Bernie praises Al Franken, blasts Hillary Clinton superdelegate system

By Julia Cohen and Robert Donachie

Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he missed former Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken, who resigned after photos of him taking advantage of sleeping women were released to the public, after being asked about the #MeToo movement.

Bruce Parker/TNR

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaking in Burlington.

“Al is a friend of mine and we miss him very, very much,” Sanders said in an interview with The Washington Post on Wednesday in response to being asked if the Democrats made a mistake ousting the disgraced former senator.

Sanders also avoided talking about former president Bill Clinton, saying he did not want to look back on the past after the interviewer asked him if he regrets his vote not to impeach Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Sanders shifted to talking about the importance of holding elected officials accountable for inappropriate conduct.

“… if a member of Congress harasses or worse an employee, that member will be held accountable … there will be legislation passed,” Sanders said. “What the issue is about is, we have got to be aggressive in making certain that women … feel safe and comfortable on the job.”

Sanders has been an avid supporter of the #MeToo movement.

“Right now, as we speak, in restaurants all over this country, in offices all over this country, there are folks who are not famous who are harassing women, making demands on women that are obscene,” Sanders told CNN in December 2017. “We need a revolution in the way we treat women in the workforce from the bottom on up.”

Critical of ‘superdelegate’ system that made Clinton in 2016

Sanders also spoke against the Democratic party’s superdelegate system Wednesday morning — a system that contributed to his failure to secure the Democratic nomination for president against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“Right now, as you know, and when I ran, you had many, many superdelegates. Almost all of them ended up supporting Hillary Clinton,” Sanders told The Washington Post at a conference Wednesday.

“And, I think there is a widespread understanding that just is not right. In fact, you had superdelegates voting for Clinton in states that I won pretty handsomely,” Sanders said.

What the independent senator is saying is valid. For instance, Sanders absolutely dominated against Clinton in New Hampshire in 2016, but she ultimately gained as many delegates in the state because many of the superdelegates supported her.

“I think there is a general feeling that does not make a lot of sense,” Sanders said of the superdelegate system. “Now, there is agreement among Tom Perez and a lot of the Clinton people, as well as our people, who came together and formed what Clinton and I call the Democratic Unity Reform committee.”

The committee holds the position that the party should substantially reduce the number of superdelegates “by about 70 percent,” Sanders said.

Sanders also talked about voter suppression, which he found to be a big issue in 2016.

“You got Republican governors and attorneys general all over this country trying to make it harder for poor people and people of color to vote,” Sanders said. “Go to New York state and find out that if you are going to participate in the Democratic primary, you have to got to be registered as a Democrat six months before that primary. When I ran in 2016, 3 million people in New York state were ineligible to vote.”

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/DonkeyHotey and Bruce Parker/TNR

5 thoughts on “Bernie praises Al Franken, blasts Hillary Clinton superdelegate system

  1. It figures that they would be great friends. They are two of the biggest blowhards that ever served in the US Senate. I guess I shouldn’t say served, I should say milkers. That’s all they both ever did was run their mouths.

  2. Why is Bernie even talking about this Corrupt, Criminal, Liar of a politician, who is an anti American Socialist groper who should be in jail not getting praised and missed especially not by my US Federal Government representative in D.C? Bernie needs to retire, and abide by his own words that young people need to come into Government! Well Bernie for your information we young people cant get into Government because all the Liberals, Democrats, Regressives, Communists, & Socialists that have & are destroying a Free America in favor of the hateful divisive utopia leftists dream of even here in Vermont aren’t retiring, stepping aside, or helping young people enter any level of Government. These people have been in power for years some decades & have done nothing good for Americans except enriching themselves as well as their families, and its very important to note issues/problems they wanted to address when these statesmen/stateswoman entered politics have been at the very least not changed at all or the complete opposite with those issue/problems turning into crisis once the policies & agenda of leftists was introduced to solve the issue. No need to look very far for proof to my previous sentence then researching evidence & data coming out of cities controlled by Liberals & Democrats for decades upon decades that are turning into literal cesspools & meat grinders even with the passage of Anti American Anti 2nd Amendment laws, which criminals don’t follow so those who suffer are all law abiding, Patriotic, Americans that don’t rap about jail being cool. Why wont all the Liberals, Democrats, Progressives, Socialists retire, or resign so young people who are Conservative, Constitutionalist, pro American, pro all rights, pro Small Government pro less regulation, pro shrinking budgets, pro ridding citizens of Bureaucracy & Centralized control of anything, pro allowing law enforcement to do their jobs without any Politically motivated restrictions, & change legislation & government rules & regs to reverse how invasive anti Free Market Govt has been made at all levels. Vermont needs Young people unequivocally against the restricting of anybody’s rights or outright plans to strip rights, Vermont needs young people who are against the outrageous slow-walked legislation & policies that have led to nowadays the noticeable overreach of the Federal & State of Vermont Govts into citizens daily lives. Honestly long term State Legislators who are Liberal Democrat socialist Communists aren’t & have not been doing anything except bankrupting future Vermont generations, virtue signaling, race baiting, spreading lie after lie, unproven uncalled for fear mongering, demagoguery,& passing feel good pat each other on the back no substance legislation based on a hateful, divisive, forceful, un open, un inclusive, race based ideology whose goals and agenda are not compatible with US Constitution, or Freedom loving, patriotic, America or Americans. Is/Was Bernie & all those who echoed his call for young people to enter Government knowingly outright lying with fingers crossed, because they knew they wouldn’t retire or step aside regardless of their rhetoric?

  3. Bernie, You can show them in 2020 by running as an independent and splitting the liberal vote with the democratic challenger, but I don’t think that President Trump will need your help to secure a second term.

  4. Shouldn’t Bernie Sanders join the Democratic Party if he expects to dictate their rules? It is not voter suppression to require a voter to be a member of a certain political party if they want the opportunity to pick that party’s leaders and standard bearer. It is common sense. But Sanders does not believe in political parties. He is an Independent. He was just using the Democratic Party primary system because it was a more credible path to the White House than running as an Independent.

  5. Bernie ” Soapbox ” Sanders, I can see why he misses Al Franken they are both a couple
    buffons, they both try to present themselves as astute, both are a couple of clowns and
    make for a good laugh !!

    Sanders states, the importance of holding elected officials accountable for inappropriate
    conduct, now that’s typical Bernie Rhetoric …….. !!

    So ” Soapbox ” how do you explain the loan your wife received for the defunct Burlington
    College ….did your political status ( inappropriate conduct ) have anything to do with it ??

    I know you didn’t mention you were a US Senator or Presidential Candidate in passing with
    the loan officer ?????

    Sanders also talked about voter suppression, which he found to be a big issue in 2016, what
    you have same-day registration, vote by mail and no need for Identification !! All he forgot to
    mention is his minions, who have not registered to vote …………… Thank God !!

Comments are closed.