President Trump defended Sen. Bernie Sanders against accusations that he once said a woman can’t win the presidency.
During a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, campaign rally on Tuesday, the president called into question Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s credibility, citing the Massachusetts Democrat’s previous controversy of falsely claiming Native American heritage.
“According to Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren, who has somewhat less Indian blood in her than I do — and I have none,” the president prefaced his comments before continuing: “Bernie said, according to her, Bernie said — and I don’t believe that he said this, cause you know, I don’t know him. I don’t particularly like him. He’s a nasty guy, but I don’t believe he said it. It’s not his deal. You know, you have to know what people say. She said, right, that Bernie stated strongly that a woman can’t win for president.”
Trump, 73, followed his defense of Sanders by saying he believes a woman can win a race for the White House. One audience responded with “Ivanka!” to which Trump responded, “That could happen.”
Reports circulated on Monday claiming that Sanders, 78, told Warren, 70, in a December 2018 meeting that a woman could not win the presidency directly after Warren made her case to the independent Vermont senator about her future candidacy. Sanders immediately denied the accusation, but Warren backed up the rumor.
During Tuesday’s Democratic debate, Sanders further denied the report, calling it “incomprehensible” that anyone would believe he “would think that a woman cannot be president of the United States.”
“Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million votes. How could anybody in a million years not believe that a woman could become president of the United States?” he asked.
