Found Audio Threatens Civil War in Dem Party - 'You Called Me a Liar!'
Audio of a tense moment between Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont was released Wednesday, and it’s looking like the exchange is driving a major wedge between supporters of the two Democratic presidential candidates.
CNN conveniently “found” the post-debate audio recording an entire day after the Democratic debate and broadcast it Wednesday night.
Elizabeth Warren accused Bernie Sanders of calling her a liar on stage after Tuesday’s debate. Here’s the tense moment. https://t.co/6FkruOfHOj pic.twitter.com/3mduyeJT1c
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) January 16, 2020
“I think you called me a liar on national TV,” Warren told Sanders.
“What?” Sanders replied.
“I think you called me a liar on national TV,” she said, repeating herself.
Sanders appeared to want to deal with the issue a different time.
“Let’s not do it right now,” he said. “You want to have that discussion, we’ll have that discussion.”
Warren responded: “Anytime.”
But Sanders simply grew more upset.
“You called me a liar, you told me — all right, let’s not do it right now,” he said.
The disagreement is over Sanders’ alleged 2018 comment to Warren that a woman could not win the presidency.
While Sanders denies the claim, Warren is using it as ammunition against the democratic socialist.
Backers of the two presidential candidates were thrown into a frenzy after the post-debate conversation went public. What was seen as just a tense moment before the audio came out now has the context needed to create a nasty divide in the Democratic Party.
Supporters of Sanders see Warren and CNN as part of a nefarious smear campaign to cannibalize the aging Vermont senator’s backers.
At risk of sounding sympathetic to Sanders, it does appear CNN shamelessly went after him in a supposedly unbiased debate. Even Rolling Stone slammed the network for combining “a naked political hit with a cynical ploy for ratings.”
Calls for unity, like one from Minnesota Democratic. Rep. Ilhan Omar, have been met with skepticism from Democrats whose minds were decided by the found audio.
I’m mostly with you here. But Warren clearly lied, and she did it to prop up her new focus-group tested talking point.
The difference between now and two days ago is that I used to like Warren, but now I’m 100% #NeverWarren, and that’s not negotiable.
— David Lee (@tDaveLee) January 15, 2020
Of course, there’s always two sides to a story.
Those who back Warren seem to see Sanders as a misogynist pig who’s dismissing the female candidate and outright calling her a liar. In the era after the #MeToo movement, how can you not believe everything a (Democratic) woman says?
Elizabeth Warren refused Bernie Sanders his “good game, you little firecracker” handshake.
He was mad.
Rather than let him deny he’s a sexist, she checkmated him into proving it.
Me @latimesopinion : https://t.co/hRnRCNYSsM
— Virginia Heffernan (@page88) January 16, 2020
With CNN seemingly throwing its weight behind Warren, Sanders supporters still bitter over unfair treatment from the Democratic National Committee in 2016 are not likely to let this shameless display go.
Sanders and Warren are only a few percentage points away from each other in the competition for the second-place spot in the national polls.
While Sanders has the edge now, fallout from the post-debate audio could shake things up.
If this feud explodes into a bigger war between the two Democrats, it’s likely to cost whoever wins the party’s nomination dearly.
After the DNC’s ugly behavior in 2016, many Sanders fans turned on the DNC’s candidate, Hillary Clinton, and voted for then-candidate Donald Trump instead.
At this point, it’s unclear who exactly is telling the truth in this whole matter.
Although Warren has a spotty history with the truth, all we have is her word against that of Sanders.
One thing is for certain, however: If Democrats can’t get their act together and decide on a candidate without resorting to high school-tier antics and gossip, then President Trump is in for a good election season.
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