Senator Bernie Sanders continued his dialogue about Hillary Clinton's "qualifications" for being president in Philadelphia today.
MSNBC picked it up when Sanders was explaining why he went on the attack. He was reading a CNN report about the Clinton team's supposed new strategy against his campaign.
"Now, the other thing is that I believe the Clinton campaign told CNN, and I quote, that their strategy as we go into New York and to Pennsylvania, I guess, is quote, disqualify him, defeat him and unify the party later."
He continued by attacking the media, "I have desired and I have run on an issue oriented campaign. Now, it’s hard, as we can see the media’s not particularly interested about why the middle class declines, about wage and income disparity. That’s not what you’re interested in."
He then took issue with what he believes is a small state mentality that can't take the heat from the big cities.
"If Secretary Clinton thinks that just because I’m from a small state in Vermont and we’re gonna come here to New York and go to Pennsylvania and they’re gonna beat us up and they’re gonna go after us in some kind of really uncalled for way, that we’re not gonna fight back, well we got another — you know, they can guess again because that’s not the case. This campaign will fight back.”
Last night I wrote that I believe some media outlets like the Washington Post, took Clinton's Scarborough interview out of context which was fuel for Bernie's ire.
Amazing how headline writers screw up the news for "click bait." @aravosis She said he didn't do his "homework." https://t.co/8BtClz8dEj
— JohnAmato (@JohnAmato) April 7, 2016
He used that exact WaPo article in his next line of attack.
"So when you have headlines in the Washington Post, quote " Clinton questions whether Sanders is qualified to be president," my response is well, you know, if you want to question my qualifications, let me suggest this. Maybe the American people might wonder about your qualifications, Madam, Secretary.
Sanders then listed the same complaints against her that he used last night, including her Iraq War vote, Super PAC and campaign donations.
He ended by saying, "this is not the type of politics that I want to get in...I’m not gonna get beaten up and I’m not gonna get lied about, we will fight back."
Sanders also responded to a question from a reporter named Nancy, who didn't get to finish asking her question, but he said, "she has attacked me for being unqualified. And if I am going to be attacked for being "unqualified," I will respond in kind."
He then said he still respected Secretary Clinton.
I'm not sure that carried much weight at this point.
