CNN has their fingerprints all over the dispute between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
On Sunday, CNN published a story claiming that Senator Bernie Sanders(D-VT) told Senator Elizabeth Warren(D-MA) that he didn’t think that a woman could win. The private December 2018 meeting, the pair met to discuss how they would interact if they faced off against each other to become the Democratic nominee in 2020. They agreed that they would remain civil to avoid hurting the progressive movement and discussed the best strategies to take on President Trump.
The story was clearly fed by the Warren campaign, as CNN’s “sources” said that it was after Warren put forward two main points on why she’d be a good candidate — that she could make a “robust argument” about the economy as well as gain widespread support from women — that Sanders allegedly said that he did not believe a woman could win.
Once the story was made public, Bernie flatly denied the claim pointing to his statement in 1988 where he said he believed that a woman could become President.
“In my view a woman could be elected president of the United States.” — Bernie Sanders, 1988 pic.twitter.com/WJd847DdmA
— Meagan Day (@meagankday) January 13, 2020
Warren doubled-down, however, and issued a statement saying that it did indeed happen.
“Among the topics that came up [during the meeting] was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate. I thought a woman could win; he disagreed. I have no interest in discussing this private meeting any further because Bernie and I have far more in common than our differences on punditry,” Warren said.
Source: The Daily Caller
This made for an awkward couple of moments at the debate.
The first was when CNN’s debate moderator Abby Phillip first asked Bernie about the statement.
PHILLIP: CNN reported yesterday and senator warren confirmed in a statement that in 2018 you told her that you did not believe a woman could win the presidential election. Why did you say that?
SANDERS: Well, as a matter of fact, I didn’t say it. And I don’t want to waste a whole lot of time on this because this is what Donald Trump and maybe some of the media want. Anybody [who] knows me, knows that it’s incomprehensible that I would think that a woman could not become president of the United States. Go to YouTube today, there’s a video of me 30 years ago talking about how a woman could become president of the United States. In 2015, I deferred, in fact, to Senator Warren, there was a movement to draft Senator Warren to run for president. And you know what? I said, “Stay back.” Senator Warren decided not to run and I did. I did run afterwards. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million votes. How could anybody in a million years not think that a woman could be President of the United States? And let me be very clear, if any of the women on this stage, or any of the men on this stage win the nomination — I hope that’s not the case, I hope it’s me — but if they do, I will do everything in my power to make sure that they are elected in order to defeat the most dangerous President in the history of our country.
PHILLIP: So Sen. Sanders, I do want to be clear here, you’re saying that you never told Sen. Warren that a woman could not win the election?
SANDERS: That is correct.
WATCH: Bernie Sanders responds to reports that he told Elizabeth Warren that a woman couldn't win the election: "Well, as a matter of fact, I didn't say it." pic.twitter.com/ZxwDqiQhfC
— Axios (@axios) January 15, 2020
Phillips then immediately asked Warren what she thought when Bernie made the statement that he just flat-out denied saying.
CNN: “Sen. Sanders, I do want to be clear here, you’re saying that you never told senator Warren that a woman could not win the election?"
SANDERS: "That is correct."
CNN: “Sen. Warren, what did you think when senator Sanders told you a woman could not win the election?" pic.twitter.com/BZ1NajmQE9— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 15, 2020
Well, it looks like Abby Phillip is clearly Team Warren, or at least Team Not Bernie.
This is typical of CNN’s journalism — just ignore the thing that goes against the narrative and pretend that it doesn’t exist.
But that wasn’t the end of the Sanders/Warren dispute.
Check out how Warren snubbed Sanders at the end of the debate — Sanders offers his hand and Warren refuses the handshake.
At the end of the debate, Bernie Sanders reached out to shake hands with Elizabeth Warren and Warren just rejected it.
AWKWARD. pic.twitter.com/DDM9Y8vb8R
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 15, 2020
Tom Steyer got in the middle of the awkward situation…
Caption this pic.twitter.com/cFxSHP9uDw
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) January 15, 2020
…but told CNN hosts that he doesn’t know what the pair were talking about.
Tom Steyer, who ended up in the middle of an awkward moment between Sens. Warren and Sanders after the #DemDebate, says he “really wasn’t listening” to their conversation.
“It was one of the awkward moments where I felt like, ‘You know what? I need to move on as fast possible.’” pic.twitter.com/AL7dGxq5HC
— CNN (@CNN) January 15, 2020
The whole thing really angered the Bernie Bros who finally realize that CNN is in fact trash.
In times when our democracy needs transparent and unbiased journalism, CNN decides to take the worst route of them all. #CNNisTrash pic.twitter.com/ozl1WslVKS
— • 𝔰𝔞𝔪 • (@SamirLevi) January 15, 2020
Left wing Bernie supporters are upset with tonight’s rigged CNN debate and are tweeting #CNNisTrash. https://t.co/99GxIqDHbm
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) January 15, 2020
LOL! #CNNisTrash is trending. pic.twitter.com/uF57AtAtZ5
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) January 15, 2020
Well, look at that. At least we can agree on something, Bernie Bros!
https://twitter.com/gelanteTV/status/1217308279681900544?s=20
