Warren Knifes Sanders Ahead of the Debate
Two media reports are meant to cast Warren as the victim of the Sanders patriarchy.
As Democrats prepare for the all-white presidential debate tonight, Elizabeth Warren chose a slightly different tack for identity politics. On Monday, a claim leaked — almost certainly from her campaign — that Bernie Sanders had privately told her back in 2018 that a woman couldn’t win the White House in 2020.
Given that the anonymously sourced report came from CNN, which is less factually reliable than the satirical Babylon Bee, you can take this with a grain of salt. But the network reports, “The two agreed that if they ultimately faced each other as presidential candidates, they should remain civil and avoid attacking one another, so as not to hurt the progressive movement.”
“She could make a robust argument about the economy and earn broad support from female voters,” CNN noted, adding, “Sanders responded that he did not believe a woman could win.”
Sanders called the CNN story “ludicrous,” turning his fire on Donald Trump, calling him “a sexist, a racist, and a liar.” But Warren said, “Among the topics that came up was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate. I thought a woman could win; he disagreed.”
The other part of Warren’s broadside came from Politico, which reported that the Sanders campaign is distributing volunteer talking points undermining Warren with phony kindness: “I like Elizabeth Warren. In fact, she’s my second choice. But here’s my concern about her.” She is the “candidate of the elite.” Feel the Bern.
This media hit job was such an obvious setup for tonight’s debate that it’s hard to take it seriously, especially when Warren’s autobiography is so littered with victimis falsehoods. But a couple of things bear mentioning. For one thing, Warren peaked too soon and has been steadily losing traction in the polls in recent weeks. She needs something — anything — to generate some buzz in advance of not only the debate but the February 3 Iowa caucuses, where she’s running fourth. The candidate most occupying “her lane” is Sanders, which makes him a target despite whatever detente they agreed to two years ago.
The other notable thing here is the reminder that Democrats have nothing of substance to offer beyond socialism. If it’s not failed policy ideas, it’s Trump Derangement Syndrome and identity politics.
