CNN host Brian Stelter said on Sunday that Bernie Sanders’ campaign for the Democratic nomination is a distraction from what will likely be a “historical milestone” of Hillary Clinton’s legacy.
On his show “Reliable Sources,” Stelter, who covers media, told liberal commentator and Sanders supporter Cenk Uygur that Sanders’ regular complaints against the Democratic primary rules are taking away from a larger moment this week.
“Think about what’s going to happen on Tuesday at 8 p.m,” Stelter said. “New Jersey’s [polling centers are] going to close and for the first time in the history of this country — frankly, this is really exciting to say — for the first time in the history of this country, we’re going to have a female nominee of a major party. I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat or Libertarian, that’s something this country should note and acknowledge and don’t you think it’s a shame that the Bernie Sanders talk is going to overshadow what we can all agree is a historic milestone?”
Uygur pushed back and said Stelter was “framing” the contest as “male versus female” rather than as a choice between Sanders, a relative Washington outsider, and “pro-establishment” Clinton.
Throughout the Democratic primary, Sanders has criticized the party’s nomination rules, the “superdelegates” in particular, who are typically longtime party loyalists who are free to support any candidate they choose regardless of popular vote results in individual states.
Though Clinton has amassed the vast majority of superdelegates and is likely to win the primary, Sanders has insisted he will campaign up until the Democratic National Convention in July.
