Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont reportedly told Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in a 2018 conversation he didn’t think a woman could win the presidency.
The assessment came when two Democratic presidential hopefuls were meeting at Ms. Warren’s Washington, D.C. apartment and talking about how they should avoid attacking one another in a 2020 race, CNN reported on Monday.
Mr. Sanders vehemently denied the characterization of the meeting in a statement to CNN, calling it “ludicrous” he would make such a comment.
“It’s sad that, three weeks before the Iowa caucus and a year after that private conversation, staff who weren’t in the room are lying about what happened,” Mr. Sanders said. “What I did say that night was that Donald Trump is a sexist, a racist and a liar who would weaponize whatever he could. Do I believe a woman can win in 2020? Of course! After all, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes in 2016.”
A spokeswoman for Ms. Warren declined to comment for the story.
The new details about the meeting broke a day before the seventh Democratic presidential debate in Des Moines, and after Ms. Warren had expressed dismay over the weekend about a script apparently being pushed by Sanders volunteers that tried to cast her as a candidate of the elite.
The candidates, both of whom are competing for support among the far left of the Democratic base, have had something of an informal non-aggression pact during the primary and have generally refrained from attacking one another directly.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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