Sanders and Warren Supporters Are Fighting Over a Story That He Told Her Women Can't Win [View all]

[Uncle Joe]

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CNN reported on a 2018 meeting between the two presidential hopefuls at Warren's Washington D.C. apartment, where the candidates reportedly discussed something of a progressive alliance and their respective prospects for winning the presidency. CNN cited four anonymous Warren campaign staffers, two of whom spoke to Warren about the meeting, with another other two "familiar with the meeting," who said that Sanders reportedly told Warren that he didn't think a woman could win the election and beat president Donald Trump.

The story had a bombshell effect, exposing simmering tensions between Sanders's and Warren's supporters. Some of his have challenged the story's veracity and timing, accusing Warren's camp of playing dirty politics as Sanders has risen in the polls. Others pointed to a 1988 video of Sanders professing support for a female president,, and another of him in 1987 telling third graders that women should run for office.

Sanders, for his part, called the story "ludicrous," basically denouncing it as a gross mischaracterization of the meeting. He questioned the veracity of the report's sourcing and denied many aspects of the report:

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Many Sanders's supporters have noted that the candidate might not have been saying, explicitly, that a woman is incapable of running a winning presidential campaign, but merely commenting on what he sees as a culture of sexism that still prevails in U.S. politics. Others noted that the CNN story might have been a ploy to gin up anticipation and drama ahead of a pivotal Democratic debate.

https://www.gq.com/story/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-woman-president