Biden downplays New Hampshire expectations after repeatedly vowing to win

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Biden predicts New Hampshire defeat, looks ahead to South Carolina

Democrats make final push ahead of primary; Ellison Barber reports.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has been downplaying expectations in the New Hampshire primary as his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination slides in the polls following a "gut-punch" in Iowa. But Biden's talk of being an "underdog" is starkly different from how he talked about the Granite State just a few months ago.

"I took a hit in Iowa and I’ll probably take a hit here," Biden said at the New Hampshire debate Friday night. "Usually it’s the neighboring senators that do well," he continued, alluding to competitors Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

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Compare that to November, when Biden said several times that he either planned to win New Hampshire or that he needed to win New Hampshire.

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"Let's go knock on some doors because I plan on winning New Hampshire," Biden said to a group of supporters on Nov. 9.

"New Hampshire and Iowa are important, and I plan on winning New Hampshire," Biden said on Nov. 21. "I plan on winning in Iowa."

"I plan on trying to win New Hampshire," Biden said on Nov. 8. "I'm not trying to come in second."

But now it appears Biden will struggle to even come in second place in New Hampshire, with Sanders and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg at the top of the polls after they took the top two spots in an Iowa caucus that still does not have a winner. Instead, Biden is simultaneously trying to hold off Warren, who does have a geographical advantage, and nip a surge from Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., in the bud after she had a strong debate performance Friday.

Biden's newfound pragmatism about New Hampshire comes as aides have recently minimized the importance of Tuesday’s primary, telling reporters that “the campaign has had a very clear strategy from the day we got into the race. We have articulated that we believe for us the pathway to the nomination runs in particular through Nevada, South Carolina, Super Tuesday, through states that have a more diverse electorate, where Vice President Biden has a tremendous amount of support.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a Democratic presidential primary debate, Friday, Feb. 7, 2020, hosted by ABC News, Apple News, and WMUR-TV at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

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Perhaps no sign is more telling about the Biden camp's thoughts on New Hampshire than the fact he won't even be in the state as primary results roll in Tuesday night -- instead the former vice president will make a beeline to his firewall state of South Carolina. Biden has consistently led in South Carolina polls, owing partially to his popularity among black voters who make up more than half of the Democratic electorate there.

Weak finishes in the first two states could put Biden's foothold in South Carolina in trouble, however, as a large amount of his argument to voters has been his electability in a year Democrats seem to be prioritizing beating President Trump above anything.

“If your candidacy is based on electability, once you don’t win elections, that electability argument dissipates very rapidly,” said Andrew Smith, a University of New Hampshire pollster. "If Biden does very poorly in New Hampshire, going forward those voters in Nevada and South Carolina are going to look at that electability argument in a very different light because to be electable, you need to win elections.”

Fox News Paul Steinhauser and Madeleine Rivera contributed to this report.