Hillary Has More to Say About Bernie

Clinton says Sanders didn't unify the Democratic party after 2016 primary
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 1, 2020 6:30 AM CST
Hillary Slams Bernie, Again
Hillary Clinton attends the premiere of "Hillary" at The Ray Theatre during the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, in Park City, Utah.   (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Hillary Clinton is not done talking about Bernie Sanders. The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee said in a podcast interview that aired Friday that Sanders didn't try to unify the party after losing the primary to her four years ago and that he and his supporters contributed to her loss to Donald Trump in the general election, the AP reports. Asked by Emily Tisch Sussman of the podcast “Your Primary Playlist" what Sanders could do this time to unite the party against Trump, Clinton replied, “Well, he can do it, for one.” She added, “That's not our experience from 2016." She contrasted the conversations she had with Barack Obama in 2008 about unifying the party after he became the nominee with the conversations she had with Sanders in 2016 after it became clear she would come out on top. They were “like night and day,” she said.

Although there was “no question” about her nomination, she said, Sanders' “campaign and his principal supporters were just very difficult and really constantly not just attacking me but my supporters.” At the Democratic National Convention, she said, Sanders' supporters were "booing Michelle Obama, John Lewis. It was very distressing and such a contrast between what we did to unite in ’08.” She added, “All the way up until the end, a lot of people highly identified with (Sanders’) campaign, were urging people to vote third party, urging people not to vote—it had an impact." Her comments come just before Monday's first-in-the-nation caucuses in Iowa; at a rally in the state Friday, one of Sanders' highest profile supporters, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, led the crowd in booing Clinton. (Clinton recently said "nobody likes" Sanders, though she later clarified a bit.)

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