “everything is terrible” rhetoric of Donald Trump.

But polls put Trump on top by a healthy margin of more than 15 points, and Marco Rubio is nudging himself into position as the best-placed alternative to both the unpredictable billionaire and the much-loathed senator from Texas.

Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and Jim Gilmore are still there, too.

Democrats also face what could be the first truly decisive vote in the 2016 election. Clinton beat Sanders in Iowa by a tiny margin, and caucus night was a chaotic, poorly managed affair. The race turned emotional and sharp on Thursday, in the first debate that pit the two candidates against each other.

Despite her enormous campaign resources, her many allies and her healthy national lead in the polls, Clinton is something of an underdog in New Hampshire. Sanders has a 21-point lead there, according to averages, and is slowly approaching her poll numbers nationally. Democrats have found themselves divided along similar lines as Republicans (age, wealth, race and more), and while Clinton has racked up endorsements Sanders continues to surprise her, winning over a former head of the NAACP and turning out large numbers of young voters.

So stick with us through the day for everything from the trail. From the trail, we’ve got DC bureau chief Dan Roberts, national affairs correspondent Tom McCarthy, national reporter Lauren Gambino, political reporters Ben Jacobs and Sabrina Siddiqui, and Adam Gabbatt, who just went shooting with the candidate that America forgot.

There’ll also be comment and analysis, eg: a look at Clinton from Jill Abramson.

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