Bernie Sanders has taken aim at the Democratic National Committee for betting heavily on Hillary Clinton early on in 2016. Sanders, who is taking another shot at the presidency, hopes there will not be a repeat this time around.
During a CNN town hall on Monday evening, Sanders, who joined the ever-expanding pool of Democratic challengers to President Donald Trump last week, brought up past grievances against the DNC, effectively accusing it of bias in the run-up to the 2016 vote.
“In 2016, I think I will not shock anybody to suggest that the DNC was not quite even handed,” the Independent senator from Vermont said. He noted that since the scandal-ridden campaign, the Democratic Party has “come a long way” and he “fully” expects “to be treated quite as well as anybody else” in the upcoming primaries.
Despite setting fundraising records and attracting grassroots support, Sanders ultimately lost the Democratic nomination to the establishment-propelled Clinton. It was revealed later that Clinton’s camp effectively ran the DNC, which was supposed to be neutral, prompting Sanders’ donors to accuse it of cheating him out of the nomination and file a class-action lawsuit, alleging that the process was not fair.
Sanders, who ended up endorsing Clinton, noted that he would again back any other Democratic candidate if he’s not lucky enough to get nominated himself.
“Trump has got be defeated,” he stressed.
The senator, who has been accused of being a fringe candidate with his progressive ideas of “democratic socialism,” parroted the mainstream narrative when it came to Russiagate.
Asked by a community leader how his campaign is prepared to withstand potential Russian meddling and what he thinks about the alleged Russian interference in 2016, Sanders quipped: “Unlike Donald Trump, I have no doubt that what you said, it’s true.”
Sanders went on to warn Moscow against “sabotaging” elections in the US and “around the world.”