Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., addressed some of the criticism lobbed at him by Hillary Clinton, who suggested her Democratic primary opponent stayed in the race too long and helped set up President Trump’s win.
‘I worked as hard as I could to see that Hillary Clinton would be elected president,’ the Vermont senator told NBC’s Chuck Todd.
Sanders dropped a ‘no kidding’ as he mentioned how ‘people,’ namely Clinton, were pointing out the fact that not every one of his voters went on to support her.
‘That’s what happens in politics,’ Sanders snipped.
‘No kidding!’ said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday over the idea that all of his supporters would go on and vote for Hillary Clinton, his rival in last year’s Democratic primary
NBC’s Chuck Todd (left) asked Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. (right), about some of the criticism lobbed at him by Hillary Clinton, who released a book about the 2016 campaign last week
‘If my memory is correct in 2008 something like 24 percent of the people who voted for Hillary Clinton in the primaries ended up voting for John McCain,’ Sanders continued. ‘That’s the nature of politics.’
Sanders said he believed that most Americans are rigidly Republican or Democratic.
‘They vote where they want,’ he said.
In promoting her new book, What Happened, Clinton suggested that she had more gracefully bowed out, and paved the way for President Obama to win the White House in 2008, than how Sanders treated her eight years later.
‘Once it was over, it was over and I quickly endorsed President Obama,’ she said of her experience in 2008 during an interview for the Pod Save America podcast.
‘I didn’t get anything like that respect from Sanders and his supporters,’ she noted. ‘And it hurt, you know, to have basically captured the nomination, ending up with more than 4 million votes than he had – but he dragged it out,’ she said.
Sanders’ last best hope was to trounce Clinton in the California primary on June 7.
That didn’t happen, however, with Clinton winning the state by 7 points.
Instead of dropping out then, Sanders soldiered on with his campaign until July 12.
In her book, Clinton also says Sanders’ implication that she was corrupt because she took Wall Street and corporate campaign donations made it easier for Trump to label her ‘Crooked Hillary’ when they faced off in the general election.
‘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 recalled from her time in the Democratic primary against Sanders.
‘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.