Bernie Sanders Accuses Liberal Think Tank of Smearing Progressive Candidates

[Donkees]

By Kenneth P. Vogel and Sydney Ember
April 14, 2019


Excerpts:

WASHINGTON — Senator Bernie Sanders, in a rare and forceful rebuke by a presidential candidate of an influential party ally, has accused a liberal think tank of undermining Democrats’ chances of taking back the White House in 2020 by “using its resources to smear” him and other contenders pushing progressive policies.

“This counterproductive negative campaigning needs to stop,” Mr. Sanders wrote to the boards of the Center for American Progress and its sister group, the Center for American Progress Action Fund. “The Democratic primary must be a campaign of ideas, not of bad-faith smears. Please help play a constructive role in the effort to defeat Donald Trump.”

Mr. Sanders sent the letter days after a website run by the action fund, ThinkProgress, suggested that his attacks on income inequality were hypocritical in light of his growing personal wealth.

On Saturday night, after Mr. Shakir emailed a copy of the letter to leaders of the Center for American Progress groups, Ms. Tanden responded to him with an email calling the situation “unfortunate,” offering to meet to discuss it, and adding of CAP “we share the goals of unity.” That email was provided to the Times by Mr. Shakir.

The letter takes issue with ThinkProgress’ commentary on the acknowledgment by Mr. Sanders, who represents Vermont in the Senate as an independent, that he himself became a millionaire partly by writing a best-selling book. One ThinkProgress post deemed the revelation “very off-brand and embarrassing.” Another post contained a video seeking to demonstrate that, as he grew wealthier, he altered his repeated denunciations of “millionaires and billionaires” to no longer include as many references to millionaires.

“I and other Democratic candidates are running campaigns based on principles and ideas and not engaging in mudslinging or personal attacks on each other,” he wrote. “Meanwhile, the Center for American Progress is using its resources to smear Senator Booker, Senator Warren and myself, among others. This is hardly the way to build unity, or to win the general election.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/us/politics/bernie-sanders-letter.html

[Donkees]

1. Copy of the full letter, written by Bernie Sanders to CAP

[Donkees]

2. Here's the reply from CAP, just sent out, to the Sanders letter

Link to tweet

[Power 2 the People]

3. CAP must really be afraid of Bernie. They are a disgrace.

I know that Neera Tanden and CAP represent the conservative-corporate wing of our party but I never anticipated them purposely trying to sabotage the entire Democratic party with their nonsense. This will do real damage when trying to convince our party to unify around one candidate.

I'm starting to believe folks like Tanden and Brock would rather see another 4 years of Trump than a real progressive in office. They keep their hefty paychecks and shamelessly cozy up to all the corporate giants for personal gain.

CAP has always been a front group for establishment corporatism. The successor to the notorious DLC. After the DLC was exposed for claiming to be Democrats yet pushing Republican policy it had to morph into something else to survive.

We tried corporate centrism in 2016 and got Trump. Time to elect a fighter for the people.

[Donkees]

4. The campaign is using this as a fundraising event ...

Link to tweet