When asked whether she believes Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is a Democrat in a Politico interview published Wednesday morning, Hillary Clinton said she was unable to describe Sanders’ relationship with the Democratic party.
“Well, I can’t answer that,” Clinton told Politico’s “Off Message” podcast. “He’s a relatively new Democrat, and, in fact, I’m not even sure he is one. He’s running as one. So I don’t know quite how to characterize him.”
Later in the interview, Clinton described her frustration with how Sanders has characterized her during the Democratic presidential primary.
“There is a persistent, organized effort to misrepresent my record, and I don’t appreciate that, and I feel sorry for a lot of the young people who are fed this list of misrepresentations,” she said. “I know that Senator Sanders spends a lot of time attacking my husband, attacking President Obama. I rarely hear him say anything negative about George W. Bush, who I think wrecked our economy.”
This is not the first time Clinton has criticized the way Sanders speaks about her on the campaign trail. When asked at a New York rally whether she would turn down campaign contributions from fossil fuel companies, Clinton slammed Sanders for spreading “lies” about donations to her campaign.
“I do not have—I have money from people that work for fossil fuel companies,” Clinton said in March. “I am so sick, I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me. I’m sick of it.”
