Hillary Clinton’s frustrations with Bernie Sanders spill out onto the pages of her forthcoming book, What Happened, as she complained about his campaign tactics and the fact that he was never truly a Democrat.
‘Because we agreed on so much, Bernie couldn’t make an argument against me in this area on policy, so he had to resort to innuendo and impugning my character,’ Clinton wrote, according to a page tweeted out by journalist and CauseWired founder Tom Watson.
The Vermont senator, Clinton charged, laid the foundation for Donald Trump’s ‘Crooked Hillary’ charge against her, and didn’t have the future of the Democratic Party in mind during his run.
Hillary Clinton (left) continued to express some bitterness with Sen. Bernie Sanders (right) who she said resorted to ‘innuendo and impugning my character’ when the two ran against each other in the Democratic primary last year
Hillary Clinton (left) said she was happy Sen. Bernie Sanders (right) eventually supported her, but she also pointed out that he wasn’t motivated to help the Democratic Party
‘Some of his supporters, the so-called Bernie Bros, took to harassing my supporters online. It got ugly and more than a little sexist,’ Clinton recalled.
During the primary, Sanders would often hint that Clinton was corrupt because of financial donations she took from Wall Street and other large companies.
Hillary Clinton wrote about Bernie Sanders’ campaign tactics in her new book, suggesting they set up Donald Trump’s ‘Crooked Hillary’ nickname
‘When I finally challenged Bernie during a debate to name a single time I changed a position or a vote because of a financial contribution he couldn’t come up with anything,’ Clinton noted.
‘Nonetheless, his attacks caused lasting damage, making it harder to unify progressives in the general election and paving the way for Trump’s “Crooked Hillary” campaign,’ she said.
Clinton wondered aloud if Sanders even cared, as he considered himself a Democratic Socialist, and not a Democrat, and thought about running for president as an independent.
‘I don’t know if that bothered Bernie or not,’ she said. ‘He certainly shared my horror at the thought of Donald Trump becoming president, and I appreciated that he campaigned for me in the general election.’
‘But he isn’t a Democrat – that’s not a smear, that’s what he says,’ Clinton continued.’
‘He didn’t get into the race to make sure a Democrat won the White House, he got in to disrupt the Democratic Party,’ she noted.
Clinton said Sanders was right that the Democratic Party needed to pay more attention to working families.
And she also pointed out that there’s a ‘danger’ in spending too much time fundraising, though blamed it on the country’s ‘insane campaign finance system.’
Clinton also gave credit to Sanders for bringing a lot of young people into the political process.
‘But I think he was fundamentally wrong about the Democratic Party – the party that brought us Social Security under Roosevelt; Medicare and Medicaid under Johnson; peace between Israel and Egypt under Carter; broad-based prosperity and a balanced budget under Clinton; and rescued the auto industry, passed health care reform and imposed tough new rules on Wall Street under Obama,’ Clinton noted.
‘I am proud to be a Democrat and I wish Bernie were, too,’ Clinton said.