Hillary Clinton's former longtime aide Neera Tanden declared primary challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders drove down her favorability ratings in voter polls.
"He did do significant damage to Hillary's negatives," Tanden said on Politico's "Off Message" podcast. "I mean, he drove a lot of those negatives, and the truth of it, I mean, just to be candid — or honest about it — I think getting those kinds of attacks from another Democrat or another liberal or another progressive is much tougher for Hillary.
". . . If you look at her trust numbers the last six months of that primary, it was much — those numbers took a much sharper dive and hard to recover from."
Tanden did acknowledge Sanders "brought a lot of really important issues to the floor," but said the Vermont senator "was prosecuting a much tougher character attack" than then-Sen. Barack Obama did in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.
"This primary was much tougher," she said. "There were many more open attacks on being 'bought and paid for' and all that stuff."
The majority of Americans don't like Clinton, surveys show. She polls on average about 43 percent favorable and 53 percent unfavorable, according to RealClearPolitics. Her numbers have been improving since the end of July, though, and she has always had a strong lead over Republican opponent Donald Trump. He polls on average 34 percent favorable and 61 percent unfavorable.
Clinton has been focusing recently on improving her likability, according to Vanity Fair. Appearing on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," she joked about her ongoing email server scandal, saying "my emails are so boring" and said to prepare to debate Trump, she was "drawing on my experience in elementary school. You know, the guy who pulled your ponytail."
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