The media has done its best to goad Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to attack Hillary Clinton. To his credit, Sanders has stuck to his policy differences and has run an issues-oriented campaign. The anti-establishment candidate’s tactics have certainly worked as a majority of voters in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire support Senator Sanders over the prohibitive Democratic frontrunner. With yet another poll showing Sanders leading in the Granite State, Clinton supporters may be getting a tad nervous and have started attacking the Vermont Senator, led by a pro-Clinton Super PAC.
From The Huffington Post:
A super PAC backing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is going negative, circulating an email that yokes her chief rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to some of the more controversial remarks made by Jeremy Corbyn, the United Kingdom’s new Labour Party leader, including his praise for the late Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan leader who provided discounted fuel to Vermont in a deal supported by Sanders.
Clinton’s camp has long said it has no plans to attack Sanders. But the super PAC, called Correct the Record, departed from its defense of Clinton’s record as a former secretary of state in an email Monday that compares Sanders with Corbyn. Correct the Record, led by Clinton ally David Brock, also has sent trackers after Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
The Democratic candidates have refrained from criticizing each other directly. Sanders has obliquely knocked Clinton for not stating her position on the Keystone XL pipeline, and hasn’t made an issue of her use of a private email server and account while at the State Department. Clinton, in turn, almost never mentions Sanders’ name and has focused on her Republican rivals.
Bernie Sanders responded to the Super PAC attack, with this email to supporters:
I don’t have a Super PAC. I am not going to travel around the country begging millionaires and billionaires for money. That’s just not going to happen.
But the success of our campaign certainly has the billionaires’ attention.
Yesterday, one of Hillary Clinton’s most prominent Super PACs attacked our campaign pretty viciously. They suggested I’d be friendly with Middle East terrorist organizations, and even tried to link me to a dead communist dictator.
It was the kind of onslaught I expected to see from the Koch Brothers or Sheldon Adelson, and it’s the second time a billionaire Super PAC has tried to stop the momentum of the political revolution we’re building together.
They’ll keep trying … unless we make them pay a price for their attacks.
If we stand together to fight back against these ugly attacks, we can ensure this election is about who has the best ideas, and not who has the biggest donors.
They should not underestimate us.
Bernie Sanders
With Hillary Clinton potentially evolving for the better on cannabis policies and Bernie Sanders strong support for Drug War reform, the 2016 election could be shaping up for a great one for the cannabis activists as most federal candidates are remaining sensible on marijuana policy. Not to mention the fact that several states should pass marijuana legalization measures, both medical and adult-use. No one really expected Bernie Sanders to be competing this well so early and while many progressives, including cannabis law reformers, #FeelTheBern, this attack by a pro-Clinton Super PAC shows that this race is far from over as the establishment isn’t going to give up very easily.
As always, stay tuned to Marijuana Politics as we continue our coverage of the politics and news that will impact the cannabis community…
