Sanders spokeswoman: We saw the consequences of a 'hold your nose candidate' in 2016

[RandySF]

A spokeswoman for Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) presidential campaign urged Democrats to rally behind the Vermont senator on Wednesday, warning against the prospect of nominating a "hold your nose" candidate for the sake of electability.

Briahna Gray told CNN's "New Day" that a candidate like former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg would face difficulties in November similar to those faced by Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee in 2016.

"This is a primary election. And it's important for voters to realize that in a primary election, it's our opportunity to not be stuck with a candidate who is a hold your nose candidate, or a lesser of two evils candidate." Gray said. "We saw what the consequences of that were in 2016."

"What we don’t need is millions of Americans staying home because they don’t feel like there’s a politician in this race that is speaking to their material interests," she added.



https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/483602-sanders-spokeswoman-we-saw-the-consequences-of-a-hold-your-nose-candidate

[MrsCoffee]

1. Oh Flock off Gray.

Get your guy off the stage then.

[PatSeg]

4. Yeah, that might work

[jrthin]

51. Thank you. You've cleaned up what I wanted to say.

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. Says the woman who voted for Jill Stein. We may see a repeat of 2016 with Sanders at the top. nt

[RandiFan1290]

3. Briahna Gray!!

[MrsCoffee]

7. Lol.

[Beakybird]

5. Sanders is the definitive "hold your nose candidate."

No legislative accomplishments. Worst of all, he hired Briahna Gray, Jill Stein supporter, as his spokeswoman.

[Cha]

15. omg.. first thing I thought of as the 3rd party stein voter

dissed Hillary.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Bernie would be my "hold your nose" candidate even more than Bloomberg.

I'd vote for either of them over Trump, but not with much enthusiasm.

[DonaldsRump]

9. You wrote exactly what I was going to post

k&r +1000

[Cha]

16. Yeah, does the stein voter even hear herself?

[katmondoo]

20. Me too, that is exactly how I feel

[Zoonart]

28. Me too.

It's this kind of shit from Sanders' surrogates that pisses me off about his campaign more than anything else.
Their utter disdain for the Democratic Party.
NOT A DEMOCRAT.

[Green Line]

29. +1000

[W_HAMILTON]

45. Yep.

Given that it's almost guaranteed that Sanders won't win a majority of the popular vote this nomination, he will be the epitome of a "hold your nose" candidate for the majority of Democrats that DIDN'T want him to be our nominee. And while it is against the rules to not support the Democratic nominee around here -- I will vote for whoever wins the nomination -- you can rest assured that there will be plenty outside this message board that will not vote for him in the general, much like BrieBrie didn't vote for Hillary. And there will be a HELLUVA lot bigger pool of those not voting for Sanders in the general given his pace to win only ~25-35% of the popular vote.

[jmg257]

8. Yep - she nailed it. Also alluded to why settle when you can support

someone leading with white voters, leading with Latinos, & leading with black voters.

She also would not say Bloomberg is/would be better then trump - even though she was asked 3 times!! She deflected each time.

[TDale313]

22. ANYONE is better than Trump

I don’t want Bloomberg. But do I think he’s better than Trump? Yes, absolutely.

[ChiTownDenny]

49. And better than Bernie.

Bloomberg has a record of accomplishments. FWIW.

[TDale313]

59. Bernie's not my first or even second choice

But the Bernie hate is ridiculous. If he ends up the nominee I will have no problem whole heartedly supporting the guy with the wacky ideas everyone should have health care and billionaires should pay their fair share over the asshole putting babies in cages and destroying our system of checks and balances. If you can even compare your dislike of the two, your priorities are seriously screwed up. There is no comparison. Sanders is not the Trump of the Left. People need to get a grip. The BDS is out of control.

[ChiTownDenny]

61. Um, you said:

"I don’t want Bloomberg. But do I think he’s better than Trump? Yes, absolutely."
I agree. Peace and chill...

[TDale313]

64. I don't find the infighting and tearing each other down helpful.

🤷🏻?♀️ I at least try to be consistent on that.

[William769]

69. So I assume you are ok with Hillary being called a Hold your nose candidate?

Because that is what the OP is about or did you already forget that?

[TDale313]

70. Don't find that helpful, either. No.

That said, she’s not running this time.

[William769]

72. you seem to find nothing helpful unless it's for Bernie or Warren.

Have a nice day.

[TDale313]

74. Well, fwiw, my first post in this thread

Was calling out an unhelpful attack on Bloomberg... so yeah. And I was very happy to vote for Hillary in the General. No nose holding whatsoever, even though I liked Bernie in the primaries.

Genuinely not looking for a fight. Hate the idea that *whoever* our nominee ends up being is so bloodied they’re too damaged to win in November. And yes, I felt this way four years ago and said so.

Done here too. Ready for the primaries to be done. Hate this part.

[Cha]

42. No.. bjg didn't "nail" anything.

[Demsrule86]

10. Sanders is a hold your nose kind of candidate.

[justhanginon]

52. I think we may be approaching "nose amputation candidate" territory.

[Squinch]

11. Hillary was only a "hold your nose" candidate to the bros.

The rest of us quite liked her.

[Tom Rinaldo]

30. I don't like use of this term for either Hillary or Bernie, but it is political shorthand

I get that Bernie is a so called "hold you nose candidate" to you and others who have similar views of him. But your claim that Hillary was only a so called "hold your nose" candidate to so called "Bernie Bro's" is laughable. I fully agree with those who believe she would have served quite well in office, but Hillary had negative approval ratings with the general public throughout her entire campaign.

I also get that you believe the same will be true of Sanders if he gets the nomination, but currently he has high approval ratings and enthusiasm. Sanders is polling as well or better now among People of Color as he is with whites.

[Moderateguy]

66. I'll believe his support when it materializes into votes

We will know soon enough

[StevieM]

76. Actually, she entered the race with good poll numbers, after having been

the most popular politician in America for a few year. Then she got swift boated.

But I guess all of that has been written out of the history books.

[Act_of_Reparation]

12. I felt a great disturbance in the Force...

...as if millions of voices suddenly cried in collective outrage.

[Iliyah]

13. Will Bernie supporters "hold their nose" (which some did in 2016) . . .

if Bernie is not the nominee, or, like in 2016, many of his supporters did not vote or went third party, write in crapola.

It works "both" way.

[mcar]

14. Stein voter says what?

She also compared requests for Bernie's medical records to birtherism.

[Cha]

17. Not the same and she Must know that.

[Iliyah]

26. At least Pres O produced a certified copy of his . . .

birth certificate . .

Which the Right Wingers still claimed as "fake".

[dalton99a]

39. Bingo.

[Stuart G]

18. There it is, "totally useless attack on Hillary"...So stupid that person needs to be fired now.

While it is an attempt to unify behind Bernie, a clear attempt to divide us. Hillary we are being told is a "hold your nose candidate."

[delisen]

21. So sad that Sanders hired this person.nt l

[Kerrycrat]

23. I was not happy in 2016

None of the candidates we have in 2020 will have me holding my nose.

[W_HAMILTON]

47. To be honest, none of these candidates can hold a candle to Hillary.

We let her down and fucked up as a country and we are all paying the price for it.

[Kerrycrat]

60. I'm sure she would have been fine

She reminds me of Kerry in one way. Would have been a good president, but was was a not so great campaigner

[Happy Hoosier]

25. Sanders is the definitive "hold your nose" candidate for me.

I'll vote for him for sure, but with the full expectation he will be crushed and the democratic party damaged for at least a generation.

[riversedge]

27. That is a horrible thing to say. !!!

[Turin_C3PO]

31. I proudly worked for,

donated to, and voted for Hillary. No nose holding involved. Now if Sanders or Bloomberg gets the nomination that will be another story.

[gollygee]

32. I didn't have to hold my nose to vote for Hillary

but I would have to hold it to vote for Bernie.

[romana]

33. Joy in my heart

I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 with joy in my heart. I would vote for Hillary Clinton again with joy in my heart. I cannot say the same about the prospect of voting for Bernie Sanders, which makes me want to throw up in my mouth.

The Sanders campaign can go straight to hell with their "do as I say, not as I do" arrogance and entitlement.

I swear, watching the Sanders campaign, I feel like I'm watching some skit about a parody of a campaign and waiting for the punchline that never comes.

[betsuni]

34. Because she believed the fictional propaganda version of Hillary Clinton.

[Cha]

79. Helped create it?

[MineralMan]

35. Bullshit, Briahna.

So, you voted for Jill Stein? Go away, please.

[ehrnst]

36. Not showing very good judgement on the part of the campaign or the candidate who hired her.

[radius777]

37. Wow, slam of Hillary, the first female nominee of a major party,

who won 3 million more votes despite sexism, BernieBros, Russian interference, Wikileaks, Comey, etc.

Sanders has accomplished very little, despite being a white guy from a rural white state, where he faces very little political risk.

Whatever Bloomberg's flaws he was the successful mayor of a diverse city of 8 millon people, dealing with all of the chaos and complexity that entails.

[dawg day]

38. Sec'y Clinton won far more votes than either Sanders

Or Trump. Maybe Sanders should stop his aides from trashing someone who actually went against the trump buzzsaw.

[redstatebluegirl]

40. His people are horrible.

Why don't they just start their own party and see how far that goes. Yes, they will take some of ours with them, but not many who actually show up and vote.

[highplainsdem]

41. What we don't need is a campaign staffer for the candidate who lost the last primary being divisive

as hell and insulting the woman who defeated Sanders then and got more popular votes than Trump.

Not to mention Gray lying through her teeth about Bloomberg's health.

[robbedvoter]

43. She voted for Jill Stein. Hillary won by 3 million in spite of it

with this result

Link to tweet

[StevieM]

77. Gary Johnson took more votes from Clinton than from Trump.

And none of this would have mattered if James Comey hadn't rigged the whole damn thing for Trump.

[SoCalNative]

44. She has it backwards

the only "hold your nose" candidate in 2016 would have been Bernie. And for this election as well.

[CalFione]

46. This is funny, because Sanders is the ULTIMATE "hold your nose" candidate

for a far large majority of Americans than Hillary Clinton ever was.

[KPN]

48. There's a reason these two colloquialisms --

“hold your nose” and “lesser of two evils” are colloquialisms.

Is there anyone who genuinely thinks there wasn’t a substantial amount of that on both sides in the 2016 GE?

Did we not all lament the lack of turnout in some States in 2016?

[George II]

50. Did she mention any time during that interview that she voted for Jill Stein?

[still_one]

53. I have NOTHING GOOD TO SAY ABOUT JILL STEIN SUPPORTER Briahna Joy Gray.

[COLGATE4]

54. Yep. 3,000,000 more voters than Trump got. Some consequences! nt

[Raftergirl]

55. I've had several Bernie voters

tell me they won’t vote for Bloomberg if he gets the nomination.

Everyone else I know who are either undecided or have another preferred candidate say the will vote blue no matter who.

I find it rich a spokesperson of Bernie’s would insinuate that those of us who aren’t supporting Bernie in the primary would do that - when they are the ones who will do exactly that.

[krissey]

58. Only 53% of Sanders supporters say they would vote for a Democrat. Tell me

they are non voters anyway or not Democrats, anyway.

[Raftergirl]

62. Nope.

D voters.

I live in a county in upstate NY that went for Bernie in the 2016 primary. Probably the only county in Upstate that did.

[Cha]

65. +1!

[samnsara]

56. thats basically what i will do if bs is the nom.. so they are telling me i shouldnt do it?..and NOT

..vote?

[krissey]

57. That was ugly, again.

[Mz Pip]

63. I didn't hold my nose

Besides an unenthusiastic vote counts just the same as an enthusiast vote. Takes the same amount of time to vote, too.

[Blue_true]

67. My are they selective. I will have to hold my nose while supporting Sanders. nt

[Corgigal]

68. Does this profession (?]

understand she’s attacking voters? Hillary is fine, but she’s attacking the people who s believes will show up this election for her boss?

Crazy, stupid.

[Zolorp]

71. Briahna Gray helped elect Trump in 2016

Link to tweet

Fuck Briahna Gray. She is no Democrat

[Cha]

75. Thanks for that, Zolorp.. bjg/stein voter..

Link to tweet

[Cha]

73. The "unity" what?

[StevieM]

78. That candidate had been the most popular politician in America for a few years not too long ago.

But I guess that has been written out of the history books.

Hillary got swift boated.