A Sanders Visit to New Hampshire Set Off Alarms He'd Primary Obama

[octoberlib]

Bernie Sanders has insisted he was not on the verge of a primary run against Barack Obama during the summer of 2011—but that would have been news to activists in New Hampshire at the time, who were watching his schedule in the first primary state and listening to his speeches criticizing the president then running for reelection.

Sanders’s public comments entertaining the idea of a primary challenge to Obama had already put people at the reelection-campaign headquarters, in Chicago, on edge. The Vermont senator had been arguing that a progressive challenge to the president could serve a similar function as the Tea Party had during the 2010 midterm elections, moving the party away from the center.

But then, on August 6, 2011, the chair of the Merrimack County Democrats, Eric Tolbert Kilchenstein, sent an email to the reelection campaign. Kilchenstein was asking for advice. The county party was having its annual barbecue fundraiser on August 21, and he’d learned that one of its board members had spoken with Sanders and arranged for the senator to attend. Kilchenstein thought that was odd, because although Sanders had been a Vermont politician for decades, he was not a regular speaker at local political events in New Hampshire. The senator seemed like he could be a good draw for the event, Kilchenstein told the Obama aides. But two days later, Kilchenstein saw Sanders’s comments talking up the primary challenge, and Merrimack County Democrats’ backs went up. Kilchenstein was looking for an out, he told the reelection campaign staff, or at least for someone from the Obama campaign to come as a surrogate to counter Sanders.


Since my story last week detailing that top Obama campaign officials had to ask then–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to speak to Sanders—twice—to stop him from getting into a primary race against Obama, Sanders and his aides have repeatedly denied that he was interested in running. “I did not give any consideration to running for president of the United States until 2015,” Sanders said in a CNN town hall on Monday night, responding to the article. Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, Jim Messina, and top adviser David Plouffe confirmed the story on the record. Sanders said that people could ask Reid or fellow Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, and that they’d deny that Sanders had talked about running. But I did ask Reid and Leahy about this last week in reporting the story, and neither of them denied it. (Reid eventually issued a deliberately cryptic statement not commenting on the conversations but saying he was glad there was no primary challenge. Leahy’s spokesperson didn’t comment at all.) Sanders last Thursday called Obama an “icon” in an interview with CNN, but has not explained what changed over the nine years from that summer of 2011, when he spoke of “deep disappointment” with Obama in an interview on a progressive radio show.


https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/02/more-sources-confirm-sanders-tried-primary-obama/607099/

[blm]

1. Well known in those circles, so why is Sanders saying everyone is lying?

Leahy and Reid are lying? Why would they make this up?

Obama campaign lying about this? Why would they make this up?

Sanders should come clean, but, it appears he doesn’t have the guts to admit that HE is the one not telling the truth here.

[HarlanPepper]

2. It's semantics IMO.

Prior to this new re-examining of this issue in the 2020 race, the story was that Bernie was encouraging someone to run but wasn’t necessarily planning on a run himself. That’s not any better IMO. So I sort of believe Bernie when he says he wasn’t planning on running. I do believe he wanted someone else to run against Obama, however.