First, on Monday, CNN cited anonymous sources to report that in a 2018 one-on-one meeting, Bernie Sanders told Elizabeth Warren that no woman could defeat Donald Trump. This set the Sanders campaign on fire. Campaign manager Faiz Shakir went on the attack demanding that Warren correct the record: “We need to hear from her directly, but I know what she would say — that it is not true, that it is a lie.”
Other Sanders surrogates suggested that the story had no merit:
Larry Cohen, a longtime friend and adviser to Mr. Sanders, had said earlier Monday that Mr. Sanders told him about the meeting after it happened and that he did not believe the report.
“Everything I know about Bernie Sanders for 30 years tells me he would never speak like that, let alone to a woman he admires tremendously,” Mr. Cohen said.
Then Bernie came straight out and denied the story himself, calling it “ludicrous.”
“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,” Mr. Sanders said. “Do I believe a woman can win in 2020? Of course! After all, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by three million votes in 2016.”
Initially, no one from her campaign, including Warren, was willing to offer any comment on the dispute. But as the day wore on, news outlets other that CNN independently confirmed the story. Faced with strong pushback from the Sanders campaign, Warren decided to go on the record.
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said on Monday night that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont told her in 2018 he did not think a woman could win the presidency…
…Ms. Warren, in a statement on Monday night, said that Mr. Sanders made the remark at a two-hour meeting in December 2018 where they discussed the 2020 election and “our past work together and our shared goals,” in particular defeating President Trump.
“Among the topics that came up was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate. I thought a woman could win; he disagreed,” she said.
Obviously, Faiz Shakir was wrong that Warren would call the report a lie. Perhaps Bernie Sanders didn’t think that Warren would turn the tables and call him a liar, but that’s essentially what she did.
In any case, it’s now all out in the open. And it’s probably more consequential that there’s now a credibility contest between these two progressive candidates than it is that there is a dispute over what Sanders may have said. We will never know the exact words that were privately exchanged in December 2018, nor will we ever fully understand the precise context in which those words were said. Some people will be deeply offended by what is alleged and others will not care one whit whether the worst is true or not.
But, barring some significant misunderstanding, only one of them can be telling the truth. And if people decide one of them is the liar, it’s going to do significant damage.
For the Sanders camp, this is a low blow exquisitely timed to cause him problems in the last weeks before the Iowa caucuses. For the Warren camp, it’s an example of both Sanders’s sexism and his bad manners. And if he persists in denying that it happened, he’ll be resented for calling Warren’s honesty into question. There will be lingering bad feelings on both sides, and that’s a problem for both of them should they win the nomination and need to unite progressives for the general campaign.
Both of them did their best to tamp things down. Sanders said his admiration for Warren precluded him from saying anything so disrespectful and dismissive to her face. Warren concluded her confirmation of the story by saying: “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 also said that they remained “friends and allies.”
Yet, people in her camp clearly put this story out. Then they let Sanders twist in the wind all day before bringing the hammer down on him in the evening. If revenge is a dish best served cold, Warren showed her culinary skills today. Maybe it will help her regain some of the momentum she’s lost over the last month or two, but it comes with a hefty price.
On the other hand, if the dig on Warren is she’s not tough enough to take on Trump, she just provided some evidence that she can brawl.
So it was finally confirmed? Because when i went to bed last night it looked like only dipshits like Cillizza and the Romney shill, Jennifer Rubin, were talking about it, so I refused to give it credence at the time.
Well, guess this will end whatever claimed “friendship” existed between the two. As well as any possibility of their being running mates, to the extent that was imaginable.
It should make for some really important and illuminating “discussion” at the final debate as well (sarcasm)…and since they are not arguing over the “truth” of Bernie’s comment in the meeting, it’s now all about credibility. So, bad (or not good) all around.
Jesus, who cares? The planet is on fire, and we are arguing about which one of these fine public servants is being slightly more dishonest about a private conversation that has no more import than my comment on this blog. This is exactly the sort of navel gazing in politics that makes me throw up my hands in despair.
you would think the nomination hangs in the balance. .