Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist who spent the 2016 Democratic primary campaign breathing down Hillary Clinton’s neck – only to run out of breath – insisted Wednesday that he had no idea he was being helped along by Russian trolls bent on sowing chaos.
During an interview on Vermont Public Radio, the far-left senator fielded questions about the race that he watched from the sidelines as Clinton squandered her lead over Donald Trump.
‘If he was aware that Russians were trying to promote him and divide Democrats against Mrs. Clinton, why did he not communicate this to his supporters?’ the host asked him, reading a query submitted by a listener.
Sanders declared that ‘I did not know that Russian bots were promoting my campaign.’
Bernie Sanders insisted Wednesday that he had no idea Russian trolls were boosting his 2016 Democratic primary campaign
One social media posting later traced to Russians was this ad promoting a Bernie Sanders coloring book to LGBT Facebook users
Sanders is a self-described democratic socialist who spent the 2016 Democratic primary campaign breathing down Hillary Clinton’s neck , but his populist appeal wasn’t enough to beat her
‘Russians bots were not promoting my campaign. What we found out is that in April and May, it appeared that there were lots of strange things happening, attacking Hillary Clinton,’ he added.
A St. Petersburg-based tornado of online mischief tried to whip up support for Trump in the final months of the campaign when it seemed he would never catch up.
But the organized Internet miscreants also boosted the underdog Sanders, according to an indictment unsealed Friday by Special counsel Robert Mueller.
The senator said Wednesday that even though Russia-controlled social media accounts tried to boost his cause, they didn’t actually support his message.
‘This was not supporting me any more than they were supporting groups like Black Lives Matter that are fighting for social justice,’ said Sanders.
‘Trust me. That’s not what they were doing. They were trying to cause division.’
But ‘we did not know early on,’ he added.
He also suggested that the Clinton campaign may have known to some extent that Russian digital invaders were monkey-wrenching the 2016 campaign process.
Mueller’s indictment fingered 13 Russians and three companies, alleging that they plotted and executed their political confusion campaign between 2014 and 2016.
‘The real question to be asked is, what was the Clinton campaign [doing]? They had more information about this than we did,’ Sanders huffed.
‘What was the Clinton campaign [doing]? They had more information about this than we did,’ Sanders huffed, referring to the Russians’monkeywrenching
Sanders ultimately campaigned for Clinton in the general election season, while the Russian operation was sowing more and more chaos
‘So did the Clinton campaign say, “Don’t talk about this?”‘ the public radio interviewer asked.
‘No, of course not,’ Sanders replied. ‘But who do you think would be raising that issue?’
‘We knew what we knew when we knew it, and that’s about all that I can say,’ he added.