Bernie, 2012: "I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced primary opposition." [View all]

[pnwmom]

Bernie said this as Obama was preparing to run for his second term.

I don't know why any real Democrat would support Bernie after that.

Bernie's camp denies that Bernie said it, but it was taped on a radio show, and I remember hearing about it at the time. The Politico piece contains a link to the Biden ad that includes an audio of Bernie saying it would be a good idea for Obama to face primary opposition.

ON EDIT: For those who cannot believe the words that came from Bernie's mouth, there are multiple witnesses.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/02/sanders-obama-primary-challenge/606709/

That summer, Sanders privately discussed a potential primary challenge to Obama with several people, including Patrick Leahy, his fellow Vermont senator. Leahy, alarmed, warned Jim Messina, Obama’s presidential reelection-campaign manager. Obama’s campaign team was “absolutely panicked” by Leahy’s report, Messina told me, since “every president who has gotten a real primary has lost a general [election].”

David Plouffe, another Obama strategist, confirmed Messina’s account, as did another person familiar with what happened. (A spokesman for Leahy did not comment when asked several times about his role in the incident.)

Messina called Reid, then the Senate majority leader, who had built a strong relationship with Sanders but was also fiercely defensive of Obama. What could you be thinking? Reid asked Sanders, according to multiple people who remember the conversations. You need to stop.

Sanders didn’t end up running against Obama. But their relationship didn’t improve in the years that followed. In another incident, in 2013, Sanders laid into Obama in a private meeting he held with Democratic senators, saying that the president was selling out to Republicans over Social Security benefits. (More on that incident, which has also not been previously reported, below.)

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/24/biden-ad-sanders-undermined-obama-election-117218

But back in Washington, there was one guy with another plan,” the narrator says before an audio clip is heard of Sanders saying, “I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.”

SNIP

“This never happened. Bernie Sanders never considered a primary challenge to Obama,” deputy campaign manager Ari Rabin-Havt said in a statement. “Bernie was running for reelection in 2012, and that’s what he was focused on.”