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.”
See, it’s dog-whistle politics like this that make people not like or trust you, Hillary.
And then you’re going to come around later and ask for his supporters to support you?
Remember when she said Obama is not a Muslim “as far as I know”?
At least she’s consistent in her presentation.
Of course he’s not a Democrat. He’s made plain for decades that he disdains the party (though he caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate so he can get committee assignments and such). He even acknowledged in a recent interview that he decided to run on the Democratic ticket so he could get “media attention.” And he’s said “we’ll see” when asked if he’d do anything to help other Democrats in fundraising.
I’m a Democrat. I haven’t always been keen about some of my party’s candidates for national, state, and local offices, but I’ve supported them because even a weak Democrat is better than any Republican I’ve seen for decades. And I support my national and state party organizations with contributions and volunteer time because we Democrats MUST work together to save the country from the Republican Party.
You can tell Sanders is a Democrat by his ardent support for his fellow Democrats on the down-ballot.
How is this dog whistle politics? Sanders supporters are proud that he is not a Democrat, and he himself says that his running for so long as an independent is a reason to support him.
You can’t use his never being in a party until this campaign as a selling point, and then claim mentioning it as a negative as a “dog whistle.”