PHILADELPHIA—Donald Trump is aiming for a sweep of all five Northeastern states holding primaries Tuesday, including Pennsylvania, leaving his rivals pinning their hopes of stopping the Republican front-runner on a fragile coordination strategy in the next rounds of voting.
For Democratic leader Hillary Clinton, wins in most of Tuesday’s contests would leave little doubt that she'll be her party’s nominee. Rival Bernie Sanders’ team has sent mixed signals about his standing in the race, with one top adviser suggesting a tough night would push the Vermont senator to reassess his bid and another vowing to fight “all the way to the convention.”
Clinton was already looking past Sanders, barely mentioning him during recent campaign events. Instead, she deepened her attacks on Trump, casting the billionaire businessman as out of touch with Americans.
“If you want to be president of the United States, you’ve got to get familiar with the United States,” Clinton said. “Don’t just fly that big jet in and land it and go make a big speech and insult everybody you can think of.”
Asked Monday whether she needed to do more to gain Sanders’ support in the general election, she noted her loss in the 2008 Democratic primaries to Barack Obama.
“I did not put down conditions,” she said on MSNBC. “I said I am supporting Senator Obama. ... I hope that we will see the same this year.”
