Clinton: Sanders and supporters did not do enough to unify party in 2016

[left-of-center2012]

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and his supporters of not doing enough to unify the party behind her White House bid in 2016 and said that their behavior affected the general election. “All the way up until the end, a lot of people highly identified with his campaign were urging people to vote third party, urging people not to vote,” she said in an interview on the podcast “Your Primary Playlist.” “It had an impact.”

Clinton accused Sanders’s supporters of drawing out the nominating contest by refusing to come around to her presidential campaign all the way through to the 2016 Democratic National Convention. So fast forward. I mean, you had, unfortunately, a very different outcome in the 2016 primary, where I won by 4 million votes. I won overwhelmingly in delegates,” said Clinton. “There was no question about who was going to be the nominee.”

“But unfortunately, you know, his campaign and his principal supporters were just very difficult and really, constantly not just attacking me, but my supporters," she added.

Clinton also drew a sharp contrast between Sanders’s alleged lackluster efforts to back her and her efforts to support Barack Obama after his primary victory over her in 2008, saying the difference was “night and day.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/480990-clinton-sanders-and-supporters-did-not-do-enough-to-unify-party-in-2016

[mchill]

1. That's how I remember it

Left a bad taste in my mouth and I the only reason I chose Hilary was because of who Bernie was.

[democrattotheend]

48. Same here

I actually supported Bernie in 2016 in the primaries, but I was disappointed in his refusal to concede for a month after the primaries were over, and with his half-hearted support of Hillary even after he conceded. And it made me angry because I remember how hard Hillary worked to help Obama in 2008 and I felt like she deserved the same from Bernie in 2016. That's the biggest reason I am not supporting him in the primaries now.

That said, I wish Hillary would not paint all of his supporters with such a broad brush. The vast majority of us did support her once the primaries were over. If by "supporters", she's talking about his high profile surrogates, I wish she'd specify that. I also don't see what the point is of her coming out and saying this stuff now, or what she or the party gains by it. Most of Bernie's diehard supporters don't care what she has to say or may be even more galvanized by it, and those of us who supported her in the general already know all this.

[LiberalFighter]

2. That is the way I saw it. I was also keeping track of the numbers.

[lapucelle]

3. A senior advisor on the 2020 BS campaign...

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[MH1]

4. That's my feeling too.

I was praying Bernie would be decent enough and have the perspective to stay out this time. Sigh.

[Kurt V.]

5. you know what?... After multiple threads I'm just going to say it.

She was an unpopular candidate that thought is was * her turn* . she should have won easily but didn't. this is on her. and comey and the Russians but she chooses to blame sanders. good grief.

[MH1]

9. Yeah, but I know my experience with Sanders supporters IRL.

I preferred Sanders over Clinton in 2016 and was initially happy he got in then. I thought Hillary had too much baggage - not all her fault, but reality. I never expected her to win against any credible Republican.

But she could have beaten Trump. I do blame Sanders' supporters based on my own experience, for the pile on and continued attacks and refusal to accept it when she was clearly the nominee. She didn't lose by much. That crap I experienced seems like it would've made the difference. Could she have been better, sure. But (some) Sanders' supporters were complete a-holes and didn't give a shit if they threw the election to Trump, and in my mind they probably did.

[democrattotheend]

49. Well said

And I agree 100%. Of course, Bernie wasn't the only or the main reason she lost. But with the election being as close as it was, I can't rule out the possibility that earlier and more full-throated support from Bernie and his top surrogates might have made a difference. That said, I do think a substantial share of the Bernie supporters who voted for Jill Stein would have voted for her even if Bernie hadn't run in the primaries.

[TwilightZone]

11. "thought is was * her turn* "

This is just as ridiculous an assertion as it's always been. The only people who ever made that assertion were her critics, including Sanders supporters and idiots like Jill Stein. Clinton sure as hell never said it.

Some of them are *still* running against her and she's not even in the race.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

53. -1

Bernie/Elizabeth or Elizabeth/Bernie 2020!!
Either way, they're stronger together & can't be bought!!
Jump on the Bernie Bandwagon & join The Revolution!!

[zackymilly]

38. Sexist? If Hillary was a man, 'he' still would have thought it was 'his' turn. n/t

[Kurt V.]

39. just ignore me. like many I'm just exhausted by the whole mess of trump.

btw my candidate is warren. I'm no sexist.

[Hav]

40. Yes, I was aware you support Warren

and I apologize for the accusation that I made despite that knowledge and self-deleted. I'm just as exhausted about these kind of lazy attacks about someone feeling it's their turn but that is opinion based either way from both of us.

[Kurt V.]

41. fair enough. Its a crazy time.

[TheFarseer]

46. Thank you

I don’t think I have ever before seen a general election loser blame a primary competitor. Especially when there were so many other factors. If anyone else tried to use this excuse, they would be shouted down by everyone.

[BlueWI]

65. No kidding.

25 years of the Clintons. The party is bigger than one family.

How ironic for her to relitigate 2016 constantly while accusing a current candidate of not unifying the party.

It's good that the voters will speak up soon.

[msongs]

6. we ain't seen nothing yet nt

[aikoaiko]

7. I don't recall Hillary or her supporters doing much to help unify.

I remember a lot of "get the eff out of here"

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

56. They had a name for it... PUMA. More Hillary supporters refused to vote for Obama for President

than Bernie supporters who refused to vote for Hillary for President. So, Hillary's latest attack on Bernie comes as no surprise... Hillary needs to apologize to Bernie for that, like Tlaib apologized to Hillary. Instead of opening up old wounds, we need to reheal those wounds - long overdue - and start the unification process.

ttp://imgur.com/XGFl2EI.jpg
Bernie/Elizabeth or Elizabeth/Bernie 2020!!
Either way, they're stronger together & can't be bought!!
Jump on the Bernie Bandwagon & join The Revolution!!

[babylonsister]

8. To me, she sounds petty.

I wish she'd use her voice to bash iq45 a lot more.

This is no longer her fight.

[JudyM]

25. This. A very un-classy followup to her publicly shaming him with her meangirls comment about

nobody liking him. He refrained from responding, except for asking his team to not respond, and here she is hitting again. What a low class thing to do.

[lapucelle]

54. It's a shot across the bow of any toxic anti-Democratic Party operatives

who are planning on handing the keys to the White House to Trump a second time.

You know what's really low class?




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[JudyM]

55. "Look over there," nope. Different problem.

[lapucelle]

59. Nice try, but it's concrete evidence of the the toxic element

from the 2016 general election that HRC is referencing.

Who on earth would hire such people?

Why on earth would you hire such people?

For their judgement?



You'd think a doctor serving as a surrogate would be better at scrubbing up a twitter account.

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As for bribri, she can feel free to hear HRC's explanation of why she is not going to let it happen again.

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[lapucelle]

62. And let's not forget this guy.

David Sirota tending a sick child.



https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/sanders-promised-civility-hired-twitter-attack-dog/585259/

[Amimnoch]

35. ROFLMAO! Really?!?

When there are 7 different threads of either Bernie, or his campaign leadership, or his surrogates attacking the "Democratic Party Establishment" right now..

An ACTUAL candidate running this year spending all this effort to attack our party, our leadership, our policies, and our candidates..

You know what I don't see right now... at all.. ANYWHERE on the main page?? Anything about Bernie attacking Republicans or Trump in particular.

so, let me paraphrase your sentiment:

I wish He'd use his voice to bash iq45 a lot more.

[Aaron Pereira]

10. We would all like to leave 2016 in the past but she's not making it easy.

It was her campaign strategy to "disqualify him, defeat him and unify the party later". She really ought to take responsibility for that instead of continually lashing out at a current candidate.

[TwilightZone]

12. It's her job to defeat him.

That's kind of the idea behind primaries. Only one candidate can win.

This place makes me laugh sometimes.

[Aaron Pereira]

14. Nice way to portray a scorched earth campaign.

In private this is what her campaign chair was saying:

> Bernie needs to be ground to a pulp. We can't start believing our own
> primary bullshit. This is no time to run the general. Crush him as hard
> as you can.

Yes, tough campaigns happen but the responsibility was for her to unify afterwards. She would be better off recognizing the failure instead of blaming everyone else.

[betsuni]

22. No.

Hillary: "Throughout the primaries, every time I wanted to hit back against Bernie's attacks, I was told to restrain myself. Noting that his plans didn't add up, that they would inevitably mean raising taxes on middle-class families, or that they were little more than a pipe dream -- all of this could be used to reinforce his argument that I wasn't a true progressive. My team kept reminding me that we didn't want to alienate Bernie's supporters. President Obama urged me to grit my teeth and lay off Bernie as much as I could. I felt like I was in a straightjacket."

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

58. Truth!!

Bernie/Elizabeth or Elizabeth/Bernie 2020!!
Either way, they're stronger together & can't be bought!!
Jump on the Bernie Bandwagon & join The Revolution!!

[babylonsister]

23. Huh? Why? Her job?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

57. +1,000,000,000!!

Bernie/Elizabeth or Elizabeth/Bernie 2020!!
Either way, they're stronger together & can't be bought!!
Jump on the Bernie Bandwagon & join The Revolution!!

[totodeinhere]

13. I hope that nothing like this happens this time.

The party really need to be unified if we are going to have a chance to win. Don't be fooled by current polls showing Trump losing. It's close in swing states and that's what matters.

[squirecam]

15. This isn't helpful.

I’m the last one to vote for Sanders. I’d even vote Tulsi over him.

But she really has zero grounds to complain. I remember 2008. That election was OVER long before she finally conceded. Yet she continued with a scheme to get Florida and Michigan to count, or sway super delegates to vote for her instead. And the PUMAS were a vocal group doing the same thing sanders supporters did.

The difference was the PUMAS were a smaller group. Obama was a better unifier.

And after finally conceding, she did work hard for his election. No matter why she did, the truth is she worked hard.

But this complaining over 2016 sounds more like sour grapes now. We NEED everyone on board. Biden and the others can defend themselves. Hillary getting involved is only going to reopen old wounds. See the many threads here as evidence.

It’s not like her campaign didn’t make mistakes too. Not to mention Comey and Russia.

We need to STOP with the divisive stuff.

Sanders will win or lose on merit. Personally, I think it’s going to be lose.

[David__77]

24. I appreciate your perspective on unity.

...

[democrattotheend]

52. I disagree. Hillary vigorously distanced herself from the PUMA's in 2008.

Bernie had vocal delegates at the convention saying they wouldn't vote for Hillary. I understand that Bernie chose a lot of rank and file supporters/volunteers as delegates, which I admire, and that he had less control over them, but I still feel like he should have done more to bring his supporters on board. For example, he could have pointed out that Hillary actually got more votes in the primaries, and she didn't just get the nomination because of superdelegates.

That said, I don't see what she or the party gains by her continuing to attack Bernie now.

[yaesu]

16. After the primary all of his supporters, me included, should have united behind HRC, which I did

even before the primary I would defend any candidate against unwarranted attacks. But tRumps russan bots helped keep the unrest going & Bernies supporters as a whole should have done a better job.

[Gothmog]

17. I saw this first hand at the National Convention

Normally going to a national convention is a once in a life time experience. I have worked really hard inside the party on campaigns and voter protection issues for a very long time to earn this trip. Too bad that sanders and his vetted delegates ruined that experience and did their best to help trump. A candidate has absolute approval rights over their pledged delegates because these delegates can change their votes and these delegates represent the candidate and campaign. I helped vet Clinton delegates and I know that I was vetted. The Clinton campaign told us that we represent her and that our actions would reflect on her and her campaign.

In contrast, sanders sent one very weak text the Sunday night before the convention and then did little or nothing to control his delegates. It was nasty I was there when the sanders delegates booed Congressman John Lewis. I was warned about this stunt 30 minutes before it happened by the Clinton campaign whip. According to my whip, sanders was asked to stop this event and declined. That incident will be used against sanders if he runs in 2020.

I was at the Texas delegation breakfast when a group of sanders delegates marched in and demanded that we condemn Clinton and change our votes to sanders.

sanders spoke to the Texas delegation the next morning and his speech was again solely about himself. There was a mini-riot due to his delegates the prior morning and the only thing that sanders talked about was himself. sanders did nothing to deal with the fact that his delegates were out of control and did nothing to try to help Hillary Clinton win the general election.

Finally a group of sanders delegates yelled at my daughter and called her the c-Word because she would not try to get me to change my vote. Again sanders was asked to tell his delegates to behave during the convention and sanders refused

[DURHAM D]

18. Drivel from The Hill.

Does not look like Hillary was interviewed nor did she recently speak at an event. This writer just put together some shit so he could get some attention.

This is crap.

[Don1]

31. It's more than crap

It's propaganda from a conservative source meant to ignite division in the Dem Party. This is the kind of thing that will work against unity later. I hope people reading stuff like this see past it and don't let themselves become Trump assets.

[Skittles]

19. she is very much correct

so sick of cult-like behavior

[pansypoo53219]

20. UNITY!!! if he fucking wins. WE NEED TO BEAT THE DAUGHTER FUCKER! JOB 1. UNITY!!!!!

[squirecam]

21. This isn't appropriate.

Don’t make unsubstantiated claims of trump incest.

[EveHammond13]

26. that's what Rick Wilson says. He reams Bernie in his new book.

[DanTex]

27. Rick Wilson the Republican?

[EveHammond13]

28. careful careful - for those supporting non-Democrats for president that sounds kinda bad.

[DanTex]

30. Just checking. Cause if it's the GOP Rick Wilson, of course he's attacking Bernie.

Republicans hate Bernie's policies.

[TheFarseer]

47. He's running as a Democrat

I hope you’re mad about Bloomberg too

[EveHammond13]

29. full ignore for you. I don't have the stomach today for more abuse from that side

[Don1]

32. Fake News

The conservative thehill.com makes it sound like these were all recent comments. This was part of the interview comments Hillary already apologized for.

Why does this conservative news source want you to believe them?

1. Fighting among Dems is good to distract away from the removal of democracy by the Trumpublicans, i.e. the ownership class;
2. Reopening these wounds will make Dems bitter and fail to unify, thus helping Trump.

Liberal democracy has been undermined. REFOCUS.

Don't repeat conservative propaganda.

Don't be a Trump asset.

[Historic NY]

33. If Sanders thought he could win why not run as an independent....

he's doing the same crap as the last time and the same people that were steiners are now with him.....

The same people that trash the Democrats, but use the guise of being one when they are not.....my revolution is the disaster that Trump wants to run against.

A lot of Democrats remember the shameful performance of Sanders and the convention antics. He will not get one dime from me.

[Squinch]

34. Yep. The Russians pretending to be bros and fomenting hatred within the party didn't help either.

And they're at it again.

[Hav]

37. She's right, of course

How can anyone even deny that when one remembers their disgusting behaviour at the convention (one of many examples) because they couldn't accept the will of the democratic voters. And then, several of Sanders' current staff proudly voted for Stein.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

60. Bernie's NOT doing the rehashing. Hillary's attack on Bernie was UNPROVOKED! He did not even respond

except to joke about his wife liking him on a good day. To compare the two is a false equivalence.


Bernie/Elizabeth or Elizabeth/Bernie 2020!!
Either way, they're stronger together & can't be bought!!
Jump on the Bernie Bandwagon & join The Revolution!!

[ehrnst]

61. It's not an an "attack" if it's accurate...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287465223#post2

[mcar]

43. She is, of course, correct

[Scurrilous]

44. K&R

[wyldwolf]

45. That's because there is no way to undo the damage they did

If Bernie is the nominee, he gets my vote. ONE vote from me. I won't donate. I won't canvass. I won't defend his controversial and, quite frankly, sickening quotes on women, immigrants, and Democrats. I would say I won't defend his record but he really doesn't have one to defend.

However, any Democrat running against so-called 'Bernie Democrats' WILL get my donations and votes. AOC's primary opponent? "The Squad's" primary opponents? They get all my support. Any "d"emocrat running as a 'Berniecrat' doesn't. Simple as that.

[Zolorp]

50. I can't say she's wrong about that.

[grumpyduck]

51. Honestly, I wish she would stay quiet. It's bad enough as it is.

[demofan40]

63. She's saying it because Sanders surrogates are still doing it.

Sanders team is doing it to Biden, saying he's a racist.

They're doing it to Warren, saying she's a Republican at heart.

They're doing it to Buttigieg, saying he's too corporate and even going so far as to slam the guy's military service and use it against him. I mean, you want to talk shameful behavior?

[Gothmog]

64. I kind of regret Clinton not using oppo on sanders earlier

I regret that Clinton did not use this oppo on sanders in 2016 but no one took a weak candidate like sanders seriously and sanders was mathematically eliminated after the super Tuesday contests

Link to tweet

[betsuni]

66. Bookmarking so I'll remember this. Thanks!