Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday stood by increasingly harsh campaign rhetoric that rival Hillary Clinton has denounced as personal attacks.
“We were not lying. We were telling the truth,” Sanders said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
He was responding to a widely-viewed video in which Clinton, responding to an environmental activist, said she is “sick and tired” of the Sanders campaign lying about her receipt of campaign contributions from oil and gas company employees and others.
Fact checkers have called Sanders’ claim that Clinton and super PACs supporting her have received $4.5 dollars from lobbyists supporting the fossil fuel industry false. The figure is misleading because it includes lobbyists who represent multiple industries, critics say.
Sanders stood by his claims. “Let the voters decide whether paid lobbyists who represent the fossil fuel industry, 43 of them,” should count, he argued.
Sanders defended statements by actress Rosario Dawson, a surrogate for his campaign, who attacked Clinton over the ongoing investigation into the candidate’s use of a private email account while she was secretary of state.
Democrats say the attack is a example of Sanders’ camp engaging in rhetoric that helps the GOP, though the Vermont senator has little chance to defeat Clinton and win the nomination himself.
“We have dozens of surrogates and Rosario is doing a great job for us,” Sanders said. “We have many, many surrogates who say many, many things.”
“I don’t agree with everything they say,” he said.
Sanders stopped short of urging Dawson to avoid personal attacks on Clinton.
“She will say what she wants to say,” he said. “That is not what I want to say.”
