Rachel: Bernie Says Abortion Rights Not Central To This Election

[stopbush]

Wow! She let him have it. Bernie saying Climate change more important than fighting for abortion rights. Bad move, Johnny One Issue.

Said Hillary had the exact opposite position.

Now, Rachel, Toad and Kornacki beating up on Bernie for throwing his aides under the bus, being "increasingly cranky about process questions" and basically saying he's conceding he can't win. Toad says Bernie "bought a landslide in NH." His exact words.

Just, wow!

[GusBob]

1. I wonder what kind of hate mail the Berniebros are sending her

Really not hard to imagine

[fun n serious]

2. Yes!!! I saw it wow.

Bernie: " Let's talk about something else."

[Rose Siding]

9. Did he really say that?

Bet the "something else" was billionaires and Wall St

[fun n serious]

10. Yep. His stump speech

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

17. His one note song is getting old

[DesertFlower]

52. same old. same old. it's boring.

[jg10003]

29. No. He said that the media spends way to much..

Time on every stupid thing (Bernie's words) that Trump says and no time on Trump's position on things like climate change, wages, taxes, etc.

After the interview Maddow inferred from Bernie's answer that he does not consider abortion rights to be very important.

[72DejaVu]

30. And she was correct

The fundamental flaw in Bernie's political views is the erroneous assumption that economic reform fixes all problems.

[DemonGoddess]

46. He was dismissive of what Trump said

other than his couple of sentences in objection. The point is, freedom of CHOICE is not important to him. Not really. That was apparent in the interview.

[jg10003]

50. Bernie has 100% rating from NARAL & Planned Parenthood

And that rating has been consistent over 25 years in congress. You may prefer Clinton for other reasons, but it is unfair to impugn Bernie's commitment to abortion rights.

[charlyvi]

54. And you are interjecting your opinion in a place you are not wanted.

Go away.

[jg10003]

56. I thought I was engaging a responsible and respectful discussion.

However if that is not possible then I will happily go away.

[Hekate]

58. We tried, believe me we tried. Now the BS people have the entire rest of the board as their...

....personal echo chamber. We can't even get any peace in what is supposed to be a protected group for supporters of Hillary because hostile BSers (not that you would ever be one of them) keep popping in and then going away to brag that we blocked them from the group for their bad behavior (not that you would ever behave badly).

We'll see you Out There.

[DemonGoddess]

63. He did that to himself

with his dismissiveness of how this belief system of the Rethugs can, will and DOES affect so many women. Especially those of us in RED states.

[KittyWampus]

34. It's part of his Mantram. "Let's talk about something else"

And "Wall Street".

[jmowreader]

3. Give him a few weeks

After he figures out how to tie abortion into the "need" to punish the rich for being rich, abortion rights will become a central issue in his campaign.

[stopbush]

6. This clown is pushing for more debates with Hillary

while loading her quiver with arrows to shoot him down with in a debate.

Not. Smart.

[Hekate]

26. That's actually an easy one, if BS had ever given one moment's thought to it. ....

Which is the trouble with being gender-blind. The rich and well-connected will ALWAYS have access and choices. They always have and they always will. It matters not to them what the laws are.

[Rose Siding]

31. And since when wasn't this issue an economic one anyway?

With diminished access to clinics and bc and abortion, women's economic situations are devastated.

With all his talk about economic inequality, why isn't paycheck fairness a bigger issue? At 78 cents on the dollar, every time I hear him talk about it I'm reminded of someone hollering All Lives Matter.

Small minded, one note candidates don't make good presidents.

[baldguy]

4. Apparently Sanders believes people lacking a Y-chromosome aren't fully human.

[stopbush]

20. Susan Sarandon must be SO proud of St Bernard this evening.

The hits just keep on coming with this amateur campaign.

[Hekate]

23. That's not the issue. It simply does not register in his mind that there is not one simple answer...

....to ALL of society's problems.

This has bothered me from early on -- it really is the old Marxist dilemma. All of us women can do good work to bring about the glorious revolution (and there were indeed women who fought and bled in the various revolutions) -- but we are to bear in mind that all our lady-problems will magically be solved when economic equality is achieved. Same goes for minorities.

In real life revolution turns out to be bloody, messy, and a lot more complicated than one simple answer.

I fear that Bernie, admirable as he is in some ways, is both color-blind in the worst way and gender-blind in the worst way.

[hrmjustin]

5. Tonight was not a good night for Sanders but MSNBC will sweep it under the rug.

[stopbush]

7. Well, they did have a deep discussion of this

after the interviews ended, and it was not good for Bernie.

[hrmjustin]

8. Hopefully they push him more on this.

[fun n serious]

11. I wonder if he will walk it back?

Do you think they'll realize how damaging this was? WE ARE WOMEN OVER HERE... HELLO! Our issues are not important.

[Hekate]

12. Well now DU has someone out there calling Rachel.....

....a "prostitute for Hillary." Will be interesting to see if it is let to stand.

[SaschaHM]

13. Was this at the end of the interview?

I was watching another event. I hope they re-air it.

[stopbush]

14. Kornacki was hosting a recap discussion.

Thes comments came at the very end, around 7:50 pacific time.

[fun n serious]

15. Damage control Read 1st message....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511613738

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

19. Yikes

My septic tank has better shit in it than what is posted on GDP these days.

[Hekate]

24. I see it was self deleted before it could be done by the jury

Too bad.

[Quayblue]

39. That poster types in capitalized words

Like another poster who left us a few weeks ago.

[UtahLib]

16. Cranky seems to be his permanent condition. Very Presidential. eom

[nolabear]

18. Yes, I was impressed! I'll bet they're catching hell for it. I thought it was right on.

[SaschaHM]

21. GD-P is going crazy tonight

Disparaging Rachel Maddow, straight up attacking Hillary, and posting videos from that "Sane" progressive youtube check who's like consists of making conspiracy videos. I'm ready for BS to lose so that they can go away.

[fun n serious]

22. They're trying to " Bury" the abortion issue. Just like Sanders nt

[stopbush]

25. Total meltdown in Bernieville tonight.

When they're not busy calling Rachel a whore they're posting fantasies about how Bernie is on the road to victory.

It doesn't get more delusional.

[Cha]

27. Why aren't they both important?

[stopbush]

28. Bernie truly believes that every single issue can be addressed

by overturning Citizens United.

Ergo, issues like abortion are at best secondary issues to him.

And, yes - he's an asshole.

[livetohike]

32. Bernie is not my generation. He is 11 years older than me. It's time for Berners to see

that his views on women's concerns are pre- Women's Lib. It matters to me.

[DesertFlower]

53. he's the same age as me -- 74, but

apparently we think differently.

[cosmicone]

33. How utterly tone deaf ... gasp n/t

[mcar]

35. Wow!

[George II]

36. I watched the Clinton interview, which was pretty good, but came to the conclusion...

...that once again with Maddow it was all about her. With the 10 minute melodrama (of her own making) introduction and her closing. Then I saw the end and then her wrap-up of the Sanders interview (someone said he was cranky, is that why his was only half an hour?) Again, it was all about her ("we MADE big news tonight!&quot

I've grown to no even like listening to her anymore, she sounds just so phony and strained with her melodrama.

[beachbum bob]

37. trump doesn't give a crap about women, health issues and their personal rights to choose, Bernie

should not align himself with any part of these....and yet he does time and time again by either being dismissive....or ignorant of womens issues that are in the line in each and every election in this country

[shenmue]

38. True

[uponit7771]

40. Can we see the whole quote please? thank you

[pat_k]

41. What crap. When your unwavering support...

...for such a fundamental issue is well known, you don't need to harp on it.

And he made it perfectly clear the the right to choose is fundamental.

Reading his answer as some sort of "discounting" of the issue is completely disingenuous.

[stopbush]

42. Your knee-jerk defensiveness has you missing the point of the OP.

The OP said nothing about what Sanders said during the interview. it's about the way Rachel characterized what he said after the interview.

This raises any number of questions, like "what did he say?"

Beyond that, the characterization is just the latest example that after being one of their most-vocal cheerleaders, Rachel has had it with the Sanders Campaign. It started with Tad Devine's ridiculous claim earlier in the week that Bernie hadn't really tried in all those states he lost to Hillary. Rachel took this as a direct, lying assault at the reporting done on her show during those very primaries that showed AT THE TIME that Bernie was putting significantly more time and resources into winning those states than was Hillary.

Yesterday, Rachel reported on her interview with Bernie not from the perspective of a cheerleader but as a reporter looking for weaknesses, untruths and half-baked answers. That led her to saying what I reported in the OP.

[Haveadream]

43. I have yet to see Bernie

NOT harp on the issues that are near and dear to him. Ad nauseum. The fact that he specifically dismissed this as minor in comparison to other more "important" ones speaks volumes.

If Trump had said something about Wall Street or college tuition or healthcare, you can bet Bernie would have used it as a springboard to replay his stump speech about any of those topics. Reproductive Rights and all the human, health, social and economic ramifications of that is simply not in his wheelhouse. Hillary, on the other hand, has been discussing it for years and knows it is extremely important. Huge.

[pat_k]

48. "Dismissed as minor." When did this supposedly happen?

He certainly did no such thing in the interview with Rachel that people appear to be citing.

[Haveadream]

49. Bernie's request to

quickly dispense with the subject and move on to other topics. His cursory response in the face of Trump's threat to criminalize and punish women is a problem. He was more focused on Trump behaving like an asshat than addressing the merits of what he was saying. Ignoring Trump would be fine but for the fact that he intends to do what he says and with the help of the Republicans, has the means to do it.

[pat_k]

51. Quote? I didn't hear...

...a request to "quickly dispense wit the subject."

[Hekate]

59. The fact is BS DID dispense quickly with the topic. He didn't have to SAY it; he just did so.

While it was pleasant to hear him call Trump's opinions and statements "stupid," the fact is BS pivoted right to his standard stump speech in which all the problems in American society will be magically solved when we achieve economic equality and have single payer health care.

I truly believe his heart is in the right place, but he has been living with his Unified Field Theory of Economics for so long that he fails to see the important and distinguishing nuances of the lives of women and minorities. He votes right, but as a potential POTUS he has not thought these things all the way through.

His stump speech codifies his personal Unified Field Theory, and it is his comfort zone, which is why he pivots right back there time after time.

[Cha]

55. Yep, what BS said was crap.. he stepped into it big time with dismissing what trump said.

[question everything]

44. Similar reaction when he ran against Madeleine Kunin for gov of Vermont

When Sanders was my opponent he focused like a laser beam on “class analysis,” in which “women’s issues” were essentially a distraction from more important issues. He urged voters not to vote for me just because I was a woman. That would be a “sexist position,” he declared

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511158039

[Haveadream]

45. Trump set off a firestorm

with his, make no mistake about it, misogyny toward all women yesterday and wanting to criminalize their ability to protect themselves. That is an explicit war on women! Bernie's subsequent dismissal of just how much of a crisis that is just added insult to injury. This is not a "talking point" or a game of gotcha. This issue speaks to the very heart of millions of women who are being targeted by the RW, right along with the all the other minorities who are in their cross hairs. Any purported "progressive" who mansplains or defends this is complicit. This has galvanized women across the country and you can see the effect across the internet. The fact that Bernie supporters are trying to avoid this conversation entirely speaks volumes about their lack of progressive values.

[Hekate]

60. Amazing how we women fail to fit neatly into the male model, time after time.

[Dawson Leery]

47. It should be no surprise that the outsider candidates do not care about women's rights.

They are too concerned with their personal pet issues.

[bluestateguy]

57. I'm sure for cantankerous old socialist men, and young Bernie Bros

that indeed abortion rights is probably just another middling issue on the checklist of issues.

[CalvinballPro]

61. Today, Bernie called Kasich, who has yet to meet an anti-abortion law he won't sign, "Sane."

Bernie doesn't care about women's health and safety if he's willing to compliment John Kasich for being "not crazy."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/04/bernie-sanders-john-kasich-221456

[DemonGoddess]

62. Kasich

recently DEFUNDED Planned Parenthood in OH. He's sane? He's just quieter about his hard right stances, that he enacts at every possible opportunity.

But yes, women's concerns are a distant second to the "wall street, oligarchy, 1%" thing we're being fed.

[Her Sister]

64. Rachel did a whole show about abortion rights last night!

She takes it dead serious which also explains her let-down and shock about BS answer the night before.

[Cha]

65. Thank you for this, Her Sister!

So important for Women.

[Fla Dem]

66. Bernie loves the adoration, not so much the hard work.

So he's not able to multi-task is that it? Well God forbid there are multiple events happening around the world while he's president. Some are just going to have to wait in line.

And while I agree climate change is a very important, is he saying he can't address both issues at the same time?