Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she was “disappointed” that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign instructed volunteers to criticize her as a candidate of the elite.
The Sanders campaign gave volunteers scripts that instruct them to tell voters considering backing Warren that the “people who support her are highly-educated, more affluent people who are going to show up and vote Democratic no matter what” and that “she's bringing no new bases into the Democratic Party,” Politico reported.
“I like Elizabeth Warren. [optional], “In fact, she’s my second choice. But here’s my concern about her,” the script says.
The script also knows former Vice President Joe Biden, urging volunteers to tell potential Biden voters that he “doesn’t really have any volunteers” and that “no one is really excited about him.” It also instructs volunteers to tell voters considering backing Pete Buttigieg that he lacks support among black voters.
Warren “disappointed”:
"I was disappointed to hear that Bernie is sending his volunteers out to trash me," Warren told NBC News. "Bernie knows me and has known me for a long time. He knows who I am, where I come from, what I have worked on and fought for and the coalition and grassroots movement we are trying to build. Democrats want to win in 2020 we all saw the impact of the factionalism in 2016 and we can't have a repeat of that."
"We cannot nominate someone who takes big chunks of the Democratic Coalition for granted," she added. "We need someone who will bring our party together. We need someone who will excite every part of the Democratic Party, someone who will be there. Someone that every Democrat can believe in. I hope Bernie reconsiders and turns his campaign in a different direction."
Bernie denies approving script:
“Elizabeth Warren is a very good friend of mine. We have worked together in the Senate for year,” Sanders told reporters on Sunday. “We will debate the issues. Nobody is going to trash Elizabeth.”
When a reporter pointed out that the campaign was trashing Warren, Sanders said he did not approve the script.
“We have hundreds of employees. Elizabeth Warren has hundreds of employees. And people sometimes say things that they shouldn’t,” he said. “You have heard me give many speeches. Have I ever said one word about Elizabeth Warren?”
“I have never said a negative word about Elizabeth Warren, who is a friend of mine,” he added. “We have differences on issues. That's what a campaign is about. But no one is going to be attacking Elizabeth.”
