2020 Democratic candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) confirmed on Monday night that she and progressive rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had disagreed on whether a female candidate could win the presidency in 2020.
According to Warren, the subject arose when she and Sanders had met in December 2018 for several hours to discuss the race.
“Among the topics that came up was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate,” Warren said in a statement. “I thought a woman could win; he disagreed.”
“I have no interest in discussing this private meeting any further because Bernie and I have far more in common than our differences on punditry,” she added.
The Massachusetts senator also said she and Sanders “have been friends and allies in this fight for a long time, and I have no doubt we will continue to work together to defeat Donald Trump and put our government on the side of the people.”
Sanders had flatly denied that he’d made the comment after CNN reported on the conversation Monday.
“It is ludicrous to believe that at the same meeting where Elizabeth Warren told me she was going to run for president, I would tell her that a woman couldn’t win,” he said. “It’s sad that, three weeks before the Iowa caucus and a year after that private conversation, staff who weren’t in the room are lying about what happened.”
