ON RUNNING NEGATIVE ADS, SANDERS SAID: “You’re looking at a guy who has been in politics a long time, and I have never run a negative ad in my life, and I look forward to never running a negative ad in my life, okay? I don’t think people deserve that.”
SANDERS HAS RUN NEGATIVE ADS:
Huffington Post’s Sam Stein: “Bernie’s campaign will protest. But this is an attack ad even if he doesn’t mention Clinton by name.” [1/14/16, 9:59 a.m. EDT]
NBC News’s Monica Alba: “Bernie’s tough new TV ad is a surprising escalation for a candidate who vowed not to go negative.” [1/14/16, 1:21 p.m. EDT]
Bernie Sanders released a 30-second ad implicitly criticizing Hillary Clinton on Wall Street reform. [Politico, 1/14/16]
The Daily Beast: Sanders Attempted To Get Around “No Attacks” Pledge. [The Daily Beast, 12/18/15]
Washington Post’s Greg Sargent: “The general consensus seems to be that Sanders is going more negative on Clinton than the other way around. That seems generally right.” [Washington Post, 10/28/15]
ON SUPER PACS, SANDERS SAID: “I do not know any progressive who has a super PAC and takes $15 million from Wall Street. That’s just not progressive.”
TRUTH IS: More super PAC money has been spent this cycle in support of Bernie Sanders than in support of any other Democratic candidate.
“The union’s ‘super PAC’ has spent close to $1 million on ads and other support for Mr. Sanders, the Democratic presidential candidate who has inspired liberal voters with his calls to eradicate such outside groups. In fact, more super PAC money has been spent so far in express support of Mr. Sanders than for either of his Democratic rivals, including Hillary Clinton, according to Federal Election Commission records.” [New York Times, 1/28/16]
ON SANDERS’ HEALTHCARE PLAN: “What we are going to fight for is a Medicare for all single-payer program. Which would provide comprehensive health care to your family and every family in America. So, let me tell you what we do. We raise your taxes if you’re somewhere in the middle of the economy, about 500 bucks, but you know what we’re going to do? For health care, we’re going to reduce your health care costs by $5,000. So you’re going to pay a little bit more in taxes, but you’re no longer going to have to pay private health insurance premiums. Now, I’ve been criticized for this.”
BERNIE IS RIGHT: HE HAS BEEN CRITICIZED FOR HIS HEALTHCARE PLAN:
New York Times’s Paul Krugman on health care: “Bernie Sanders is wrong about this and Hillary Clinton is right.” [New York Times, 1/18/16]
Leading health economist: Despite Bernie Sanders’s simple promise of savings, most employer-based health insurance policies currently have more comprehensive coverage than traditional Medicare. [Politifact, 1/13/16]
New York’s Jonathan Chait: “Sanders has promised to replace Obamacare with a single-payer plan, without having any remotely plausible prospects for doing so.” [New York, 1/18/16]
Vox’s Ezra Klein: Because Bernie Sanders is proposing a “huge, disruptive reform,” he needs to provide answers to central questions about how it would work, and to show that he’s aware of the difficulties of a single-payer system. [Vox, 1/17/16]
SANDERS THINKS HE IS THE MOST ELECTABLE CANDIDATE: “Number one, I’m not a great fan of polls, not even CNN polls. But CNN had a poll as I recall and what that poll said is that Bernie Sanders ran significantly against Donald trump then Hillary Clinton, okay? There was another poll that said the same thing. Because among other things I do very well among independents and that’s one of the reasons we are doing well against Republicans. Number one, some of these polls have me way way ahead of Donald Trump, further so than Secretary Clinton… So if you want to win in November, and I want us to defeat Republicans, Secretary Clinton wants us to defeat Republicans everybody understands we don’t want some right-wing Republican in the Oval Office. But I believe quite honestly I am the strongest candidate to do that because I think I can drive a large voter turnout, bring in new energy into the Democratic Party.”
SANDERS IS CHERRY-PICKING POLLS:
Politifact: “Beating Clinton in only two of eight hypothetical matchups is far from ‘almost all.’ The statement is not accurate, so we rate it False.” [Politifact, 1/26/16]