Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) ripped a page from President Trump’s playbook on Monday during two consecutive town halls, in which he jabbed the Washington Post for what he claimed was unfair coverage.
At town halls in Wolfeboro and North Conway, New Hampshire, Sanders claimed there was a connection between his criticism of Amazon — over its labor practices and tax breaks — and the newspaper’s articles about the senator and 2020 contender, according to the Post, which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
“Anybody here know how much Amazon paid in taxes last year?” Sanders reportedly asked the Wolfeboro crowd. Several in the audience replied: “Nothing!” according to the Post.
“See, I talk about that all of the time and then I wonder why The Washington Post — which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon — doesn’t write particularly good articles about me,” Sanders said, according to the Post. “I don’t know why. But I guess maybe there’s a connection. Maybe we helped raise the minimum wage at Amazon to 15 bucks an hour as well.”
Sanders launched an aggressive campaign against Amazon last year to get the online shopping conglomerate to raise its minimum wage.
In a statement to the Post, the newspaper’s executive editor Martin Baron swatted away Sanders’ suggestion: “Sen. Sanders is a member of a large club of politicians — of every ideology — who complain about their coverage. Contrary to the conspiracy theory the senator seems to favor, Jeff Bezos allows our newsroom to operate with full independence, as our reporters and editors can attest.”
Trump’s alleged a similar conspiracy in the past as well. The President has criticized Amazon for the company’s tax breaks and for what he sees as an unfair burden the company places on the U.S. Postal Service. He has claimed that’s why he gets negative coverage from the Post.
