Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton listens as Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during an event at the University of New Hampshire, September 28, 2016. Image by AFP/Getty Images

By Aiden Pink September 17, 2017

Sen. Bernie Sanders rebuffed former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s claim that he did not do enough to help his former Democratic party nomination rival win the 2016 presidential election.

“I worked as hard as I could to see that Hillary Clinton would be elected president,” Sanders told “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

In her new book “What Happened” and during its ensuing publicity tour, Clinton had been critical of what she saw as Sanders’ unrealistic policy proposals and half-hearted campaign support.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“The political sin he committed was the failure to move quickly to unify the party and his supporters,” Clinton told CNN last week.

Sanders denied that he had the power to unite the party after he lost the nomination.

“People say, ‘Well, not everybody who voted for Bernie ended up voting for Hillary,’” Sanders said. “No kidding. That’s what happens in politics. If my memory is correct, in 2008, something like 24 percent of the people who voted for Hillary Clinton in the primaries ended up voting for John McCain.”

Politico noted that Sanders’ claim is mostly backed up by 2008 polling data.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount