Sanders Backs Out of Interview After Failing to Dictate Conditions [View all]

[brooklynite]

Seven Days

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) backed out of an interview with Seven Days Monday morning after the newspaper refused to accept conditions his staff attempted to set. The senator then accused a Seven Days reporter of being a "gossip columnist."

A spokesman for Sanders, Daniel McLean, called the reporter Sunday evening to offer up an interview with his boss the next morning. McLean said Sanders could make time for a brief interview after appearing at a press conference at Burlington International Airport and before boarding a plane to Washington, D.C.

But McLean made clear that two subjects would be off the table: Sanders, the spokesman said, was not interested in answering questions about "political gossip" nor about the senator's family. He did not elaborate on either condition. (Sanders' wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders, has been under scrutiny by federal prosecutors over her role leading the now-defunct Burlington college. His stepdaughter, Carina Driscoll, is running for mayor of Burlington.)

The reporter informed McLean that Seven Days does not allow politicians to set such restrictions in exchange for access. He also noted that it would be impossible to ask substantive, policy-oriented questions in such a brief exchange.

On Monday morning, as Sanders arrived at the airport press conference, McLean reneged on the offer. "I don't think there is time today," he wrote in an email. Sanders also, apparently, did not have time for the press conference itself. While it was still taking place — and his colleague, Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.), was still speaking — the senator walked away from the podium, gathered his belongings and walked toward the airport's security screening area.

Wikipedia describes Seven Days as an "alternative weekly"newspaper in Vermont.