2016 Redux: Clinton, Sanders Campaign Keep Up Beef Three Days Before Iowa Caucuses

US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (L), D-MI, high-fives US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (C), D-WA, with US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, D-MN, as they speak to supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie... US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (L), D-MI, high-fives US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (C), D-WA, with US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, D-MN, as they speak to supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders at a campaign event in Clive, Iowa, on January 31, 2020. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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With just three days before the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders’ campaign kept up their years long grudge.

In a podcast Friday, Clinton maintained her attack on Sanders that he didn’t do enough to boost her campaign after she clinched the nomination last cycle.

“All the way up until the end, a lot of people highly identified with his campaign were urging people to vote third party, urging people not to vote,” Clinton told Emily Tisch Sussman, host of the “Your Primary Playlist” podcast. The New York Times flagged the interview. “It had an impact.”

That echoed comments from Clinton from an upcoming documentary, in which she said of Sanders, “Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him.” In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter last month, she said she stood by that assessment.

Meanwhile, in Iowa — where Sanders is surging ahead of Monday’s vote — a surrogate for his campaign joined in when the crowd started booing a mention of Cliton’s name.

“I’ll boo,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said after Clinton’s name was smothered in boos during a packed rally. “You all know, I can’t be quiet. We’re going to boo. The haters will shut up on Monday when we win.” Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who’ve also endorsed Sanders, laughed on stage in response. (Tlaib tweeted Saturday morning, “In this instance, I allowed my disappointment with Secretary Clinton’s latest comments about Senator Sanders and his supporters get the best of me.”)

Sanders himself has stayed above the fray over the past few days; he and several other Democratic presidential contenders were stuck in the Senate Friday night as Republicans voted against hearing any new witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

The hard feelings between Clinton and Sanders have continued on for years despite, Sanders’ supporters point out, the dozens of speeches he gave for Clinton in 2016.

In the podcast interview released Friday, Clinton said she didn’t care who the Democratic nominee for the presidency was — “as long as it’s somebody who can win, and as long as it’s somebody who understands that politics is the art of addition, not subtraction.”

There was little love lost between the two sides Friday night.

“A hater said — by the name of Hillary Clinton, we’re calling names out here, taking shots — that nobody likes Bernie Sanders,” Des Moines School Board member Dionna Langford said, referring to the Clinton documentary, after the initial booing died down.

“We have three days to show the entire country how much we like Bernie Sanders! And it starts here in Iowa.”

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Notable Replies

  1. Team sanders, doing what they must to bring about the collapse of America by helping drump win again.

  2. What Clinton campaign?

  3. Some people need to grow the fuck up.

  4. Avatar for j.dave j.dave says:

    My first vote was for George McGovern in 1972.

    Against Richard Nixon

    Four-plus months after the Watergate break-in.

    Please tell me the Democrats have learned something about winning since then.

    We just saw what the Republicans have learned.

  5. Sanders will NOT be the nominee. That’s not me opening up a pie fight, that’s fact.

    “All the way up until the end, a lot of people highly identified with his campaign were urging people to vote third party, urging people not to vote,”

    Not slander but fact. His surrogates were encouraging people to vote for him or 3rd party no matter what. And here we are now. This isn’t a change election; this is a return to something resembling sanity election.

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