A pair of House Democrats are sharply criticizing White House hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for running as a Democrat.
New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, a 21-year veteran of the U.S. House, said Thursday that Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, should not be allowed to run for president as a Democrat.
Since Sanders’ 2016 White House bid, some veteran Democrats have argued that Sanders is only running as a Democrat to exploit the party’s grassroots infrastructure.
“If you’re not a Democrat, you should not run. He (Sanders) should run as an independent. He’s not a Democrat. So to me, I would not allow a Republican to run as a Democrat or for the Democratic nomination,” Meeks said on “CNN Newsroom.”
“If he wants to be a Democrat, he should register in the Democratic party, and then you can talk about running and to be my representative,” Meeks continued. “I want a Democrat to be my representative as president of the United States and be my nominee.”
From his days as the mayor of Burlington, Vt., to his 16-year House tenure, and more than 12 years in the Senate, Sanders has never held public office as a registered Democrat. He briefly registered as a Democrat in 2015 as he ran against Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Hillary Clinton, the eventual Democratic nominee. After the race, Sanders returned to the Senate as an independent.
Newly elected Rep. Donna Shalala, a Democrat from Florida who served as former President Bill Clinton’s secretary of health and human services for eight years, voiced similar sentiments Thursday. Shalala tweeted that Sanders “does not reflect the majority of the Democratic Party,” reiterating the party stance on embattled Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
I’ll make it clear, @SenSanders does not reflect the majority of the Democratic Party and our support for Venezuela’s interim president @jguaido and the Venezuelan people. Maduro is a dictator and must go. https://t.co/Q1GDp9q2Tw #VenezuelaLibre
— Rep. Donna E. Shalala (@RepShalala) February 21, 2019
Sanders campaigns for a small number of candidates, usually on a personal basis rather than on behalf of the party. In 2018, the Vermont senator campaigned for Florida gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum, seen as an acolyte.
Sanders’ rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination have also taken aim at him, if more obliquely. California Sen. Kamala Harris recently responded in New Hampshire to a question asking if she needed to embrace democratic socialism to win in the first-in-the-nation primary.
“The people of New Hampshire will tell me what’s required to compete in New Hampshire, but I will tell you I am not a democratic socialist,” said Harris.
