Warren: Sanders Is Sending Volunteers 'Out to Trash Me'

Leaked script describes her supporters as 'affluent'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 13, 2020 4:26 AM CST
Warren Accuses Sanders of Having Volunteers 'Trash' Her
Bernie Sanders speaks at "The People's Caucus: Vote Truth to Power" at the Holzworth Performing Arts Center at Davenport North High School, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020, in Davenport, Iowa.   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

After a long "nonaggression pact" between the campaigns of Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the gloves might be starting to come off ahead of the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses. Warren said Sunday that she is "disappointed" that the senator from Vermont has been "sending his volunteers out to trash me," the New York Times reports. A script for Sanders volunteers seen by Politico suggests that they tell voters leaning toward Warren that her supporters are "highly-educated, more affluent people who are going to show up and vote Democratic no matter what." The script adds: "She’s bringing no new bases into the Democratic Party." The script also tells volunteers to criticize Pete Buttigieg for his lack of support among black voters and to say "no one is really excited about" Joe Biden.

"We all saw the impact of the factionalism in 2016, and we can't have a repeat of that," Warren said Sunday, suggesting that the long battle between Sanders and Hillary Clinton had helped President Trump. "I hope Bernie reconsiders and turns his campaign in a different direction." Sanders told reporters in Iowa on Sunday that he had never attacked Warren and nobody is going to "trash" her. "Elizabeth Warren is a very good friend of mine," he said. “We have worked together in the Senate for years." Asked about the script, he said both campaigns have hundreds of employees, and "people sometimes say things that they shouldn't." A Selzer & Co. poll released Friday shows Sanders in first place in Iowa, with 20% of the vote, reports FiveThirtyEight. Warren is second with 17%, followed by Buttigieg at 16% and Biden at 15%. (More Election 2020 stories.)

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