Two days before the last Democratic presidential debate prior to the Iowa caucuses next month, drama appears to have unexpectedly emerged between Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT).
According to a Politico report Sunday morning, a Sanders campaign script instructs volunteers to tell voters who are leaning toward voting for Warren that the “people who support her are highly-educated, more affluent people who are going to show up and vote Democratic no matter what” and that “she’s bringing no new bases into the Democratic Party.”
Politico reported that before listing criticisms of Warren, the script distributed to Sanders campaign volunteers begins: “I like Elizabeth Warren. [optional] In fact, she’s my second choice. But here’s my concern about her.”
While speaking to reporters in Iowa Sunday, Warren responded to Politico’s report by saying that she was “disappointed to hear that Bernie is sending his volunteers out to trash me.”
“Bernie knows me, and has known me for a long time, he knows who I am, where I come from, what I have worked on and fought for and the coalition and grassroots movement we’re trying to build,” Warren said.
Warren added that “we can’t have a repeat” of the “impact of the factionalism in 2016,” which appeared to take aim at the Sanders supporters who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton against then-candidate Donald Trump following Sanders’ Democratic primary loss.
“Democrats need to unite our party, and that means pulling in all parts of the Democratic coalition,” Warren said, before saying that “we need someone who can bring our party together” and that she hopes “Bernie reconsiders and turns his campaign in a different direction.”
When asked whether she meant that Sanders is not a candidate that “everyone can get behind,” Warren dodged and responded: “I believe we need someone every Democrat can get behind and out there fighting for every Democrat.”
Watch Warren’s remarks below:
Warren hits back: “I was disappointed to hear that Bernie is sending his volunteers out to trash me. Bernie knows me and has known me for a long time…I hope bernie reconsiders and turns his campaign in a different direction.” Also notes the “factionalism” caused by 2016 https://t.co/ER0Vm6sgJS pic.twitter.com/N8prZdeZk9
— Alex Thompson (@AlxThomp) January 12, 2020
