Is Sen. Sanders taking credit for Jones victory? Most of the responses

[andym]

101. Ironically there was a Bernie involved in the Moore/Jones race

The fictional reporter Bernie Bernstein was calling folks to inquire about paying women cold cash if they would say they were abused by Moore. Why? It was a dirty trick by the Moore campaign/GOP fellow travelers to discredit the accusers and stir up antisemitic sentiment.
It probably won Moore a few votes as well.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-bernstein-is-mad-as-hell-and-will-accept-obscurity-no-more/2017/11/15/35df66c8-ca4e-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html

"After years of toiling in obscurity, Bernie gained national attention Tuesday when an Alabama pastor shared with a local TV station a voice mail left by Bernie. “Hi, this is Bernie Bernstein. I’m a reporter for The Washington Post calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between $5,000 and $7,000,” it said. “We will not be fully investigating these claims. However, we will make a written report.”

This produced a rather harsh response from Marty Baron, The Post’s executive editor, about the person “falsely claiming to be from The Washington Post. The call’s description of our reporting methods bears no relationship to reality. We are shocked and appalled that anyone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism.” A Post article about the episode piled on, alleging that “there are no Washington Post reporters or editors named Bernie Bernstein,” and a Post spokeswoman dutifully explained that there is “an explicit policy that prohibits paying sources.”