President Trump and his aides are trying to boost Bernie Sanders ahead of the Iowa caucuses as they seek to secure a hard-line socialist opponent in November’s election, according to Republican sources.
They point to Trump campaign speeches, the presidential Twitter feed, and allies’ comments talking up the 78-year-old senator’s chances of winning the nomination as evidence of the strategy. Conversely, Sanders is also the target of Trump verbal attacks, but those are designed to excite his grassroots supporters and provide him with fundraising messages.
Trump deployed the messaging during Tuesday’s rally in Milwaukee. “Bernie is surging, Bernie is surging,” said Trump.
He also used the occasion to side with Sanders in a feud with Elizabeth Warren, Sanders’s rival for the endorsement of the left wing of the Democratic Party, over whether the Vermont senator told her in 2018 that he did not believe a woman could win the election.
Twice in the past week he has tweeted about Sanders. “Wow! Crazy Bernie Sanders is surging in the polls, looking very good against his opponents in the Do Nothing Party,” he wrote in one message. “So what does this all mean? Stay tuned!”
Officially, the Trump 2020 campaign says it can beat any opponent. Privately, insiders say former Vice President Joe Biden would offer the stiffest contest in the battleground states of the Rust Belt, while Sanders’s leftist message on healthcare, redistributing wealth, and tackling climate change would scare off wavering voters.
“You can see it at the rallies and in the Twitter feed,” said a recent visitor to the White House. “It’s a simple calculation. First, it is right to draw attention to crazy Bernie’s message and the damage he would do to America. But if Trump-hating supporters get excited by that and if it gives him a better chance of being the nominee, well, that’s no bad thing.”
The attention reflects the way Sanders has bounced back after his October heart attack. A poll published by the Des Moines Register during the weekend made him the front-runner in the Iowa caucuses with 20%, ahead of Warren at 17%, Pete Buttigieg at 16%, and Biden with 15%.
A senior administration official said it was not a case of artificially elevating Sanders.
“He is surging. It’s a fact,” he said.
Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the Trump 2020 campaign, said there was no preferred candidate because Trump will beat any of the options “handily.”
“However, over the last two weeks, Bernie Sanders has proven himself to be dangerous, not as an opponent but as a potential president, by excusing and appeasing Iran’s aggression and belligerence. He said it set a bad precedent to label Soleimani a terrorist and called American targeting of the notorious murderer an ‘assassination,’” he said.
“These are talking points straight from the Iranians themselves, or even the Russians. Bernie Sanders would not protect American interests as president and his weakness is something that begs to be highlighted.”
Republicans on Capitol Hill are on message. Sanders’s campaign was raised without prompting at a press conference on Tuesday called by Republicans to discuss impeachment. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy used the opportunity to complain that Sanders was not getting a fair crack at the nomination because delays in transmitting the articles of impeachment meant he would be forced to leave Iowa in order to attend the Senate trial.
“Sen. Sanders actually has a chance to win, but not now that Nancy Pelosi has held these documents,” he said.
