Katy Tur And Biden Advisor Symone Sanders Spar Over Candidate’s Sinking African American Support

MSNBC’s Katy Tur and senior advisor to Joe Biden‘s campaign Symone Sanders clashed Tuesday over Tur’s query about why Biden is losing support among African Americans in a recent poll.

Tur began the interview by asking Sanders why the Biden camp will be in South Carolina instead of New Hampshire — where primary results are set to come in Tuesday night.

“We will be in South Carolina tonight because, as we’ve always said, this race is a marathon and not a sprint. We competed hard in New Hampshire – the vice president will be there through the evening… we will be in South Carolina tonight and in Nevada on Friday,” Sanders stated.

Tur fired back, “Is that conceding you’re not going to place well here tonight?”

“Absolutely not. I think what it’s saying is what we’ve always said is this is a marathon and not a sprint,” Sanders stated.

The MSNBC anchor then pulled up a Quinnipiac poll, which charted Biden’s support among black voters slipping, before asking if a loss tonight would mean Biden isn’t the most electable candidate.

“We’re not concerned at all,” Sanders stated in part before continuing, “electability for us is not about who can win in Iowa or New Hampshire but who can pull together a diverse coalition and who can win in places where we fell short in 2016, like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

“We’re excited to get to Nevada, to come here to South Carolina tonight, and we look forward to continuing to wage a very competitive campaign. Again, this is — this process, this nominating process goes through places like South Carolina, places like super Tuesday and no one can be declared a winner or, frankly, vice president Biden can’t be counted out until diverse voices, people of color in this party have had their say.”

Tur then pressed Sanders one more time Biden’s falling support among African American voters.

“How do you explain [it]?” Tur asked of Sanders.

“Look, Katy, that is one poll,” the Biden advisor stated before deflecting to speaking about campaign operations.

Sanders then argued that voters in New Hampshire have seen a fighter in Biden, which Tur pushed back on, stating, “they told me they didn’t see a fighter.”

The senior advisor to Biden replied, “he has been competing with other democratic contenders in this case. He has shown he is durable, can take a punch and keep on moving.”

“There are others who have not shown a proven ability to continue to deliver and speak about their bold vision,” Sanders concluded.

Watch above, via MSNBC.