Warren, Sanders at odds as candidates prepare to take the debate stage in Iowa
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders trade dueling accounts of a December 2018 conversation on her presidential aspirations; Ellison Barber reports from Des Moines.
The Sanders campaign had a sharp response to the ladies of "The View" on Tuesday after the daytime hosts slammed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., over his sexism-charged dustup with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
The conversation began with co-host Sunny Hostin appeared to side with Warren, telling her colleagues that she doesn't "doubt that he perhaps said that and that he "may very well believe that" given the male-dominated history of past presidents.
"They'd rather vote for a 78-year-old socialist who just had a heart attack than a woman," Joy Behar chuckled.
Meghan McCain, however, expressed that Sanders' supporters, specifically the "Bernie Bros," have a "problem" with women.
"It's actually one of the few things that really connects liberal pundits and conservative female pundits together, is there's just a level of misogyny. Look at Twitter," McCain elaborated. "He has a problem with women and he has for a long time. And I think if Elizabeth Warren has this in her back pocket, all is fair in politics, all is fair in love and war. And look, I don't want another misogynist as president, okay?"
That drew ire from Sanders press secretary Briahna Joy Gray on social media.
"More women have given to Bernie’s campaign than any other campaign. We have the most diverse, least white collation. But the millionaires on the View openly smear the teachers, Walmart workers, and post office employees who form our base. Shameful," Gray reacted. The women of @TheView should consider having on one of the many women who make up Bernie’s 70% female leadership team. Even better, they should have on one of the working class women whose interests they undermine by parroting baseless, long debunked talking points."
She added, "I’m a longtime watcher of @TheView, and respect its reach and influence a great deal. That’s why I want it to be accountable to the women whose interests it’s attacking. Whatever this segment is, it isn’t feminism."
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ABC News did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
The dustup began on Monday after it was reported that Sanders told Warren during a December 2018 meeting before either of them launched their presidential bids that he believed a woman couldn't win, according to sources close to Warren and who were familiar with the meeting.
Sanders offered a strong denial against the claim.
"It is ludicrous to believe that at the same meeting where Elizabeth Warren told me she was going to run for president, I would tell her that a woman couldn't win," Sanders told Fox News. "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. 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."
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Following the report, a video clip from 1988 surfaced of Sanders expressing his support for a woman to become president.
"The real issue is not whether you're black or white, whether you're a woman or a man -- in my view, a woman could be elected president of the United States," Sanders said at the time while backing Jesse Jackson's candidacy. "The real issue is whose side are you on? Are you on the side of workers and poor people or are you on the side of big money and the corporations?"
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However, Warren issued a statement affirming the report.
"Bernie and I met for more than two hours in December 2018 to discuss the 2020 election, our past work together and our shared goals: beating Donald Trump, taking back our government from the wealthy and well-connected, and building an economy that works for everyone. Among the topics that came up was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate. I thought a woman could win; he disagreed," Warren said.
She continued, "I have no interest in discussing this private meeting any further because Bernie and I have far more in common than our differences on punditry. I'm in this race to talk about what's broken in this country and how to fix it -- and that's what I'm going to continue to do. I know Bernie is in the race for the same reason. We have been friends and allies in this fight for a long time, and I have no doubt we will continue to work together to defeat Donald Trump and put our government on the side of the people."
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