Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel condemned the field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates for failing to adequately critique front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders during the lead-up to his victory in the Nevada caucuses.
Emanuel, 60, took exception with the presidential candidates’ attacks on former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who wasn’t on the ballot for the Nevada caucuses but had been rising in national polls, instead of Sanders, who performed well in both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
“Here’s what I think: It’s for the candidates that are on the field,” he said during a Monday appearance on The View. “This was, if I could, a [little] bit amateur hour. You’re in Vegas. You’re attacking Bloomberg, who’s not even on the ballot. The guy who’s the front-runner is sitting right, five feet, right to your immediate right — this is the first time Bernie’s ever been to the right of anybody, right there.”
Emanuel critiqued the Vermont senator’s votes on gun legislation and suggested that talking about it in Las Vegas, where a 2017 attack became the deadliest mass shooting in modern history, could have hurt Sanders’s candidacy. Sanders supported a 2005 federal law that shielded gun-makers from liability in most crimes but has since reversed his stance and pushed for stringent gun control measures.
He also mentioned Sanders’s recent heart attack.
“Did they ever — anyone ask him, ‘Did you use Medicare or your government-provided Senate healthcare plan? Which one did you put down when you went to the hospital?’ … Five more minutes, I can give you 20 more questions, and you let your emotions about Bloomberg coming in, putting $400 million down. … You go attack Bloomberg, who’s not on the ballot,” the former Chicago mayor continued. “And the guy that’s the front-runner — you don’t try to grab his coattails and pull him back.”
Emanuel concluded by arguing that if there were malpractice in politics, the presidential candidates would have been sued.
