Supposed Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren Feud Litigated On Social Media

January 13th, 2020 - 4:15 PM EST by Matt Schimkowitz

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Bernie sanders and elizabeth warren at debates - Social media feud litigation between the two candidates

As the democratic primary enters into its final few months, the tight but friendly race between progressive candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren has reportedly taken a turn.

Over the weekend, Politico reported that the Sanders campaign had given volunteers a script that explicitly attacks Elizabeth Warren, saying that she could not expand her base.

"I like Elizabeth Warren. [optional]” the script reads. "In fact, she’s my second choice. But here’s my concern about her."

The script continues to state that "she's brining no new bases into the Democratic party."

The script was not without its fair share of controversy. One of Politico's sources said that the campaign volunteers "were told never to go negative or contrast with other candidates." However, the campaign did not make an official statement on the script.

Warren expressed her disappointment in the campaign.

"I was disappointed to hear that Bernie is sending his volunteers out to trash me," Warren told NBC. "Bernie knows me and has known me for a long time. He knows who I am, where I come from, what I have worked on and fought for and the coalition and grassroots movement we are trying to build. Democrats want to win in 2020 we all saw the impact of the factionalism in 2016 and we can't have a repeat of that."

Still, the script's legitimacy was challenged online, with some calling Politico irresponsible for reporting on the script.

Politico author Alex Thompson, however, stood by his reporting. "I provided all the info to Bernie's camp before publishing & they didn't deny its authenticity," he tweeted.

The script did inspire quite a few memes, mocking the controversy from both angles.

Things got uglier on Monday when CNN reported that Sanders told Warren that a woman could not win a presidential election.

They wrote:

Sanders expressed frustration at what he saw as a growing focus among Democrats on identity politics, according to one of the people familiar with the conversation. Warren told Sanders she disagreed with his assessment that a woman could not win, three of the four sources said.

Sanders denied the reports, calling them "ludicrous." In a statement, he told CNN:

It is ludicrous to believe that at the same meeting where Elizabeth Warren told me she was going to run for president, I would tell her that a woman couldn't win. It's sad that, three weeks before the Iowa caucus and a year after that private conversation, staff who weren't in the room are lying about what happened. What I did say that night was that Donald Trump is a sexist, a racist and a liar who would weaponize whatever he could. Do I believe a woman can win in 2020? Of course! After all, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes in 2016.

Many Twitter users criticized the piece, questioning its authenticity. Some described the lack of named sources as an example of shoddy reporting, while others accused CNN of drumming up controversy to boost ratings for the upcoming debates.

Update: Elizabeth Warren released a statement on the controversy, confirming that Sanders had told her that he disagreed with her belief that a woman could win the election.



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