Speaking with Iowa Press, Sen. Bernie Sanders snapped back at an accusation from failed 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton that his delayed endorsement cost her the 2020 election, sniping, “I’m sorry that Hillary Clinton is rerunning 2016.”
Sanders added, “If I had it on you (sic) I could take out a letter from Hillary Clinton saying, ‘Thank you Bernie for working so hard to try to make me the President of the United States.’ Let’s be clear, in the last — during my efforts to get Hillary Clinton elected and defeat Donald Trump, I ran through something like fourteen, fifteen, sixteen states. Right here in Iowa, okay? I worked as hard as humanly possible. We did dozens and dozens of rallies around this country. Now what I tried to do after she won the primary is to sit down with her staff, and we did, to create a Democratic platform that was as progressive as it could be, and that ended up happening. So I don’t want to rerun 2016; right now our goal is to defeat Donald Trump.”
Clinton savaged Sanders in an interview with radio host Howard Stern, saying of Sanders, “He hurt me there’s no doubt about it, and I hope he doesn’t do it again to whoever gets the nomination. Once is enough.”
Although Hillary Clinton had sewn up the Democratic 2016 presidential nomination in early June 2016, Sanders did not endorse her until July 12, saying at a joint rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, “I have come here to make it as clear as possible why I am endorsing Hillary Clinton and why she must become our next president. Secretary Clinton has won the Democratic nomination and I congratulate her for that.”
“I intend to do everything I can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States,” he added.
CNN commented: “But there appeared to be little natural chemistry between Clinton and Sanders and their body language was noticeably stiff. The two avoided physical contact after first walking on stage together, and Sanders, in his 30-minute speech, repeatedly mentioned Clinton by name without acknowledging that she was standing next to him looking on. After concluding his speech, Sanders appeared to move in for a handshake — which Clinton ignored by stretching out her arms and offering a hug, instead.”
In her 2017 book titled “What Happened,” Clinton wrote:
When I finally challenged Bernie during a debate to name a single time I changed a position or a vote because of a financial contribution, he couldn’t come up with anything. Nonetheless, his attacks caused lasting damage, making it harder to unify progressives in the general election and paving the way for Trump’s ‘Crooked Hillary’ campaign.”
Clinton pointed out that Sanders “isn’t a Democrat,” adding, “That’s not a smear, that’s what he says. He didn’t get into the race to make sure a Democrat won the White House, he got in to disrupt the Democratic Party.”
Clinton stated, “We would promise a bold infrastructure investment plan or an ambitious new apprenticeship program for young people, and then Bernie would announce basically the same thing, but bigger. On issue after issue, it was like he kept promising four-minute abs, or even no-minutes abs. Magic abs!”