Like Trump's Tax Returns, Bernie's MFA Excuse for Still Running Is Bogus [View all]
One of the talking points pushed by BS's campaign for continuing to run is that he needs to run in order to push Medicare for All. This is bogus. There is nothing that prevents BS from advocating for single payer without running for President. Elizabeth Warren understood that.
Indeed, by continuing to run and make character attacks on Biden that have nothing to do with MFA, BS confirm the falsity of his claim that he is running to advance MFA. By focusing his attacks on Biden, and damaging Democrats generally, this increases the chance that Trump and Republicans win in November.
We need only to look at 2016 to see that BS's continued attacks on Hillary and Democrats did not help progressives or the working class. Instead, Trump weakened labor rules, environmental protections and the ACA. That is why BS cannot reasonably argue that his continued campaign against Biden will help the working class unless he wants to argue that the working class is better off under Trump.
So, the question then is why is BS continuing to run even though the math is not there? There are two logical reasons:
1. BS agrees with his surrogates efforts to undermine the Democratic party who think that worsening conditions for the people under Trump will help bring about "revolution," as explained by Susan Sarandon:
https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/29/politics/susan-sarandon-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/index.html
Likewise, Bernie surrogate Cornell West has actively advocated that people "dump the Democratic Party":
https://www.colorlines.com/articles/cornel-west-activists-immigrants-lets-dump-democratic-party
2. BS is personally benefited by the continued personal attention he also receives a financial benefit because he employs his various family members on his campaign and his private foundation. Jane Sanders and Levi Sanders are and have been on his campaign staff as senior advisors even though Jeff Weaver has admitted that Levi really do much. Likewise, BS's son-in-law, David Driscoll is paid $100K/year to run his private charitable foundation even though David has no experience running such foundations.
You also have millions in campaign dollars once again going to a new mystery firm with ties to Bernie. In 2016, you had the mystery firm Old Towne Media:
https://vtdigger.org/2016/07/15/sanders-campaign-millions-go-to-mystery-firm/
The ad agency, established in 2014, has almost exclusively served the Sanders campaign, and the company keeps a low profile. It has no website and no listed phone number. A full list of principals isn’t publicly available.
Old Towne Media has another connection to Sanders: The two principal buyers for the company worked in the past with his wife, Jane. Jane Sanders, Shelli Hutton-Hartig and Barbara Abar Bougie were media buyers during Bernie Sanders’ 2006 Senate race.
In the 2006 Senate campaign, his Republican opponent suggested Sanders’ wife improperly profited from campaign ad buys. Richard Tarrant leveled the accusation a few months after news media reported that Jane Sanders had received $30,000 from 2002 to 2004 for work on her husband’s congressional campaigns, which is allowed under federal rules. In response to Tarrant’s criticism at the time, Jeff Weaver, Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager, said Jane made the 2006 buys as a volunteer and gave her commission to the firm, Abar Hutton Media, which was run by Hutton-Hartig and Bougie.
This year, according to Open Secrets, BS purchased millions in ads from a company that was recently formed by Bernie's Fundraising Director, Tim Tegaris, who formed Aisle 519:
https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/expenditures?id=N00000528
In short, Bernie, his family and associates have profited greatly by pushing Bernie, Inc. This is why BS will run to the very end, draw attention himself by continuing to attack Biden and the Democratic party, before making a lukewarm endorsement of Biden just prior to the convention in an effort to undermine Democratic efforts in November 2020.
If I were to vote in a presidentialprimary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
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