Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) confirmed Monday evening that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had told her in December 2018 that he did not believe that a woman could win the presidency.
CNN reported Monday that the two had met at Warren’s apartment in Washington, DC, and had the following exchange:
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. They also discussed how to best take on President Donald Trump, and Warren laid out two main reasons she believed she would be a strong candidate: She could make a robust argument about the economy and earn broad support from female voters.
Sanders responded that he did not believe a woman could win.
The CNN report came amidst open clashes between the two campaigns over claims that the Sanders campaign was using scripts in calls to voters that claimed Warren could not expand the Democratic Party’s demographic coalition. The clashes follow months of tension, with many Sanders supporters quietly seething at what many perceive as Warren’s attempt to copy Sanders’s “democratic socialist” policies.
President Donald Trump savored the spat in a tweet on Monday morning:
Bernie Sander’s volunteers are trashing Elizabeth “Pocahontus” Warren. Everybody knows her campaign is dead and want her potential voters. Mini Mike B is also trying, but getting tiny crowds which are all leaving fast. Elizabeth is very angry at Bernie. Do I see a feud brewing?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2020
The Sanders campaign vehemently denied the CNN report, calling it a “lie” and calling on Warren to clarify:
NEW: @BernieSanders campaign manager responds to report that in 2018 Sanders told @ewarren that a woman couldn’t win in 2020.@fshakir: “It is a lie.” pic.twitter.com/JTgugmlb2k
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) January 13, 2020
MORE: I asked @fshakir if we need to hear directly from @eWarren as to what happened in the conversation.
His response:
“We need to hear from her directly, but I know what she would say that it is not true that it is a lie.” pic.twitter.com/Gf1LWtoxvX— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) January 13, 2020
But Warren’s clarification Monday evening confirmed the CNN report.
“Among the topics that came up was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate. I thought a woman could win; he disagreed,” Warren recalled.
NEW: Warren statement on her conversation with Bernie: “I thought a woman could win; he disagreed.”
Full statement: pic.twitter.com/o0ih3dGv5Y
— Molly Hensley-Clancy (@mollyhc) January 14, 2020
Warren added that she had “no interest in discussing this private meeting any further.” However, it is almost certain to come up at Tuesday night’s Democrat debate in Des Moines, Iowa, which will air live on CNN at 9:00 p.m. ET.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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