Bernie Sanders and his campaign pull ridiculous “birtherism” stunt – and it blows up in their face
The Bernie Sanders movement is supposed to be about progressive ideals. So why did Bernie hire a bunch of liars and trolls as senior advisers to his 2020 campaign? He doesn’t appear to believe he can win the nomination unless he fights as dirty as possible. This all came to a head today when Bernie’s 2020 National Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray appeared on CNN and made a number of false and absurd claims that were almost Trump-ian in nature.
To be as clear as possible, Gray isn’t just some Bernie Sanders surrogate or supporter – she works for him. She’s one of the highest ranking employees in the Bernie 2020 campaign. In fact, in her role as Press Secretary, she officially speaks for Bernie. This morning she tried to distract from Bernie’s recent heart attack, and his refusal to release detailed medical records, by falsely claiming on CNN today that Mike Bloomberg had a heart attack. Then things got even uglier.
Bloomberg has had a heart operation in the past, but certainly no heart attack. After pushback, Gray claimed on Twitter that she misspoke. The trouble is that it wasn’t even the most asinine thing she said during her interview. Gray claimed on air that Bernie is the victim of “birtherism” because people are demanding to see his medical records. If you’ve forgotten, birtherism refers to demands to see Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Not surprisingly, this remark didn’t go over particularly well:
Senator Sanders not releasing his health records as promised is problematic. But the campaign's national press secretary alleging another candidate also had a heart attack and saying reasonable questions given his age & ACTUAL heart attack ="birtherism" is just way off the rails. https://t.co/0bpI8SJUg8
— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) February 19, 2020
Birtherism was a racist attack on America's first black President. It was launched to undermine his ability to govern because he was black. Seeking medical records is for all of us to decide whether Sanders is physically fit to be President. You ought to be ashamed of yourself https://t.co/AiENq0UKV3
— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) February 19, 2020
Bernie’s campaign needs to learn the difference between asking for the medical records of a dude nearly 80 who had a heart attack a few weeks ago…
…and the racist birtherism campaign championed by white supremacists like Trump to delegitimize the presidency of a Black man.
— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) February 19, 2020
Even if I could get past lying about Bloomberg’s health, I honestly cannot believe that @briebriejoy just compared birtherism to questions about a man’s health who had a heart attack within the last five months. https://t.co/QeBEWBieAW
— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) February 19, 2020
Wayment, did ol’ girl just try to equate asking for the release of the medical records of a candidate who just had a heart attack with the racial smear of #BIRTHERISM? 👀
We doing that now?
Woo, child…#ThisAintIt
I PROMISE, this ain’t it. https://t.co/QdW7shZOSn
— yvette nicole brown (@YNB) February 19, 2020
Is Bernie Sanders going to fire these embarrassing campaign advisers and try to steer his campaign back toward progressive ideals? Or has Bernie permanently chosen his own ego and ambition over the ideals of his supporters?
