Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Friday morning said that Hillary Clinton is qualified to be president, just a few days after listing numerous reasons he felt she was not qualified for the job during a Wednesday campaign rally.
During an interview on NBC’s “Today,” co-host Savannah Guthrie asked Sanders if he believes Clinton is qualified given what he now knows. Sanders has defended his remarks by noting that he was reacting to a Washington Post headline that said Clinton had questioned whether he was qualified for president.
Sanders initially deflected the question, mentioning that he was responding to the Washington Post headline and arguing that the Clinton campaign has used a more negative tone recently.
“Well, what I now know is that after we have won six out of the last seven caucuses and primaries and in national polls — couple of them — we are now in the lead, the Clinton campaign has changed its tone,” he said. “And I think they were pretty public about it. And that is when we come here to New York, they’re going to be a lot more negative. And that’s what you’re seeing from their surrogates and from the tone of their campaign.”
Guthrie asked Sanders if he overreacted to what Clinton said.
“Here’s the truth: I’ve know Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I respect Hillary Clinton. We were colleagues in the Senate,” he responded. “And on her worst day, she would be an infinitely better president than either of the Republican candidates.”
“She’s qualified?” Guthrie asked.
“Of course,” Sanders replied.
Watch the clip from NBC:
“She’s qualified to be president?” –@SavannahGuthrie
“Of course” –@BernieSanders #BernieTODAY https://t.co/AiFY2VwGX9
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 8, 2016
I guess the blowback was too much and he finally states what he should have been saying all along.
Well, that was a fun day and a half. Let’s not do it again, OK?
“…on her worst day, she would be an infinitely better president than either of the Republican candidates.”
All it takes is a few days of bad press and now it’s “of course”.
That’s what a walk-back looks like folks.
Bernie got played. He over-reacted and took it personal when his response to Clinton’s comments should have been either to ignore or mock the implication. You laugh it off, throw down some substance and move on. Clinton took some heat in 2008 when she implied Obama didn’t pass the C in C threshold like she and McCain had. Obama did not rise to the bait and HRC took the hit instead.