Former First Lady and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton heavily criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders, a leading contender for the party’s 2020 nomination, in a new documentary and interview.
In an with the Hollywood Reporter Lacey Rose, Clinton — who lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama in 2008 — doubled down on critical statements about Sanders made in a documentary set for release soon on Hulu in which she discussed the 2016 campaign when the Vermont senator was her chief competitor.
“In the doc, you’re brutally honest on Sanders: ‘He was in Congress for years. 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,’” Rose said, quoting Clinton. “That assessment still hold?”
“Yes, it does,” Clinton responded.
She later refused to confirm whether she would endorse or campaign for Sanders should he win the Democratic nomination this year.
“I’m not going to go there yet. We’re still in a very vigorous primary season,” Clinton said of a possible endorsement of his campaign.
“I will say, however, that it’s not only him, it’s the culture around him. It’s his leadership team. It’s his prominent supporters. It’s his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women,” she continued.
“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 concluded.
Sanders has been rising in Democratic polls this month ahead of the nation’s first caucuses in Iowa Feb. 3.
The party’s leader, former Vice President Joe Biden, has seen his once-double-digit polling lead dwindle in recent weeks as Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have made gains.
Some believe that the Democratic National Committee sandbagged Sanders in 2016 when he was gaining on Clinton for the party nomination then.
Eventually, Clinton won enough delegates to capture the nomination and Sanders endorsed her candidacy.