At an Iowa event Friday night, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) led the crowd in booing former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. On Saturday morning, Clinton’s spokesman Nick Merrill weighed in on the brouhaha.
CNN’s senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny tweeted a reaction from Merrill, which said: “I can’t imagine this kind of behavior is something Iowans want to see from candidates and their surrogates. And I don’t imagine the vast majority of voters in Tlaib’s district, which Clinton won by over 60 points in 2016, want to see either.”
Clinton spox @NickMerrill weighs in: I can’t imagine this kind of behavior is something Iowans want to see from candidates and their surrogates. And I don’t imagine the vast majority of voters in Tlaib’s district, which Clinton won by over 60 points in 2016, want to see either.
— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) February 1, 2020
The latest in the Clinton/Sanders feud started a few days ago, when an excerpt from a new documentary about Clinton revealed the former secretary of state saying “nobody likes” Sanders.
“He was in Congress for years,” Clinton said of Sanders. “He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician. It’s all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.”
“It’s his leadership team. It’s his prominent supporters,” Clinton also said in the documentary. “It’s his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women. And I really hope people are paying attention to that because it should be worrisome that he has permitted this culture — not only permitted, [he] seems to really be very much supporting it.”
On Friday night, during an event supporting Sanders in Clive, Iowa, moderator Dionna Langford started to bring up Clinton’s comments when the crowd booed. Langford tried to stop them by saying, “We’re not gonna boo, we’re classy here.” Tlaib, who was on stage with Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), picked up her microphone and said: “No, I’ll boo. Boo! You all know, I can’t be quiet. No, we’re going to boo. That’s all right. The haters will shut up on Monday when we win.”
The crowd then started booing along with Tlaib, while Jayapal and Omar laughed hysterically.
Tlaib offered a pseudo-apology for her behavior on Saturday morning, writing on Twitter:
I am so incredibly in love with the movement that our campaign of #NotMeUs has created. This makes me protective over it and frustrated by attempts to dismiss the strength and diversity of our movement. However, I know what is at stake if we don’t unify over one candidate to beat Trump and I intend to do everything possible to ensure that Trump does not win in 2020.
In this instance, I allowed my disappointment with Secretary Clinton’s latest comments about Senator Sanders and his supporters get the best of me. You all, my sisters-in-service on stage, and our movement deserve better. I will continue to strive to come from a place of love and not react in the same way of those who are against what we are building in this country. This is about building a just and equitable future for my two boys, children across the country, and future generations.
Sanders’ campaign manager Faiz Shakir, accepted Tlabi’s statement, writing: “Rashida, you’re all good. We love your passion and conviction. Don’t change.”