Sanders camp spars with CBS over debate: report

[brooklynite]

Source: The Hill

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) campaign is fighting CBS News’ decision to change the format of Saturday night’s presidential debate to focus more on foreign policy, according to a report.

A Sanders aide was heard arguing with CBS executives Saturday in an exchange a source classified to Yahoo News as “heated” and “bizarre.”

After the Friday terror attacks in Paris, CBS decided to increase the focus on national security and terrorism in Saturday night’s debate.

Officials with Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley, the two other Democratic presidential nominees, did not fight the change, according to the report, but a Sanders strategist opposed the decision.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/dem-primaries/260179-sanders-camp-spars-with-cbs-over-debate-report

---

Not what I would call "Presidential"

[msrizzo]

1. Interesting.

They just talked about this on CNN too.

[JudyM]

2. I understand. International gives a huge advantage to Hillary,

since she can spout facts and figures and lived and breathed foreign policy as SOS. Bernie would've been coming from behind even if he were prepping for an international debate.

I can certainly see throwing in a few questions that relate to the situation, but not changing the main subject of the debate. Not quite fair, IMO.

[Plucketeer]

9. Bernie's been in DC since when???

Yeah - poor Bernie likely ain't got a CLUE as to what happens outside the beltway.

[Perseus]

15. Are you serious or just being sarcastic?

You need to view some of the videos from Sanders on International affairs, he predicted most of the problems we see today, and the resurgence of Al Queida, now with a new name of course.

I believe the reason why he opposes that is because his message is a concern for the internal affairs of the country, and yes he can discuss international affairs, but that is just a way for the media to take the discussion away from what has been the forte of Sanders message in the campaign.

There are too many problems in the US, and yes there are a lot of international problems as well, but most of them were created by Bush, who also created the current bad internal situation.

If we fix our home, we can work later on the international. Sanders will have the right people to work on that, it is not like he would abandon it, but fix problems here first.

[Plucketeer]

45. Yeah......

I don't always use the sarcasm smilie. I like to think DUers are smart enough that I don't have to.

[riversedge]

19. Not all foreign policy per this article--opening plus 20 minutes....

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/sanders-aide-pushes-back-against-cbs-switch-to-215805298.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw

[JudyM]

44. Thanks, yeah, turned out to be balanced, nice. Nt

[George II]

24. He spent most of the morning practicing how to pronounce "oligarch"

[billhicks76]

37. Really? This Isnt A Joke

Hillary and the comments of her supporters are repulsive and Iif she is the nominee I hope You find it amusing when our country is still stuck where its at.

[Ed Suspicious]

3. "a staffer for one of the other campaigns told Yahoo News."

Sounds legit.

[Kalidurga]

4. Good

they are playing campaign tricks. Must be the smell of desperation in the morning that drives them to it.

[AzDar]

11. Right? WTF?

[Hissyspit]

35. Seriously.

[Plucketeer]

46. Uh-huh

"Man the lifeboats!"

[lobodons]

5. Hey Bernie

As President you have to deal with Breaking news and events. Travel schedules and itineraries get changed. Deal with it. It would be a serious serious serious mistake for the Dems not to address the Situation in France at the debate tonight.

[msongs]

6. yes, bad PR for sure. I doubt bernie sanders actually does not understand this completely nt

[Eric J in MN]

20. CBS could open the debate with letting them say how they'd address

...the situation in France. But CBS shouldn't change the whole debate because of terrorists. The American people deserve an in-depth debate on the candidates' domestic policies.

[billhicks76]

38. Hey You

How about starting off such a discussion with Hillary supporting the Iraq War and Bush's foreign policy which lead to this destabilization and ISIS to begin with. ISIS wants a backlash to establish the veracity of their narrative of a war between the West and Islam. Without that they would not be empowered. Our neocon leaders like Bush and Clinton feed into this as they empower and enrich themselves with the exact same narrative. George Tenet just told us that they warned repeatedly about 'spectacular' attacks in the US long before the Aug memo and that Rice, Cheney, Bush etc have all been lying. Why the hell arent the candidates and media discussing this???

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Since this tragedy is a "current event" and ironically occured just ahead of the debate

I think most following these debates anticipated the focus would be adjusted to take advantage - notably because of the mass casualties. I think that given the recent Beirut attack and the Russian jet incident, they might have shifted the questions slightly towards foreign policy, but the fact that at least one American was identified as having been killed and an American band was featured at one of the venues of the attack, then the debate questions almost write themselves. And moreso because of the "Jihadi John" and Abu Nabil targeting that were also announced a few days before the debate.

However I think the candidates should take note that the debate is for 2 hours and I doubt that CBS is going to spend 2 hours on foreign policy. A good chunk of Americans sadly have no idea what the capitals of their own states are let alone would be able to point out Paris on a map. Hell, even the media f's up when it comes to maps.

[Billsmile]

8. "As The President's Former Secretary Of State I.....

....am, far more than any other candidate on this stage, in the unique position to lead the USA on issues of terror."

[Plucketeer]

10. While helping my corporate financiers back home. NT

[AzDar]

12. Well, there's no denying that the policies she's supported are a leading cause...

[tazkcmo]

48. She sure is.

She's already an expert on causing more. Recruitment. A Terrorist Issue.

[riderinthestorm]

13. An anonymous staffer from one of the other campaigns?

Really? You're going to run with this?

[tishaLA]

14. that's not good

CNN is now reporting that someone from the Sanders campaign "threw a fit."

[billhicks76]

39. CNN Owned By Time-Warner Which Gives $$$ To Hillary

Its obvious they are manipulating the landscape to select Hillary. I hope there is a backlash.

[IDemo]

16. Some people say...

"A source" sounds legit enough to spread a meme on the intertubes.

[shawn703]

17. Reported by a staffer for one of the other campaigns

Not by the NEWS ORGANIZATION who was supposedly confronted by some nameless "Sanders staffer". Seriously, how gullible would someone have to be to believe this pantload?

[Eric J in MN]

18. God forbid that someone who works for Bernie Sanders

...wants him to have the opportunity to discuss his domestic agenda (sarcasm).

Maybe it's because Sanders' policies are better than Clinton's:
- Sanders: Make public universities free vs. Clinton: vague plan of "debt-free colleges"
- Sanders: Make marijuana legal federally vs. Clinton: the federal gov't should classify marijuana with cocaine

[jeff47]

21. Anonymous sources: Brooklynite quotes them as absolute truth sometimes

and decries them as liars other times.

Can you spot the pattern of when they can be completely trusted, and when they're completely untrustworthy?

[George II]

23. Brooklynite isn't quoting anonymous sources, he's quoting "the hill".

And the same thing was reported a little while ago on MSNBC and CNN.

[jeff47]

25. And all of them are quoting anonymous sources.

You too used to deride anonymous sources as awful.

Guess what you're going to be reminded of the next time an anonymous source says something about Clinton you don't like?

[George II]

26. CNN and MSNBC have also reported on this.

I'm sure you and your guys have cataloged and cross-referenced every post by a Clinton supporter here, but I don't recall deriding anonymous sources.

Don't worry, this story will have credible sources by tomorrow, I'm sure.

[jeff47]

27. From the same anonymous sources.

You know, a lot of people quoted all sorts of bullshit from anonymous sources about Clinton during Bill's term. Is all of that true now, since lots of media quoted the same sources?

[George II]

29. Nope - no one has mentioned "anonymous sources" at all.

[jeff47]

31. When they do not name the source, that is an anonymous source. (nt)

[magical thyme]

42. "an unnamed staffer from another campaign" claims to have heard an unnamed

staffer from Sanders' campaign in a heated discussion for 5-7 minutes.

Sounds pretty anonymous to me. Also pretty ridiculous.

[George II]

43. Yawn...................

[George II]

28. By the way, I just read the story in The Hill (have you?), nowhere does it mention....

...."anonymous sources"

I guess you heard that from an anonymous source?

CBS News is about to talk about the change in format - you might want to watch it.

[jeff47]

30. Think before you post.

Do they name the person who told them a Sanders aide was upset?

No.

That makes it an anonymous source.

[davidpdx]

49. They can't think for themselves

They only repeat the Wall Street meme they are fed.

[George II]

22. He wants to be President and yet he can't switch gears on the fly?

I suspect the real reason they're whining is because Sanders' "foreign policy" is vapid.

Besides, he already had a whole slew of talking points prepared consisting of "a noun, a verb, and an oligarch".

[okasha]

33. Exactly.

Not the person you want to pick up the red phone.

[oberliner]

32. Here are Jeff Weaver's comments to CNN on this (Sanders campaign manager)

Also on the call, CBS said it wanted to cut the opening statements from 90 seconds to 30 seconds in order to get right to questions about the Paris attacks, which Sanders' campaign argued against, said Jeff Weaver, the Vermont senator's campaign manager.

"They wanted to make some last-minute changes to the debate. We obviously wanted to keep the format to what had been agreed to and I think people on our staff argued vigorously to that and were successful," Weaver told CNN.

"We ended up prevailing," said Weaver, who added that Sanders went over Paris-specific questions Saturday morning.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/14/politics/paris-terror-attacks-bernie-sanders-democratic-debate/index.html

[George II]

41. Jeff Weaver wasn't on the conference call.

[Jarqui]

34. TIME: Sanders Campaign: No Problem With Debate Focus

http://time.com/4113377/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-paris-attacks/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter

But Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said that the Vermont Senator was looking forward to the debate and noted that “obviously what happened in Paris was going to be a major focus.”

“Were there minor technical issues someone from another camp wanted to blow up?” he said. “Yes, but we worked through them.”

[bluestateguy]

36. On this, the Sanders people have a fair argument

to change the terms of a debate at the last minute is not right. The candidates prepared for a specific type of debate and that has to be honored.

[rockfordfile]

47. I agree with Sanders camp

I don't\didn't mind a couple questions. That should be it.

The tragedy in France is still ongoing, and for CBS to use it just for ratings is disgusting.