Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders lamented the “dumb” rules that have stifled his insurgent campaign against Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, seemingly backing off of previous suggestions that the process was “rigged.”
“I wouldn’t use the word ‘rigged’ because we knew what the rules were — but what is really dumb, is that you have closed primaries, like in New York State, where three million people who were Democrats or Republicans could not participate,” Sanders told CBS. “You have a situation where over 400 superdelegates came on board Clinton’s campaign before anybody else was in the race, eight months before the first vote was cast. That’s not rigged, I think it’s just a dumb process which has certainly disadvantaged our campaign.”
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That’s slight moderation of his recent rhetoric the Democratic National Committee, which he has long accused of putting a thumb on the scale in favor of Clinton. That running fight has led GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump to offer the self-serving suggestion that Sanders run as a third-party candidate in the fall.
Sanders, who spoke Saturday during an interview to be broadcast on “Face the Nation” Sunday, rejected Trump’s idea. “I think there may be some aspect of this which he thinks will advantage himself,” he said. “So I do appreciate his love and his compassion for me, but I don’t really accept his words.”
But he’s still taking the fight to Clinton and the DNC. On Friday, his campaign demanded that party officials boot two senior Democratic officials from valuable positions on committees at the national convention. Sanders’ camp claimed the officials have functioned as “attack surrogates” for Clinton, but the DNC replied that his “challenge failed to meet the criteria” for ousting the officals.
“We are compelled to dismiss it,” the DNC replied in a letter to the complaint.
That could provoke a controversy at the convention.
“If this committee is unable to provide its advice or assistance … the campaign will seek resolution of these issues by presenting its objections in motions as the first items of business at the initial meetings of the Standing Platform and Rules Committees and, to the extent necessary, will request the drafting and adoption of minority reports from both standing committees for presentation to the floor of the full convention,” Sanders’ attorney wrote in the original complaint.
