A politically powerful union in Nevada said on Wednesday that its members were “viciously attacked” by far-left supporters of socialist Bernie Sanders after the union warned members against backing candidates that support the socialist program known as “Medicare-for-All.”
The Culinary Union released a flyer this week that said that “Sanders, if elected president, would ‘end Culinary Healthcare,’ ‘require ‘Medicare For All,’’ and ‘lower drug prices,'” The Nevada Independent reported. “The Culinary Union, which provides health insurance to 130,000 workers and their family members through a special trust fund, strongly opposes Medicare for all on the basis that it would eliminate the health insurance they have negotiated for over several decades. Health insurance provided by the Culinary Health Fund is considered to be some of the best in the state, and the union even opened a 60,000-square-foot state-of-the-art health clinic a couple of years ago for its members.”
In a statement, the Culinary Union condemned the attacks that it says that it received from Sanders’ supporters.
“We have welcomed Senator Bernie Sanders into our union for a town hall with Culinary Union members, and we hosted tours of the Culinary Health Center and the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas with Senator Sanders, to show what we have fought for and won,” the statement said. “Our union believes that everyone has the right to good healthcare and that healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. We have already enacted a vision for what working people need – and it exists now. Workers should have the right to choose to keep the healthcare Culinary Union members have built, sacrificed for, and went on strike for 6 years, 4 months, and 10 days to protect.”
“It’s disappointing that Senator Sanders’ supporters have viciously attacked the Culinary Union and working families in Nevada simply because our union has provided facts on what certain healthcare proposals might do to take away the system of care we have built over 8 decades,” the statement continued. “We have always stood up for what we believe in and will continue to do so. … Together, we will figure out the best way to fix healthcare in America, and the Culinary Union is committed to fighting until we win for everyone.”
Sanders’ supporters have been widely criticized by numerous media publications and other politicians for their vicious attacks on other Democrats.
In a series of brutal remarks about Sanders, two-time failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton repeatedly attacked his supporters.
“It’s not only him, it’s the culture around him. It’s his leadership team,” Clinton said. “It’s his prominent supporters. 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,” Clinton continued. “And I don’t think we want to go down that road again where you campaign by insult and attack and maybe you try to get some distance from it, but you either don’t know what your campaign and supporters are doing or you’re just giving them a wink and you want them to go after Kamala [Harris] or after Elizabeth [Warren]. I think that that’s a pattern that people should take into account when they make their decisions.”
CNN further highlighted just some of Sanders’ supporters vicious attacks on others:
On Twitter, Sanders supporters lobbed hundreds of critical messages at the Working Families Party or its leadership, which included personal attacks that called them “corrupt,” “shameless” and “bloodless scumbag hacks.” One pro-Sanders account tweeted that “slave masters” had coerced the support of the party’s national director, who is African American.
Three days after the endorsement, a WFP spokeswoman tweeted a screenshot of one message that wished she and her colleagues would “all get cancer you are f**king trash.” She also said they received private messages saying “eat sh*t and die” and “drop dead dumb c*nts.”
Weighing in on the impact that Sanders’ supporters are having on the election, MSNBC contributor Sam Stein wrote: “I’m not sure Sanders official team has grasped the extent to which their supporters are impacting voter behavior. Lots of people at Warren and Pete town halls I talked to were weighing a Sanders vote but said they were turned off by the culture and crowds”