SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Sanders Sees Clinton Camp Attacks as Sign that 'Something Must Be Working'
'Bernie is too liberal to gather enough votes in this country to become president,' says Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri
Jun 26, 2015
In a move viewed as further evidence of Sen. Bernie Sanders' continued momentum in the polls and among potential voters in the 2016 presidential election, some Hillary Clinton supporters have gone on the offense against the self-described democratic socialist.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a Clinton backer, launched what The Hill described as "the sharpest attack yet" on Sanders in a television appearance on Thursday.
"Bernie is too liberal to gather enough votes in this country to become president," she told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
McCaskill assailed Sanders for having "an extreme message" and being "unrealistic," while complaining that the media were "not giving the same scrutiny to Bernie Sanders that they are giving to certainly Hillary Clinton and the other candidates."
Asked to name three issues she thinks Sanders is 'too far left, too Socialist" on, McCaskill said:
"He would like to see Medicare for all in this country, have everybody have a government insurance policy, I don't think most Americans want government to have every insurance policy... He would like to see expansion of entitlement. He is not worried about a debt at all. He is somebody who is, I think, frankly, against trade. Against a lot of things unrealistic in this day and age."
Though McCaskill endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008, Politico reports that she "endorsed Clinton's 2016 bid almost exactly two years ago, in June 2013, making her one of the former secretary of state's earliest major Democratic backers."
The statements came as recent opinion polls have shown support for Sanders building in early battleground states such as New Hampshire and Iowa.
Sanders subsequently struck back in an interview with Bloomberg Politics' Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, calling into question McCaskill's progressive bona fides. "Do I believe, in opposition to Senator McCaskill, that we need trade policies that are fair to the American worker, and not just benefit CEOs and large corporations?" Sanders said. "I plead guilty."
Meanwhile, the Sanders camp is claiming the attacks as a sort of victory.
"When your opponents and people who represent them wade into the conversation with attacks against you, for us it's a recognition of the fact that something must be working," Tad Devine, a senior adviser to Sanders, told The Hill. "It's a basic rule in politics that you don't attack somebody if they are not doing well."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
In a move viewed as further evidence of Sen. Bernie Sanders' continued momentum in the polls and among potential voters in the 2016 presidential election, some Hillary Clinton supporters have gone on the offense against the self-described democratic socialist.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a Clinton backer, launched what The Hill described as "the sharpest attack yet" on Sanders in a television appearance on Thursday.
"Bernie is too liberal to gather enough votes in this country to become president," she told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
McCaskill assailed Sanders for having "an extreme message" and being "unrealistic," while complaining that the media were "not giving the same scrutiny to Bernie Sanders that they are giving to certainly Hillary Clinton and the other candidates."
Asked to name three issues she thinks Sanders is 'too far left, too Socialist" on, McCaskill said:
"He would like to see Medicare for all in this country, have everybody have a government insurance policy, I don't think most Americans want government to have every insurance policy... He would like to see expansion of entitlement. He is not worried about a debt at all. He is somebody who is, I think, frankly, against trade. Against a lot of things unrealistic in this day and age."
Though McCaskill endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008, Politico reports that she "endorsed Clinton's 2016 bid almost exactly two years ago, in June 2013, making her one of the former secretary of state's earliest major Democratic backers."
The statements came as recent opinion polls have shown support for Sanders building in early battleground states such as New Hampshire and Iowa.
Sanders subsequently struck back in an interview with Bloomberg Politics' Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, calling into question McCaskill's progressive bona fides. "Do I believe, in opposition to Senator McCaskill, that we need trade policies that are fair to the American worker, and not just benefit CEOs and large corporations?" Sanders said. "I plead guilty."
Meanwhile, the Sanders camp is claiming the attacks as a sort of victory.
"When your opponents and people who represent them wade into the conversation with attacks against you, for us it's a recognition of the fact that something must be working," Tad Devine, a senior adviser to Sanders, told The Hill. "It's a basic rule in politics that you don't attack somebody if they are not doing well."
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
In a move viewed as further evidence of Sen. Bernie Sanders' continued momentum in the polls and among potential voters in the 2016 presidential election, some Hillary Clinton supporters have gone on the offense against the self-described democratic socialist.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a Clinton backer, launched what The Hill described as "the sharpest attack yet" on Sanders in a television appearance on Thursday.
"Bernie is too liberal to gather enough votes in this country to become president," she told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
McCaskill assailed Sanders for having "an extreme message" and being "unrealistic," while complaining that the media were "not giving the same scrutiny to Bernie Sanders that they are giving to certainly Hillary Clinton and the other candidates."
Asked to name three issues she thinks Sanders is 'too far left, too Socialist" on, McCaskill said:
"He would like to see Medicare for all in this country, have everybody have a government insurance policy, I don't think most Americans want government to have every insurance policy... He would like to see expansion of entitlement. He is not worried about a debt at all. He is somebody who is, I think, frankly, against trade. Against a lot of things unrealistic in this day and age."
Though McCaskill endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008, Politico reports that she "endorsed Clinton's 2016 bid almost exactly two years ago, in June 2013, making her one of the former secretary of state's earliest major Democratic backers."
The statements came as recent opinion polls have shown support for Sanders building in early battleground states such as New Hampshire and Iowa.
Sanders subsequently struck back in an interview with Bloomberg Politics' Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, calling into question McCaskill's progressive bona fides. "Do I believe, in opposition to Senator McCaskill, that we need trade policies that are fair to the American worker, and not just benefit CEOs and large corporations?" Sanders said. "I plead guilty."
Meanwhile, the Sanders camp is claiming the attacks as a sort of victory.
"When your opponents and people who represent them wade into the conversation with attacks against you, for us it's a recognition of the fact that something must be working," Tad Devine, a senior adviser to Sanders, told The Hill. "It's a basic rule in politics that you don't attack somebody if they are not doing well."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.