From misleading voters about what Bernie Sanders would do to their healthcare to creating the perception that Sanders is dishonest about his involvement in the civil rights movement, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has developed a significant record of entirely disingenuous attacks.
It is not as if presidential candidates should not attack each others’ records or their positions on key issues. One expects such attacks in races for the presidency. However, when a candidate attacks their opponent in a presidential race, there should be some truth to what is claimed.
Why does this matter to anyone who is not a Sanders supporter?
Polls after the first few Democratic presidential primaries show Sanders beating Clinton among 18-29 year-olds by about sixty or seventy percentage points. His campaign, which promotes free college education, lowering interest rates on student loans, single-payer healthcare, raising the minimum wage to $15/hour, and a Wall Street speculation tax, resonates with young Americans. His campaign promotes the idea that we are all in this together while Clinton and her surrogates promote the idea that it is her time to be president.
Therefore, Clinton is potentially the Democratic Party establishment’s last stand against a rebellion within the base of the political party that has contributed to a sustained lack of enthusiasm for Democratic Party candidates over the past ten years.
While Sanders has a record of loyalty to the Democratic Party that might surprise those who tout him as a radical socialist, there is an energy and vision to his campaign, which Sanders may not be able to contain. The Democratic Party establishment, and the corporations which support Clinton’s campaign, look to Clinton to contain the grassroots insurrection before power has any chance to shift significantly.
Clinton recognizes she has a problem with Americans trusting her or believing she is honest. They have effectively worked to drag Sanders down by impugning his character and making it seem as though he cannot be trusted any more than her. The campaign has also sought to diminish his character in the eyes of non-white voters, particularly blacks and Latinos, who the establishment media crudely refer to as Clinton’s “firewall” because she needs them if she is going to defeat Sanders.
Now, with that preface, here are some of the attacks on Sanders and his supporters, which represent a pattern of sleaziness that has become a hallmark of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Sanders Misrepresents Role In the Civil Rights Movement
On February 11, ahead of the South Carolina Democratic primary, the Congressional Black Caucus’ political action committee endorsed Clinton. Civil rights icon, Congressman John Lewis, called Sanders’ civil rights movement record into question.
“I never saw him. I never met him,” Lewis stated. “I was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for three years, from 1963 to 1966. I was involved with the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery and directed [the] voter education project for six years. But I met Hillary Clinton. I met President [Bill] Clinton.”
One might think, after hearing Lewis’ remarks, that he met both Hillary and Bill during the civil rights movement. According to Lewis’ book, “Conversations With Black America,” he did not hear of Bill Clinton until the 1970s. Lewis did not meet Bill Clinton until 1991, when an aide asked him to support Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Sanders’ history in the civil rights movement could be a real asset for him with people of color, especially because it might help prove his commitment to advancing struggles for racial justice. Clinton was not involved in the civil rights movement when Sanders was engaged in activism. She was campaigning for Barry Goldwater, a Republican who opposed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“When I was a young college student,” Sanders told the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in July, “I came to Washington, D.C., to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. I heard this organization’s first president, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., deliver his famous speech, and he inspired me, just as he inspired a whole generation—black and white—to get involved in the civil rights movement.”
“In Chicago, I worked for housing desegregation and was arrested protesting public school segregation. During that time I was active in what was a sister-organization to the SCLC, the Congress of Racial Equality or CORE, which was headed up by the late James Farmer,” Sanders added.
For two days, the remarks from Lewis stirred animosity among Sanders supporters, which Clinton supporters seized upon to claim his supporters had no respect for a civil rights icon. Once the news cycle had run its course, Lewis clarified on Saturday that he never “doubted that Senator Sanders participated in the civil rights movement, neither was I attempting to disparage his activism.” But, by this time, Clinton had already created doubt about whether Sanders had exaggerated his civil rights movement record, and the damage was done.
Meanwhile, establishment media systematically accused Sanders of having faked a photo, which shows him speaking at a sit-in against off-campus segregated housing at the University of Chicago. CNN and MSNBC aired interviews and interrogated Sanders spokespeople. Time published what it claimed was an “exclusive” proving the photo was a fake (which turned out not to be true). But it was the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, an African-American columnist and Clinton supporter, who went all-in on the “fake” photo story even as proof surfaced that he was terribly wrong.
It was not until Kartemquin Films, a collaborative film group in Chicago, found footage of Sanders being arrested during the boycott against the University of Chicago in 1963 that the questions swirling around Sanders’ civil rights movement seemed to dissipate. Yet, this successfully transformed Sanders’ history into a point of contention, and at no point did the Clinton campaign have to take responsibility for the smearing of Sanders’ record because surrogates did the deed.
Bernie Has Attacked Obama as “Weak”
Around 90 percent of black Americans support President Barack Obama, according to Gallup. One way for Clinton to capitalize on this reality is to discourage black Americans from voting for Sanders by claiming he has attacked President Obama, which Clinton has done.
Her campaign sent out opposition memos during the Nevada town hall on February 18, which accused Sanders of describing Obama as “weak” and criticized him for suggesting Obama should have faced a primary challenger in 2012.
Soon after Clinton’s comments, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest seemed to defend Sanders and told reporters:
Y’know, Senator Sanders, stood not too far away from where I’m standing. [points] You can just peek out the window and sort of see the spot where he was standing. . . where he spoke to all of you after having spent an hour with the President of the United States in the Oval office, where he talked to all of you about how proud he was of the progress our country has made under President Obama’s leadership. And I think that’s a strong statement about how supportive and proud Senator Sanders of President Obama’s legacy.
Additionally, Sanders has taken the same positions as Obama ninety-three percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver.
This attack effectively distracts from Clinton’s record and her husband’s record on issues of racial justice. As Michelle Alexander, author of “The New Jim Crow,,” argued in an essay for The Nation, Hillary Clinton does not deserve the black vote because she supported a crime bill, welfare reform, and policies of mass incarceration, which decimated black America.
It deflects attention from how Clinton only recently added a “racial justice” tab to her campaign website. In contrast, Sanders announced a racial justice platform back in August 2015, after activists from the movement for black lives confronted Democratic presidential candidates at Netroots Nation. Apparently, Clinton needed six months to develop her positions on racial justice or she waited until she needed black voters to win a decisive victory in South Carolina and other Super Tuesday states.
Sanders’ Plan Would “Dismantle Obamacare”
In January, Clinton dishonestly stated, “His plan would take Medicare and Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act health care insurance and private employer health insurance and he would take that all together and send health insurance to the states, turning over your and my health insurance to governors.” She added, “We had enough of a fight to get to the Affordable Care Act. So I don’t want to rip it up and start over.”
Her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, was more explicit in her attack. She argued Sanders wanted to “dismantle Obamacare” and said, “I worry if we give Republicans Democratic permission to do that, we’ll go back to an era, before we had the Affordable Care Act, that would strip millions and millions and millions of people off their health insurance.”
Clinton built on her daughter’s claim when she appeared on “Good Morning America.” She said Sanders would “take everything we currently know as health care, Medicare, Medicaid, the CHIP Program, private insurance, now of the Affordable Care Act, and roll it together.” But FactCheck.org described the campaigns series of attacks as “misleading.” Former Obama administration adviser David Axelrod appeared on CNN and slapped down this attack.
“Bernie Sanders is proposing single-payer, universal healthcare. You can hardly say he is trying to take health care away from anyone or retreat from Obamacare. He’s trying to exceed it. And so it’s not really an honest attack,” Axelrod said.
When she ran against Obama in 2008, Clinton claimed Obama only wanted “children to have health insurance.” That was false. But this attack is different. It spreads disinformation intentionally to undermine a key campaign promise he has made to Americans while at the same time protecting the private health insurance industry.
On February 22, Clinton announced she would work with governors to use flexibility in Obamacare “to empower states to establish a public option choice.” Suddenly, it doesn’t seem like she is afraid of going to governors to have them expand health insurance for Americans anymore.
Finally, it is worth acknowledging this also works as an insinuation that Sanders would undo one of Obama’s landmark achievements. Undoing Obama’s achievement—if there was any truth to this claim—would likely be offensive to black voters.
Students for Sanders Planned To Commit Voter Fraud In Iowa
One rumor spread by the Clinton camp claimed Sanders was plotting to commit voter fraud by bringing in young, out-of-state supporters to participate in the Iowa caucus.
When Sanders was asked by Bloomberg Politics editor Al Hunt to address the allegation, he became livid.
“Really? Is that what they’re saying? Based on what did they say that? Based on David Brock’s long history of honesty and integrity? The man who tried to destroy Anita Hill? Is this where this is coming from?” Sanders replied. “Every one of you knows. You know it, that every day you’re being flooded with this negative stuff from the Secretary Hillary Clinton’s SuperPAC. So, that’s the first I’ve ever heard of it. I don’t want my integrity and dishonesty to be impugned. This is a lie, an absolute lie.”
What happened with the rumor is similar to how Clinton opposed Obama’s effort to encourage out-of-state students, who attended college in Iowa, to caucus in 2008. She argued the caucuses were only for people from the state. “This is a process for Iowans. This needs to be all about Iowa, and people who live here, people who pay taxes here,” Clinton declared.
Sanders Misrepresents Role In the Civil Rights Movement
On February 11, ahead of the South Carolina Democratic primary, the Congressional Black Caucus’ political action committee endorsed Clinton. Civil rights icon, Congressman John Lewis, called Sanders’ civil rights movement record into question.
“I never saw him. I never met him,” Lewis stated. “I was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for three years, from 1963 to 1966. I was involved with the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery and directed [the] voter education project for six years. But I met Hillary Clinton. I met President [Bill] Clinton.”
One might think, after hearing Lewis’ remarks, that he met both Hillary and Bill during the civil rights movement. According to Lewis’ book, “Conversations With Black America,” he did not hear of Bill Clinton until the 1970s. Lewis did not meet Bill Clinton until 1991, when an aide asked him to support Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Sanders’ history in the civil rights movement could be a real asset for him with people of color, especially because it might help prove his commitment to advancing struggles for racial justice. Clinton was not involved in the civil rights movement when Sanders was engaged in activism. She was campaigning for Barry Goldwater, a Republican who opposed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“When I was a young college student,” Sanders told the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in July, “I came to Washington, D.C., to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. I heard this organization’s first president, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., deliver his famous speech, and he inspired me, just as he inspired a whole generation—black and white—to get involved in the civil rights movement.”
“In Chicago, I worked for housing desegregation and was arrested protesting public school segregation. During that time I was active in what was a sister-organization to the SCLC, the Congress of Racial Equality or CORE, which was headed up by the late James Farmer,” Sanders added.
For two days, the remarks from Lewis stirred animosity among Sanders supporters, which Clinton supporters seized upon to claim his supporters had no respect for a civil rights icon. Once the news cycle had run its course, Lewis clarified on Saturday that he never “doubted that Senator Sanders participated in the civil rights movement, neither was I attempting to disparage his activism.” But, by this time, Clinton had already created doubt about whether Sanders had exaggerated his civil rights movement record, and the damage was done.
Meanwhile, establishment media systematically accused Sanders of having faked a photo, which shows him speaking at a sit-in against off-campus segregated housing at the University of Chicago. CNN and MSNBC aired interviews and interrogated Sanders spokespeople. Time published what it claimed was an “exclusive” proving the photo was a fake (which turned out not to be true). But it was the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, an African-American columnist and Clinton supporter, who went all-in on the “fake” photo story even as proof surfaced that he was terribly wrong.
It was not until Kartemquin Films, a collaborative film group in Chicago, found footage of Sanders being arrested during the boycott against the University of Chicago in 1963 that the questions swirling around Sanders’ civil rights movement seemed to dissipate. Yet, this successfully transformed Sanders’ history into a point of contention, and at no point did the Clinton campaign have to take responsibility for the smearing of Sanders’ record because surrogates did the deed.
Bernie Has Attacked Obama as “Weak”
Around 90 percent of black Americans support President Barack Obama, according to Gallup. One way for Clinton to capitalize on this reality is to discourage black Americans from voting for Sanders by claiming he has attacked President Obama, which Clinton has done.
Her campaign sent out opposition memos during the Nevada town hall on February 18, which accused Sanders of describing Obama as “weak” and criticized him for suggesting Obama should have faced a primary challenger in 2012.
Soon after Clinton’s comments, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest seemed to defend Sanders and told reporters:
Y’know, Senator Sanders, stood not too far away from where I’m standing. [points] You can just peek out the window and sort of see the spot where he was standing. . . where he spoke to all of you after having spent an hour with the President of the United States in the Oval office, where he talked to all of you about how proud he was of the progress our country has made under President Obama’s leadership. And I think that’s a strong statement about how supportive and proud Senator Sanders of President Obama’s legacy.
Additionally, Sanders has taken the same positions as Obama ninety-three percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver.
This attack effectively distracts from Clinton’s record and her husband’s record on issues of racial justice. As Michelle Alexander, author of “The New Jim Crow,,” argued in an essay for The Nation, Hillary Clinton does not deserve the black vote because she supported a crime bill, welfare reform, and policies of mass incarceration, which decimated black America.
It deflects attention from how Clinton only recently added a “racial justice” tab to her campaign website. In contrast, Sanders announced a racial justice platform back in August 2015, after activists from the movement for black lives confronted Democratic presidential candidates at Netroots Nation. Apparently, Clinton needed six months to develop her positions on racial justice or she waited until she needed black voters to win a decisive victory in South Carolina and other Super Tuesday states.
Sanders’ Plan Would “Dismantle Obamacare”
In January, Clinton dishonestly stated, “His plan would take Medicare and Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act health care insurance and private employer health insurance and he would take that all together and send health insurance to the states, turning over your and my health insurance to governors.” She added, “We had enough of a fight to get to the Affordable Care Act. So I don’t want to rip it up and start over.”
Her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, was more explicit in her attack. She argued Sanders wanted to “dismantle Obamacare” and said, “I worry if we give Republicans Democratic permission to do that, we’ll go back to an era, before we had the Affordable Care Act, that would strip millions and millions and millions of people off their health insurance.”
Clinton built on her daughter’s claim when she appeared on “Good Morning America.” She said Sanders would “take everything we currently know as health care, Medicare, Medicaid, the CHIP Program, private insurance, now of the Affordable Care Act, and roll it together.” But FactCheck.org described the campaigns series of attacks as “misleading.” Former Obama administration adviser David Axelrod appeared on CNN and slapped down this attack.
“Bernie Sanders is proposing single-payer, universal healthcare. You can hardly say he is trying to take health care away from anyone or retreat from Obamacare. He’s trying to exceed it. And so it’s not really an honest attack,” Axelrod said.
When she ran against Obama in 2008, Clinton claimed Obama only wanted “children to have health insurance.” That was false. But this attack is different. It spreads disinformation intentionally to undermine a key campaign promise he has made to Americans while at the same time protecting the private health insurance industry.
On February 22, Clinton announced she would work with governors to use flexibility in Obamacare “to empower states to establish a public option choice.” Suddenly, it doesn’t seem like she is afraid of going to governors to have them expand health insurance for Americans anymore.
Finally, it is worth acknowledging this also works as an insinuation that Sanders would undo one of Obama’s landmark achievements. Undoing Obama’s achievement—if there was any truth to this claim—would likely be offensive to black voters.
Students for Sanders Planned To Commit Voter Fraud In Iowa
One rumor spread by the Clinton camp claimed Sanders was plotting to commit voter fraud by bringing in young, out-of-state supporters to participate in the Iowa caucus.
When Sanders was asked by Bloomberg Politics editor Al Hunt to address the allegation, he became livid.
“Really? Is that what they’re saying? Based on what did they say that? Based on David Brock’s long history of honesty and integrity? The man who tried to destroy Anita Hill? Is this where this is coming from?” Sanders replied. “Every one of you knows. You know it, that every day you’re being flooded with this negative stuff from the Secretary Hillary Clinton’s SuperPAC. So, that’s the first I’ve ever heard of it. I don’t want my integrity and dishonesty to be impugned. This is a lie, an absolute lie.”
What happened with the rumor is similar to how Clinton opposed Obama’s effort to encourage out-of-state students, who attended college in Iowa, to caucus in 2008. She argued the caucuses were only for people from the state. “This is a process for Iowans. This needs to be all about Iowa, and people who live here, people who pay taxes here,” Clinton declared.
— source shadowproof.com By Kevin Gosztola