Sanders Defends Clinton Over Leaked Fundraiser Audio: ‘I Agree With Her’ (VIDEO)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. wave to supporters during a rally in Portsmouth, N.H., Tuesday, July 12, 2016, where Sanders endorsed Clinton for president. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and his staffers have dismissed the uproar over audio leaked from a February Hillary Clinton fundraiser in which the Democratic nominee describes young supporters of the Vermont senator as frustrated and struggling to find work.

“Well, I agree with her, what she is saying,” Sanders said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“There are young people who went deeply into debt, worked very hard to get a good education, and yet get out of school and can’t get decent jobs … and are living in their parents’ basements. There is a point there.”

Sanders said he was “of course” bothered by Clinton’s claim that he made “false promises” to his supporters during the 2016 campaign, but insisted he still wanted them to vote for her.

Sanders made the same case on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, saying Clinton was “absolutely correct” about the challenges young Americans are facing.


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In the recording from the February event, which leaked on Sept. 27, Clinton referred to some Sanders supporters as “new to politics completely” and stuck “living in their parents’ basement.”

“They feel they got their education and the jobs that are available to them are not at all what they envisioned for themselves,” she said. “And they don’t see much of a future.”

Donald Trump has tried to make political hay over the recording, saying Clinton’s remarks reveal her condescension to Sanders’ supporters.

On Twitter and on the stump on Saturday, Trump said the audio was proof that Clinton did not represent their interests.

Yet Trump’s effort to pin the former of secretary of state with a nine-sentence prepared statement at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday night was derailed when the candidate broke off into a stream of angry tangents. The Washington Post reported that Trump spent the bulk of the rally—which came the night that the New York Times published a story revealing that the real estate mogul may avoiding paying any federal income tax for 18 years—railing about his “bum mic” at the first presidential debate and mocking Clinton as “crazy” and unfaithful to her husband.

Trump also attacked Sanders during the rally in Manheim, saying he had “much bigger crowds than Bernie Sanders ever had” and labeling him “crazy” as well.

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