Hillary Clinton Rode the Subway and Only Looked a Little Like a Tourist

Bernie Sanders still think New Yorkers use tokens to ride the subway. But Hillary Clinton doesn’t have the best luck passing through a turnstile, either.

On a round of the city with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz on Friday morning, Clinton approached the 161st Street-Yankee Stadium turnstiles, surrounded by a scrum of photographers and network cameras, MetroCard firmly in hand. Clinton swiped once, and swiped again. But it took the former secretary of state four attempted swipes with her MetroCard to pass through a subway turnstile on Friday morning.

“I love it because it’s so convenient,” Clinton said, referring to the New York City subway system. “It’s by far now the biggest transit system in the world.”

Clinton’s subway tour on Friday morning was part of her campaign to win the New York primary on April 19, where she is competing with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to win on her home turf: she represented New York in the U.S. Senate for eight years. As the race has become increasingly negative, Clinton is relying on her home-state advantage to shut Sanders out of the nomination.

See an Intimate Portrait of Hillary Clinton

During the subway ride, Clinton played the conscientious subway rider, scolding at least one reporter for blocking the doors. Her staffers chimed in, too. “Subway etiquette!” they called out to the journalists, urging them to let people off the train before trying to board.

“Be careful, you’re walking backwards!” Clinton called out to the media around her as they walked toward the platform.

Though Clinton is a familiar face around New York state, she is not a frequent subway rider.

She was asked the last time she rode the subway. “A couple years ago,” Clinton said. “It was probably after I got out of being Secretary of State. So about two years ago.”

Where did you go? a reporter asked. “Just around here to get from one place to another in the midst of the craziness,” she said.