Bernie Sanders Retracts Cenk Uygur Endorsement After Backlash Over Blog Posts

Louisiana , United States - 1 May 2018; Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks on centre stage during day one of Collision 2018 at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. (Photo By Seb Daly/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Louisiana , United States - 1 May 2018; Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks on centre stage during day one of Collision 2018 at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. (Photo By Seb Daly/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
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That was fast.

Just a day after officially endorsing The Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur’s congressional run, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) retracted his endorsement Friday afternoon.

In a Friday afternoon tweet, Sanders announced the retraction of his endorsement, citing how he heard his supporters “who were frustrated and understand their concerns.”

Uygur, who is running for the seat previously held by former Rep. Katie Hill, has faced backlash recently for demeaning comments he made about women in the past. Entertainment news site The Wrap previously unearthed Uyger’s sexist blog posts, which include a post published in 2000 that said: “Obviously, the genes of women are flawed. They are poorly designed creatures who do not want to have sex nearly as often as needed for the human race to get alone peaceably and fruitfully.”

When Sanders announced his endorsement Thursday, he was quickly met with backlash from the left. In his statement Thursday, Sanders said that he was “endorsing Cenk because I know he will serve ordinary people, not powerful special interests. He is a voice that we desperately need in Congress & will be a great representative for CA-25 and the country.”

Just an hour before Sanders retracted his endorsement Friday, Uygur tweeted that he appreciated endorsements like Sanders’ while also stating that he would not accept any endorsements because he “will not be beholden to corporations, lobbyists, or special interest groups” and “will not stand by while those groups attack my political allies.”

Shortly after Sanders retracted his endorsement, Uygur posted two confident but confrontational tweets:

In response to Sanders’ retraction, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-NY) tweeted that he is also retracting his endorsement.

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