Anyone against President Trump’s criticism of the Washington Post should also condemn 2020 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders for making similar remarks, CNN’s Chris Cillizza argued Tuesday.
The Vermont senator suggested that his criticism of Amazon is the reason why the Washington Post doesn’t “write particularly good” stories about him, which echoes similar sentiments from the president.
“I talk about [Amazon’s taxes] all of the time,” Sanders said at a campaign event in New Hampshire. “And then I wonder why the Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon, doesn’t write particularly good articles about me. I don’t know why.”
He went on, “We have pointed out over and over again that Amazon made $10 billion in profits last year. You know how much they paid in taxes? You got it, zero! Any wonder why the Washington Post is not one of my great supporters? I wonder why!”
CNN’s Poppy Harlow had Dana Bash and Cillizza on her show Tuesday to discuss Sanders’ remarks.
“This is a very serious claim against the Washington Post with no evidence, and it is echoing what the president says,” Harlow stated.
“It’s a ridiculous claim. If you condemn Donald Trump for saying ‘The Amazon Washington Post,’ you need to condemn Bernie Sanders for basically saying the exact same thing,” Cillizza began.
“A couple of facts: One, Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos also owns Amazon,” he continued. “Amazon does not own the Washington Post. Just as sort of a logistical matter. Secondly, yeah, I worked there for six years, seven years under Don Graham and the Graham family when they owned it and I worked there for another three or four years when Jeff Bezos bought it from the Grahams.”
Marty Baron, the executive editor of the Washington Post, responded to Sanders’ attack in a statement Monday night.
“Sen. Sanders is a member of a large club of politicians — of every ideology — who complain about their coverage,” it read. “Contrary to the conspiracy theory the senator seems to favor, Jeff Bezos allows our newsroom to operate with full independence, as our reporters and editors can attest.”
The Amazon Washington Post front page story yesterday was total Fake News. They said “Advisors wrote new talking points and handed him reams of opposition research on the four Congresswomen.” Now really, does that sound like me? What advisors, there were no talking points,….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2019
Trump has referred to the paper at the “Amazon Washington Post” eight times on social media since the beginning of his presidency.
