Washington Examiner Editor-in-Chief Hugo Gurdon called out the “extreme irony” of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) criticizing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) as a “corporate Democrat” who lacked the resolve to challenge special interests.
Gurdon noted in a Fox News appearance Sunday that, like Sinema, Sanders is a registered independent who caucuses with the Democrats. The progressive senator’s real issue with his moderate colleague, Gurdon argued, was her refusal to toe the party line.
“He’s really cross because Sinema didn’t vote with the party,” Gurdon said. “In particular, she wouldn’t go along with, frankly, the constitutional vandalism of getting rid of the filibuster and changing the Senate.”
BERNIE SANDERS SAYS SINEMA IS A ‘CORPORATE DEMOCRAT’
Gurdon then responded directly to Sanders’s comments earlier Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union accusing Sinema of having “sabotaged” major Democratic legislative priorities.
“What she did was vote her conscience. She voted against the things with which she disagreed,” Gurdon told Fox anchor Jon Scott. “She votes for the things with which she agrees.”
Asked by CNN anchor Dana Bash if Sinema had “the guts to take on powerful special interests” after discussing her decision to leave the Democratic Party, Sanders replied: “She doesn’t. She is a corporate Democrat who has, in fact, along with Sen. [Joe] Manchin [D-WV], sabotaged enormously important legislation.”
Gurdon also pointed out the “extreme irony” of Sanders ridiculing Sinema for opposing the party on ideological grounds, noting that the Vermont senator had long bucked his party on immigration before his 2016 presidential run.
“It was Bernie Sanders who did 180-degree flip-flop, deciding that he suddenly wanted to welcome illegal immigration when that became necessary in the 2016 Democratic primaries when he was seeking the presidency,” Gurdon said. “So there’s a guy who, you know, doesn’t vote his conscience accusing a senator who does vote her conscience of being gutless. It’s an extreme irony, and I don’t think that she needs to worry very much.”
Sanders was dogged by questions during his 2016 and 2020 presidential bids about having previously voted against increasing legal immigration. The progressive leader argued throughout the 2000s and 2010s that upping the number of low- and high-skill immigrants would lower wages for U.S. workers and called on Congress to require employers to pay immigrant workers a living wage.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“I think at a time when the middle class is shrinking, the last thing we need is to bring, over a period of years, millions of people into this country who are prepared to lower wages for American workers,” the Vermont senator said in 2007.
“I think we need comprehensive immigration reform,” he said in 2011. “The one area where I am concerned about, and I’ve played an active role, is I don’t want to see companies utilizing guest worker programs to lower wages for American workers.”
He altered his rhetoric during the 2016 primary, as the issue developed into a political liability. Sanders defended his position by explaining it in humanitarian terms, arguing that immigrants faced working conditions in the United States that were akin to “semi-slavery.”
