Sanders: Clinton Is ‘Not Qualified’ To Be President
Bernie Sanders said Wednesday that Hillary Clinton is “not qualified” to be president, escalating a war of words between the Democratic front-runner and her dark horse challenger, CNN is reporting.
Speaking Wednesday at a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Sanders lashed out at Clinton, specifically stating that Clinton’s history of taking Wall Street money through so-called Super PACs disqualifies her from the Oval Office.
“And she has been saying lately that she thinks that I am ‘not qualified’ to be president. Well, let me, let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton: I don’t believe that she is qualified, if she is, through her super PAC, taking tens of millions of dollars in special interest funds. I don’t think that you are qualified if you get $15 million from Wall Street through your super PAC.”
Sanders appears to have been lashing out at Clinton in response to a Wednesday Washington Post interview, during which the Democratic front-runner took Sanders to task for his seeming lack of understanding about certain pressing topics that a president should understand.
“I think he hadn’t done his homework and he’d been talking for more than a year about doing things that he obviously hadn’t really studied or understood. And that does raise a lot of questions.”
Those comments were in response to a an April 1 interview with the New York Daily News, during which Sanders gave sometimes vague answers to specific policy questions. Sanders’ critics point to that interview as evidence that he doesn’t fully know how he intends to accomplish some of the goals he’s laid out in his campaign such as breaking up big banks.
Sanders’ suggestion that Clinton is not qualified to be president drew sharp criticism from Clinton’s supporters. In an angry tweet, Clinton campaign spokesperson Brian Fallon insisted that the feud between the two has devolved into a game of “he said, she said.”
Hillary Clinton did not say Bernie Sanders was ‘not qualified.’ But he has now – absurdly – said it about her. This is a new low.
— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) April 7, 2016
As the Sanders and Clinton camps duke it out over who said what, who mean what, and who hasn’t properly done their homework, the matter of who will be the eventual Democratic nominee is far from settled.
As of this writing, Hillary Clinton has a “commanding” lead in the number of pledged delegates assigned to her by the voters in the state primaries that have taken place so far.
.@HillaryClinton talks jobs, tuition in first #Pittsburgh stump: https://t.co/FdwixDjo5o pic.twitter.com/YSGZctyMli
— 90.5 WESA (@905wesa) April 7, 2016
However, Sanders continues to frustrate Clinton’s path to the eventual nomination; Sanders’ commanding win in the Wisconsin primary this week, preceded by wins in seven of the eight previous state primaries, seem to indicate that Clinton’s “insurmountable” lead in the delegate count may not be so insurmountable after all.
Meanwhile, the Sanders and Clinton campaigns have turned their eyes toward New York, a huge delegate prize that could either tip the scales in Clinton’s favor to the point of no return or place Sanders as a possible legitimate spoiler for Clinton’s hopes for the Democratic nomination.
Besides the huge delegate prize that will go to the New York winner, the Empire State would be a symbolic victory for both candidates as well. Bernie Sanders was born in New York and has also been a focal point in the discussion about income inequality, a subject on which Sanders has campaigned at length. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton represented New York in the Senate and has placed her campaign headquarters in Brooklyn.
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are scheduled to debate with each other at the next Democratic debate on April 14.
[Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]
