Washington, D.C.–Yesterday, the Bernie Sanders campaign hosted a call for reporters on the “path forward.” The Sanders camp argued that they “didn’t compete” in eight states they lost…but Sanders spent money and time in several of those states. For example, the Sanders campaign had paid staff in Texas long before Clinton and held rallies in Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia.
The spin from the Sanders campaign was described as “eyebrow-raising,” “confusing,” “awkward,” and one report concluded the Sanders campaign “found itself on defense.”
Read a few of the stories coming out of the Sanders campaign press call:
POLITICO: Bernie’s team confronts tough questions: “Coming off its best stretch of the campaign, having won six of seven contests over the past week, Bernie Sanders’ campaign found itself on defense on Monday, forced to explain why the senator remains far behind even when top aides are saying that his path to the Democratic nomination is still viable. A 45-minute conference call with reporters hosted by senior Sanders aides sent multiple confusing messages, starting with chief strategist Tad Devine’ s insistence that Sanders would be beating Hillary Clinton, except that his campaign chose not to compete in some of the big states that she won.”Huffington Post: Bernie Sanders’ Campaign Claims He Didn’t Compete In States He Actually Competed In: “Devine and Weaver’s claim depends on one’s definition of the word ‘compete’ during the Southern primaries, where Clinton netted over 300 delegates. Sanders held rallies in Austin and Dallas. He held multiple events in Virginia. He held rallies in Atlanta, Georgia. He also visited Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. His campaign had field offices in most of those states. If he wasn’t actually competing in the South, where his campaign always acknowledged he faced an uphill battle because of Clinton’s popularity among African-American voters, then why bother visiting?”Business Insider: Bernie Sanders’ team just made some eyebrow-raising claims while arguing that he can defeat Hillary Clinton: “ Bernie Sanders’ campaign floated a new idea on Monday: Sanders beats Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton in states where he invests in winning. “MSNBC: Bernie Sanders’ campaign offers awkward take on state of the race: “But whether or not you’re impressed with what Sanders has put forward, his campaign’s latest pitch is an unfortunate mess.”Mother Jones: This Is How Bernie Sanders Will Win the Nomination: “This line of reasoning was quickly challenged by reporters on Twitter.”CBS News: The trouble with Bernie Sanders’ path to victory: “Devine also said Clinton picked up most of her pledged delegate lead in states where the Sanders campaign didn’t compete, which he named as Texas, Alabama, Virginia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia and Arkansas. But there’s a bit of a problem with that argument. Sanders did contest at least some of those states: he campaigned in many of those states, put staff on the ground and even spent money on TV ads. In Texas, for example, he had seven offices around the state, the first of which opened in November for a March 1 primary; he also put a small amount of advertising into the state.”Washington Post: Bernie Sanders won a battle over the weekend. Hillary Clinton is still winning the war — by a lot. “That’s like saying that if you don’t count those 10 baskets you scored when my team was doing badly, the score is actually tied. That’s not how it works. You don’t get to pick and choose the races that matter. All delegates won in all contests count the same — that’s the lesson Clinton learned when she watched then-senator Barack Obama wrack up massive delegate margins in a slew of February 2008 caucuses that gave the Illinois senator an insurmountable edge in the delegate chase. In fact, Clinton’s lead in pledged delegates is considerably larger — even after Sanders’s Saturday sweep — than Obama ever held over Clinton.”Slate: Weakened at Bernie’s: “None of this is to dismiss Sanders or his support. But at this stage, the primary is static. There are states that favor Sanders, and there are states that favor Clinton. The latter hold more pledged delegates than the former. After Nevada, the Sanders campaign pursued a ‘state-win strategy,’ designed to score as many states as possible. But they didn’t need states; they needed delegates. Now, they face a hill that’s almost too steep to climb.”
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