Sen. Bernard Sanders gave Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton a pass Sunday for disparaging his young supporters during the primary.
Mr. Sanders, who led a far-left movement that was the biggest challenge to Mrs. Clinton during the primary but now supports her, said he agreed with her description of his followers as political newbies who “live in their parents’ basement.”
“What she was saying there is absolutely correct,” Mr. Sanders said on ABC’s “This week.”
A recording from a February fundraiser that was leaked Friday caught Mrs. Clinton saying that Mr. Sanders’ supporters were overly idealistic and had unrealistic expectations for a left-wing political revolution.
“They’re children of the Great Recession and they are living in their parents’ basement. And so if you’re feeling that you are consigned to, you know, being a barista or you know, some other job that doesn’t pay a lot and doesn’t have much of a ladder of opportunity attached to it, then the idea that maybe, just maybe you could be a part of a political revolution is pretty appealing,” she says on the audio recording.
Republican nominee Donald Trump said the recording reveals Mrs. Clinton’s two-faced nature.
“Crooked H. is nasty to Sanders supporters behind closed doors, owned by Wall Street and politicians, HRC is not with you, making a direct pitch to your supporters,” tweeted Mr. Trump.
“I took it exactly the opposite way,” said Mr. Sanders, noting, however, that he and Mrs. Clinton do disagree on some issues.
“I think that’s a very important point and that is an issue that, as a nation, we have got to address,” he said. “How do we create good-paying jobs for people who have a decent education?”
“And one of the issues that Clinton is talking about is rebuilding our infrastructure, pay equity for women, raising the minimum raise to a living wage so, in fact, we can have decent paying jobs for all of our people,” said Mr. Sanders.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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