Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) no longer wants to talk about her own allegations that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), her Democratic primary rival, is sexist after her claims last week backfired.
A reporter asked Warren in Iowa about Sanders’ recent comments to NHPR about whether gender is an obstacle for female politicians. Sanders said: “Look, I, th- the answer is yes. But I think everybody has their own sets of problems. I’m 78 years of age. That’s a problem.”
Warren refused to respond to Sanders statement, saying: “I have no further comment on this. I have no further comment on this. I have been friends with Bernie for a long time. We worked together on many, many issues and I’ve said all I’m going to say on this.”
Another reporter pointed out that Warren and Sanders’ camps have been talking about this issue for the past week, to which Warren responded again by saying she had nothing more to say on the issue.
Warren responds: “I have no further comment on this. I have no further comment on this…I have been friends with Bernie for a long time. https://t.co/LxrJPVaLXG pic.twitter.com/9pKVV7M2s4
— Alex Thompson (@AlxThomp) January 19, 2020
That’s a definite change from last week, when Warren accused Sanders of sexism after CNN reported Sanders told Warren during a meeting in December 2018 that a woman couldn’t be president. Political observers were quick to suggest Warren’s camps started the rumor themselves for political gain over Sanders, whose policies are similar to Warren’s.
Warren appears to be trying to fill some non-existent void between Sanders and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She has tacked on to numerous proposals from Sanders, but rarely comes up with her own that he then follows.
The problem for Warren’s claim last week about Sanders is that Sanders vehemently denied saying it and Warren has a history of lying and using her gender (and alleged heritage) for personal gain. Sanders does not. That’s not to say Sanders is always honest, but he does sincerely believe his claims about socialism and health care and college (even if he is wildly wrong).
Nothing about Sanders’ past suggest he’s so sexist as to suggest to Warren’s face that a woman couldn’t be president. Based on what he said to NHPR, it’s more likely he said something like gender might be an issue (making a comment that he believes America is sexist), that Warren turned around to use against him.
The issue came up during last week’s Democratic debate. After the debate, Warren went up to Sanders and told him, “I think you called me a liar on national TV,” as if she hadn’t done the same.
Sanders replied to her by saying, “What?”
Warren repeated her claim.
“No, let’s not do it right now,” Sanders responded. “You want to have that discussion, we’ll have that discussion.”
Warren concluded the conversation by saying, “Anytime.”
The comments were caught by CNN audio and video, leading writer Aaron Mate to speculate that it was all coordinated by the Warren campaign.
“CNN just aired the post-debate Sanders-Warren exchange. Both accuse the other of calling the other a liar. Warren intitiated [sic]. The fact that this was done on stage w/ camera & audio, and the fact that Warren’s camp started this whole thing, makes me wonder if they staged this too,” he tweeted.
Warren’s desire to avoid the conversation comes after former Obama official Stephen Cobb suggested the spat didn’t play “out well for either of them” and only helped their rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.