Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) ripped a page from President Trump’s playbook on Monday during two consecutive town halls, in which he jabbed the Washington Post for what he claimed was unfair coverage.
At town halls in Wolfeboro and North Conway, New Hampshire, Sanders claimed there was a connection between his criticism of Amazon — over its labor practices and tax breaks — and the newspaper’s articles about the senator and 2020 contender, according to the Post, which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
“Anybody here know how much Amazon paid in taxes last year?” Sanders reportedly asked the Wolfeboro crowd. Several in the audience replied: “Nothing!” according to the Post.
“See, I talk about that all of the time and then I wonder why The Washington Post — which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon — doesn’t write particularly good articles about me,” Sanders said, according to the Post. “I don’t know why. But I guess maybe there’s a connection. Maybe we helped raise the minimum wage at Amazon to 15 bucks an hour as well.”
Sanders launched an aggressive campaign against Amazon last year to get the online shopping conglomerate to raise its minimum wage.
In a statement to the Post, the newspaper’s executive editor Martin Baron swatted away Sanders’ suggestion: “Sen. Sanders is a member of a large club of politicians — of every ideology — who complain about their coverage. Contrary to the conspiracy theory the senator seems to favor, Jeff Bezos allows our newsroom to operate with full independence, as our reporters and editors can attest.”
Trump’s alleged a similar conspiracy in the past as well. The President has criticized Amazon for the company’s tax breaks and for what he sees as an unfair burden the company places on the U.S. Postal Service. He has claimed that’s why he gets negative coverage from the Post.
If you’re gonna lose, why not lose ugly?
Populist shrieking to an ever-shrinking base of True Believers.
Bernie cannot fail, he can only be failed. Bernie cannot lose, he can only have his rightful win taken from him.
Dropping in he polls are we Bernie?
Big sad when you realize your time has passed and again you’ll be watching this one from the sidelines.
No Country for wannabee Democrats
Trump speaks English. So do I. We have something in common.
This is clickbait and the only reason I am letting myself get reeled in is because this is a distorting piece. I am not particularly fond of Sanders…but this story highlights why we need a citizenry less abused by talking points and click-bait and more on substantive study of issues.
Trump doesn’t like WAPO because of what it says about him, so he grabs on to another issue he can use to hide his original motivation.
Personally, I don’t like Amazon because it will eventually kill the idea of going shopping (that and mass shooters)** And because it should pay more taxes. Does this make me Trump?
Clever writers can make Allies of any two individuals
** Does this make Bezos the equal of mass shooters?
“Democrats for billionaires” is a losing coalition.
The link on the front page of TPM is absurd. Is one allowed to question the fairness of media coverage without being equated with Donald Trump? This is the type of logic that only convinces people already beholden to it.
Sorry, but the Post and the Times consistently publish slanted stories to portray Sanders in a negative light. Just like TPM is doing here.
If you want to lose again, keep up with the b.s. TPM was consistently anti-Sanders in 2016, and Josh apparently cannot escape his Princeton background and get beyond that kind of Ivy League liberalism it cultivates. But there’s a big country out there, and defining the Democratic base so narrowly as to exclude Sanders supporters is going to lose the election.
How about evaluating Sanders’ criticism on its merits, rather than just making a knee-jerk Trump comparison?
This is the polite version of this comment.