FEBRUARY 26 AND
27, 2020
NEWS AND VIEWS
BERNIE SANDERS
WILL HOLD A SUPER TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2020, RALLY IN ESSEX JUNCTION, VERMONT.
Bernie Sanders
to host Super Tuesday rally in Vermont
Ethan Bakuli,
Burlington Free Press
Published 10:59
a.m. ET Feb. 26, 2020
26 PHOTOGRAPHS
– Vermonters turn out for Bernie Sanders rally in Montpelier
Bernie Sanders
will return to Vermont on Super Tuesday to hold a campaign rally in his home
state.
A week away from Vermont's
primary elections, Sanders' campaign announced that the the [sic] front runner
for the Democratic presidential nomination will host a primary night rally
with supporters and volunteers in Essex Junction.
The rally will
be held at Champlain Valley Exposition, and will be free and open to the
public. During Sanders' 2016 presidential run, he similarly hosted an event at
the exposition.
Related
coverage: 5 things to know about Democratic front-runner Bernie Sanders's
history in Vermont*
PHOTOGRAPH -- Presidential
candidate Bernie Sanders addresses a crowd of about 1,500 supporters at a rally
on the steps of the State house in Montpelier, Vt., on Saturday. May 25, 2019.
(Photo: SAWYER LOFTUS/FREE PRESS)
Voters in 14
states, including Vermont, plus American Samoa will cast votes Tuesday in the
biggest election day so far in the 2020 presidential campaign. Sanders is
running against eight other active Democratic candidates on the Vermont primary
ballot.
Doors open at
5:30 p.m., with the rally starting at 7:30 p.m. Entrance for the event is at a
first come, first serve basis.
Super Tuesday
is also Town Meeting Day — the annual day for local elections in Vermont — and
Sanders is expected to vote in Burlington on that day.
More: In Vermont,
Bernie Sanders draws a smaller crowd to hear a bigger message
The rally will
be Sanders' first large campaign event in Vermont since he held an event in
Montpelier last May.
Contact Ethan
Bakuli at (802) 556-1804 or ebakuli@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter
@BakuliEthan. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.
Sign up for a digital subscription.
I COUNT MORE
THAN FIVE DONE ITS HERE, BUT THAT’S OKAY. HIS VERMONT HISTORY IS NOT OFTEN
REFERENCED THESE DAYS, AND SEEING THESE VIDEOS AGAIN IS A PLEASURE. TO SEE THE FULL
BERNIE, I SUGGEST THIS BURLINGTON FREE PRESS ARTICLE AND THE CCTV SERIES CITED
BELOW.
5 things to
know about Democratic front-runner Bernie Sanders's history in Vermont
April McCullum,
Burlington Free Press
Published 8:32
a.m. ET Feb. 25, 2020
PHOTOGRAPH -- Presidential
candidate Bernie Sanders addresses a crowd of about 1,500 supporters at a rally
on the steps of the State house in Montpelier, Vt., on Saturday. May 25, 2019.
(Photo: SAWYER LOFTUS/FREE PRESS)
Bernie Sanders'
victory in Nevada has made him the front-runner of the Democratic presidential
primary, bringing renewed scrutiny and interest.
Those wanting
to know more about Sanders' history and ties in Vermont can find some answers
below, based on past Burlington Free Press coverage.
What did Bernie
Sanders do as mayor of Burlington?
Sanders'
political career began, famously, when he won Burlington's mayoral election by
just 10 votes — but the hard part had just begun.
Even after the
1981 victory, establishment Democrats on the Board of Aldermen blocked any
progress that the independent Sanders hoped to make. He waited,
built a volunteer government outside of City Hall and helped his allies win
board seats.
Read the story:
As mayor, Bernie Sanders had to wait for a revolution
When he finally
gained his footing, Sanders' accomplishments included the following:
Contributed to the
reclamation of the Lake Champlain waterfront. Sanders initially supported a
commercial development project and then joined an effort in the late 1980s to
preserve the land for public use, a fight that went to the Vermont Supreme
Court. The result is Waterfront Park, where Sanders held his first
presidential campaign kickoff in 2015.
Oversaw the creation
of the Burlington Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) in 1983,
which went on to contribute to the redevelopment of the waterfront and
housing initiatives such as the Champlain Housing Trust.
Used the
mayor's office to comment on foreign policy, including a focus on Central
America. Created Burlington's sister city program through a partnership with
Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.
Recorded a folk album titled
"We Shall Overcome" (which Sanders has called "the worst album
ever recorded") in 1987.
Married Jane
O'Meara Sanders, who was director of the city's youth office, in 1988
(video).
Jane and Bernie
Sanders pictured in 1985.Buy Photo
Jane and Bernie
Sanders pictured in 1985. (Photo: FREE PRESS FILE)
What is Bernie
Sanders' history with political parties?
Sanders ran
for governor in 1976 — before he was mayor — under the banner of the Liberty
Union Party. He left the party the following year and has run ever since as
an independent.
Sanders' allies
eventually formed their own party, the Vermont Progressive Party, which today
claims to be the nation's most successful third party. Progressive
politicians sit in the Vermont Lieutenant Governor's Office, the state
Auditor's Office and more than a dozen seats in the Legislature.
STORY FROM U.S.
CENSUS BUREAU -- How can the census help improve roads and bridges?
Sanders made
his peace with the Democratic Party in 2006, when he ran for U.S. Senate as an
independent and Democrats refrained from mounting a challenge against
him. Vermont Democrats consider him part of their group "for all
intents and purposes," a party leader told the Free Press last year.
Sanders signed a party
loyalty pledge as part of his current presidential campaign.
Read the story:
Bernie Sanders signs pledge: 'I am a member of the Democratic Party'
What is Bernie
Sanders' history on gun control in Vermont?
Sanders won
his first election to U.S. Congress in 1990 with the support of the National
Rifle Association, who wanted to punish the Republican incumbent.
Sanders
supported an assault-weapons ban but gun issues were not a priority until his
first presidential campaign.
Read the story:
Sanders' complicated history with gun control
More: Analysis:
When the NRA liked Bernie Sanders best
What's the deal
with the Sanders family and Burlington College?
Jane O'Meara
Sanders was president of tiny Burlington College in 2010 when she put together an
ambitious real estate deal: the purchase of a new lakefront campus.
The deal went
through, but Jane Sanders resigned the following year, and the college was
ultimately unable to pay its debts. Burlington College closed in 2016.
Read the
summary: Jane Sanders and Burlington College: An overview
Jane Sanders'
involvement in the real estate deal drew scrutiny and a federal
investigation, which closed in November 2018 without charges.
Dig deeper:
The unraveling
of Jane Sanders' Burlington College legacy
Discrepancies
emerge in Burlington College donor list
What we know: Jane
Sanders aide says feds end Burlington College investigation
What's the
story of Bernie Sanders' three houses?
Bernie and Jane
Sanders own a home in Burlington's New North End neighborhood, a home in
Washington, D.C., and a beachfront lake house in North Hero that they bought
in 2016.
Democratic
candidate Michael Bloomberg turned the three houses into a political attack in
the Las Vegas debate. "Like thousands of other Vermonters, I do have a
summer camp," Sanders said, using the word that Vermonters reserve for
seasonal homes. "Forgive me for that."
More: Bernie
buys a lake home, igniting Twitter snark
Contact April
McCullum at 802-660-1863 or amccullum@freepressmedia.com.
THIS BURLINGTON,
VT WEBSITE HAS 40 PLUS VIDEOS FEATURING SANDERS IN VARIOUS SITUATIONS,
INCLUDING HIS WEDDING AND SOME ENLIGHTENING COMMENTS BY OTHERS WHO WENT ON THE
TRIP TO YAROSLAVL, RUSSIA TO SET UP A SISTER CITY RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM. THAT
KIND OF THING MAY SOUND A LOT LIKE “TREE HUGGING” TO SOME, BUT WHEN REAL HUMANS
MEET REAL HUMANS PROGRESS CAN BE MADE. IT COSTS LESS THAN A WAR, ALSO.
I ESPECIALLY RECOMMEND
THIS SERIES OF SHOWS TO THOSE WHO FIND HIM INTERESTING ON THE PERSONAL LEVEL. SOME
OF THE FILMS IN THE SERIES HAVE ALREADY BEEN POACHED BY POLITICAL RIVALS IN THE
PAST WHO WANT TO EMBARRASS HIM, OFTEN MAKING FUN OF HIS HAIR, ETC. THE CCTV SERIES
IS CALLED “BERNIE SPEAKS WITH THE COMMUNITY.”
SANDERS’
WEDDING VIDEO*
BERNIE
SANDERS-JANE DRISCOLL WEDDING
Play Video
Embed This Player
Download:
H.264/AAC mp4 file Creative Commons License
Tell us about
your experience with this online video, click here.
DESCRIPTION
Bernie
Sanders-Jane Driscoll Wedding
THE CENTER FOR
MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY
SUMMARY
Production
Date: 05/28/1988
Catalog Number:
540
Archive Number:
BS52888
Series: none
Length:
*1:03:24
Town:
Burlington
Geography:
Burlington
Event Type:
General
Content Type:
Other
Sanders wedding
Channel 17
staff and CCTV do not necessarily share the opinions posted in the comments
below.
IN THIS
ARTICLE, POLITICO SLAPS THE MEDIA AND THE BERNIE FOLK BACK TO THEIR SENSES.
ONLY THREE PERCENT OF THE VOTE HAS BEEN TAKEN SO FAR. BERNIE HASN’T WON YET. I
HAVE TO AGREE THAT WE, THE BF, SHOULD NOT BE OVERCONFIDENT, OVEREXUBERANT,
ANYMORE THAN WE SHOULD BE UNDERCONFIDENT OR DEJECTED. THE CAMPAIGN NEEDS TO
REMAIN STEADY AS SHE GOES. ON THE OTHER HAND, POLITICO ISN’T NECESSARILY
CORRECT IN THEIR OPINIONS, EITHER, NOR INCAPABLE OF PUTTING OUT (ANOTHER)
ARTICLE LIKE THIS ONE JUST TO DISCOURAGE THOSE WHO WOULD VOTE FOR BERNIE, BUT
AREN’T TOTALLY COMMITTED. JUST KEEP ON TRUCKIN’, BERNIE! YOU’RE DOING FINE.
Why Sanders
might not be a lock for the nomination
What everybody
knows is true has been wrong before, including in the very recent past. And
there are big reasons it may not be right this time.
By JOHN F.
HARRIS and CHARLIE MAHTESIAN
02/25/2020
12:31 PM EST
Updated:
02/25/2020 01:41 PM EST
PHOTOGRAPH -- Sen.
Bernie Sanders. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The Revolution,
you might have noticed from news coverage the past couple days, has arrived.
The establishment is in full freak out. The Sandernistas are confident they are
on the brink of irreversible triumph.
If you get a
spare moment during your coffee break on the barricades, however, take a moment
to ask: Why exactly is the Democratic contest almost over? Also: What makes you
so sure?
Imagine
yourself trying to explain to a foreign visitor who doesn’t quite get American
politics why journalists and operatives seem so confident about the trajectory
of a race in which three percent of delegates are decided, after three states
in which about 687,000 Democrats have voted — 156,000 of them for Bernie
Sanders — representing about two-tenths of one percent of the nation’s
population.
The explanation
likely would come down to some version of “everybody knows.” Everybody knows
that Sanders is gaining ground fast even with minority voters who had been for
Joe Biden. Everybody knows about polls suggesting he is up comfortably in the
nation-state of California, and is going to emerge from Super Tuesday a
week from now with an enormous delegate lead. Everybody knows there is no way
to deny him the nomination if he goes into the July convention in first
place, even if not enough for a first-ballot majority.
It’s not our
place to tell everybody they are wrong. We aren’t sure they are. But it is fair
to remind people that what everybody knows has been wrong before, including in
the very recent past. And there are some big reasons it may not be right this
time.
Let’s examine
some of the reasons to say “not so fast” in assuming that Sanders’ impressive
momentum coming out of the Nevada caucuses makes him unstoppable.
Debates
matter—sometimes
To underline
the obvious, tonight’s televised encounter in Charleston, South Carolina could
be a very big deal. Sanders has sparred with rivals plenty over the past year
but has never been the target of sustained, break-glass-in-emergency attacks.
That is almost certainly going to change.
He can expect
criticism on his record and past comments on Cuba, guns, the Soviet Union, his
promises on health care and the state of his own health — you name it, a
barrage that likely will start early and not let up.
Across nine
previous encounters, Sanders has been the most consistent debater on stage. The
variance between his best performances and his weakest has been narrow. This
will be a critical test of whether it will still work simply to bark gruffly
with old talking points as he faces new and detailed criticism of
his record and relevant questions about his electoral prospects against
President Donald Trump.
In the early
debates, there was plenty of faux drama over now-forgotten viral moments. The
last couple [of]* occasions, however, the drama has been real. Amy Klobuchar
got a clear bounce out of a strong New Hampshire debate a couple [of]* weeks
ago, and Elizabeth Warren likely did in Nevada. At a minimum, Mike Bloomberg’s
weak performance in Las Vegas caused his national numbers to swoon.
Sanders’ perceived
juggernaut status could look very different a few hours from now.
Biden’s
firewall holds
Why is Biden
still polling so well?
SharePlay Video
So much of the former
vice president’s coverage has been about under-performance — fourth place
in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire, second in Nevada — that it may be discounting
the effect of something he has long promised: A South Carolina victory with a
majority of African-Americans backing him.
For this to
come true it would mean that polling-based speculation that Sanders and
billionaire Tom Steyer are gaining among minority voters in South Carolina
would turn out to be hype. Weak performances with minority voters among Steyer,
Klobuchar, and Pete Buttigieg would produce enormous pressure on them to depart
the race either before or immediately after Super Tuesday on March 3.
In short, if
Biden can for once exceed expectations with a decisive South Carolina
showing the Democratic contest suddenly look quite different.
The Audacity of
Nope
Here’s
something “everybody knows” that is almost certainly true. The two most widely
respected figures in the Democratic Party — Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi — are
worried that a Sanders nomination could be disastrous for the party in the
fall, increasing the likelihood that Trump is reelected or that enough marginal
House Democrats lose their seats to turn congressional control back to the
GOP.
Of course, the
reason an outsider like Trump took over the Republican Party is the same reason
a socialist like Sanders might take over the Democratic Party: Party leaders
simply do not wield the same levers of power in an era of online ideological
movements.
But that
doesn’t mean they have no leverage. Obama, in particular, would not
necessarily need to launch a full-on campaign against Sanders to signal
misgivings, either with his own voice or through surrogates that people would
know are authorized by him. He could remind African-American voters that
Sanders wants to repeal and replace Obamacare, and that the Vermont
senator considered a primary challenge to Obama’s reelection in 2012. The
message: A vote for Bernie is akin to a repudiation of the Obama legacy.
Revenge of the
Superdelegates
The assumption
that the Democratic National Convention couldn’t dare deny the nomination to
Sanders if he has a first-round plurality deserves some skepticism.
Under 2020
rules, superdelegates do not even get to vote in the first round of convention
balloting unless a candidate already has a first-round majority. The
whole rationale for super-delegates is that they get to assert their voice in
the event the primaries are inconclusive.
What’s more,
these superdelegates are not Wall Street bankers or even wine cave habitués.
Many of them are African-American party regulars, including elected
officials, who prize their votes and have been deeply resistant to efforts to
neuter their influence. They aren’t likely to be intimidated by the protests of
predominately white “Bernie Bros.”
Imagine that Sanders comes
into the convention with a weak plurality, far short of 1,991 delegates.
When he asserts that the candidate with the most delegates should be awarded
the delegation, and rails against the establishment, he is confronted
with his comments from 2016 like this one.
“The responsibility
that superdelegates have is to decide what is best for this country and
what is best for the Democratic Party,” Sanders said. “And if those
superdelegates conclude that Bernie Sanders is the best candidate, the
strongest candidate to defeat Trump and anybody else, yes, I would very much
welcome their support.”
His brand is
suddenly tarnished – he looks like every other self-serving politician.
A fluid race
means a fluid race
Sanders’
support among his partisans has been perhaps the most stable factor
in the race so far. If anything, a heart attack last fall probably had the
effect of energizing supporters.
Think of all
the other factors — including the consensus about what everybody knows — that
have been constantly in flux.
Recall the widespread
assumptions that Biden is stronger than people think when weak debate
performances didn’t much affect his national polling; that Warren is the
likely nominee on the basis of her polling numbers last fall; that Buttigieg
was potentially an Obama-style insurgent upending the system on the basis
of his Iowa support; that Bloomberg was demonstrating the fearsome power of
money and advertising on the basis of his polling before the most recent
debate.
The wheel is
likely to keep spinning. Bloomberg’s money and arguments about electability
could yet be a factor — it might not take much more than a strong debate
tonight. The fact that so many candidates remain in the race — in an earlier
era many more would have already dropped out, unable to sustain themselves with
online contributions — is a reminder that old assumptions are defunct.
That means
surprises keep happening. Perhaps the biggest surprise would be if the
prevailing wisdom about the current trajectory of the race turned out to be
substantially correct.
“COUPLE” VERSUS
“COUPLE OF”
THE FOLLOWING
ARTICLE FROM MERRIAM-WEBSTER DOES GET INTO THE MATTER OF COUPLE, FEW, AND
SEVERAL BUT DOESN’T ADDRESS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “COUPLE OF” AND “FEW”
WHEN USED TO DESCRIBE A NOUN DIRECTLY. I DID, HOWEVER, FIND “COUPLE” USED AS I
HAVE ALWAYS READ IT AND USUALLY HEARD IT SPOKEN. GOOGLE MERRIAM-WEBSTER BELOW:
THEN,
PERSISTING, I FOUND AN ARTICLE THAT DOES PROCLAIM ME RIGHT AND THE WRITER OF
THIS ARTICLE THROWING SHADE ON BERNIE WRONG. “FER SHAME,” DETRACTOR! GET YOUR
GRAMMAR RIGHT! EVEN IF IT WEREN’T A NEGATIVELY LEANING PIECE, I WOULD HAVE
STILL MARKED THIS USE OF “COUPLE” AS IRRITATINGLY INCORRECT. FOR THAT
VINDICATION, GO TO FORUM.WORDREFERENCE.COM, WHICH COMES NEXT. I WILL
INCLUDE THE CHAT CONVERSATION HERE SINCE IT IS BOTH SHORTER AND MORE TO THE
POINT.
a couple of
days/a couple days
Thread
startervicMS Start dateMay 10, 2010
May 10, 2010
#1
Hi,
I know the
quantifier is a couple of, however "a couple days (let's say...a couple
days before you leave)" sounds good to me. Am I wrong? if not, why is
that?
Thanks in
advance
May 10, 2010
#2
I think both
are correct, but it's hard to explain you why.
I'll try to
find a good explanation and I'll let you know.
May 11, 2010
#3
Hi vicMS,
It's "a
couple of days".
I can't give
you a grammar rule, but you could think of it in terms of the Spanish
equivalent: un par de dÃas.
Saludos...
May 11, 2010
#4
"Couple
of" is "correct," in the sense that it's the form that is used
in standard written English. In casual conversation the "of" is often
elided over so completely that it might as well not be there at all. In time,
"a couple days" might become acceptable standard English; at this
point it still isn't.
Aug 13, 2013
#9
Hi, VicMS,
"A couple of" is an "expression of quantity" and
technically requires that "of." However, in AE many speakers do, as
Chris K says, slide over the "of" or ignore it completely. Un saludo.
:)
THE TITLE OF
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN A TRUISM FOR AT LEAST FOUR YEARS NOW, THAT THE DNC IS
WILLING TO RISK DAMAGE TO THE PARTY TO “STOP” BERNIE, BUT HOW FAR ARE THEY
WILLING TO GO? WOULD THE LOSS OF SEVERAL MILLION VOTERS MAKE THEM CHANGE THEIR
MIND?
HOW ABOUT THE
PUBLICATION OF SHAMEFUL DEEDS ON THEIR PART AS THEY ARE DISCOVERED, SO THAT
THEY BEGAN TO BE SEEN AS VILLAINS BY A LARGER PERCENTAGE OF THE VOTING PUBLIC,
AND THEREFORE FIND THEMSELVES WITH EVEN MORE LOSSES? ONE THING THAT I THINK IS GOING
IN BERNIE’S FAVOR RIGHT NOW IS THAT MANY PEOPLE IN THE PUBLIC THINK THE DNC
CORPORATE DEMS HAVE OVERSTEPPED THE BOUNDS OF HONESTY AND FAIRNESS. THAT DOESN’T
MAKE PEOPLE WANT TO HELP THEM IN THIS TIME OF POLITICAL NEED.
THE DNC, IN
RUNNING HILLARY CLINTON WHO HAD WAY TOO MUCH “BAGGAGE,” MISJUDGED THE STRENGTH
OF THEIR POWER HOLD ON THE AMERICAN MIND. IF THEY DO THE SAME THING AGAIN,
THE RECOIL REACTION MAY BE EVEN GREATER, AS MANY PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY REALLY
ARE HAVING THE PROBLEMS THAT SANDERS AND OTHER PROGRESSIVES PORTRAY; AND THEY
WANT CHANGE TO IMPROVE, STRUCTURALLY, THEIR POSITION IN THE ECONOMY.
THE AMERICAN
ECONOMY HAS BECOME AN ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH SUCCESS IS HARDER AND HARDER TO
ACHIEVE, WITH REAL PRIVATION AMONG MEMBERS OF ALL RACES AND ETHNIC GROUPS BECOMING
MORE AND MORE COMMON. MANY OF US FEEL THAT WE JUST AREN’T “AMERICA” ANYMORE.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS WEAK BECAUSE THEY HAVE STOPPED HELPING THOSE WHO WERE
THEIR LOYAL MEMBERS BEFORE THE REAGAN REVOLUTION.
THEY DROPPED
THOSE POOR AND LOWER MIDDLE (WORKING) CLASS WHITES, AND ALLOWED EVEN THE
POOREST PEOPLE OF ALL RACES TO LOSE ECONOMICALLY AS THEIR MCD, MCR, FOOD AID,
SS AND SSI IS BEING PROGRESSIVELY DEFUNDED BY “CONSERVATIVES” AND “MODERATES.” THEY
DIDN’T EVEN PUT UP A GOOD FIGHT.
JOE BIDEN, A
RECENT ARTICLE SAID, ACTUALLY VOTED FOR CUTTING OR FREEZING SOCIAL SECURITY
BENEFITS MORE THAN ONCE. IT LOOKS AS THOUGH IT MIGHT BE “COMPLICITY” TO ME, AND
NOT JUST TIMIDITY. THAT MAKES ME LESS THAN LOYAL TO THE CURRENT DEMOCRATIC
PARTY, AND MORE WILLING TO WORK FOR A SEPARATE PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE IF NOT A
PARTY TO OPERATE INDEPENDENTLY OF THE DEMOCRATS.
Democratic
Leaders Willing to Risk Party Damage to Stop Bernie Sanders
Interviews with
dozens of Democratic Party officials, including 93 superdelegates, found
overwhelming opposition to handing Mr. Sanders the nomination if he
fell short of a majority of delegates.
Lisa LererReid
J. Epstein
By Lisa Lerer
and Reid J. Epstein
Feb. 27, 2020
Updated 11:29
a.m. ET
PHOTOGRAPH -- Senator
Bernie Sanders, who spoke at a campaign rally in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on
Wednesday, said that the candidate with the most delegates from primaries
should be the party’s presidential nominee.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York
Times
3680 COMMENTS
WASHINGTON —
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, hear
constant warnings from allies about congressional losses in November if the
party nominates Bernie Sanders for president. Democratic House members share
their Sanders fears on text-messaging chains. Bill Clinton, in calls with old
friends, vents about the party getting wiped out in the general election.
And officials
in the national and state parties are increasingly anxious about splintered
primaries on Super Tuesday and beyond, where the liberal Mr. Sanders edges out
moderate candidates who collectively win more votes.
Dozens of
interviews with Democratic establishment leaders this week show that they are
not just worried about Mr. Sanders’s candidacy, but are also willing to risk
intraparty damage to stop his nomination at the national convention in July if
they get the chance. Since Mr. Sanders’s victory in Nevada’s caucuses on
Saturday, The Times has interviewed 93 party officials — all of them
superdelegates, who could have a say on the nominee at the convention — and
found overwhelming opposition to handing the Vermont senator the nomination if
he arrived with the most delegates but fell short of a majority.
Such a
situation may result in a brokered convention, a messy political battle the
likes of which Democrats have not seen since 1952, when the nominee was Adlai
Stevenson.
MESSY
CONVENTIONS Brokered and contested conventions trace their origins to the days
when party bosses picked the nominee.
“We’re way,
way, way past the day where party leaders can determine an outcome here, but I
think there’s a vibrant conversation about whether there is anything that can
be done,” said Jim Himes, a Connecticut congressman and superdelegate, who
believed the nominee should have a majority of delegates.
From California
to the Carolinas, and North Dakota to Ohio, the party leaders say they worry
that Mr. Sanders, a democratic socialist with passionate but limited support so
far, will lose to President Trump, and drag down moderate House and Senate
candidates in swing states with his left-wing agenda of “Medicare for all” and
free four-year public college.
Mr. Sanders and
his advisers insist that the opposite is true — that his ideas will generate
huge excitement among young and working-class voters, and lead to record
turnout. Such hopes have yet to be borne out in nominating contests so far.
2020 ELECTION Follow
our live coverage of the South Carolina primary.
WHAT ABOUT BIDEN
STANCES ON CUTTING BACK ON SS ?
Fact-Checking
Joe Biden Before the Iowa Caucuses
The former vice
president has made inaccurate claims this month about his record on Social
Security, race and foreign policy.
By Linda Qiu
Jan. 26, 2020
Former Vice
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. remains atop most national polls before the first
votes are cast next month in the Democratic presidential primary. Before the
Iowa caucuses, The New York Times reviewed recent statements he made defending
his decades-long career, stressing his standing in the black community
and highlighting his perceived strength on foreign policy. Here’s a fact
check.
WHAT THE FACTS
ARE
Mr. Biden tried
to defend his record on Social Security and birth control with
questionable claims.
WHAT WAS SAID
Antonia Hylton,
a reporter for Vice News: “Do you think, though, that it’s fair for voters
to question your commitment to Social Security when in the past you’ve proposed
a freeze to it?”
Mr. Biden: “No,
I didn’t propose a freeze.”
— at the Brown
& Black Democratic Presidential Forum last week in Iowa
False. In 1984, faced with
budget deficits under the Reagan administration, Mr. Biden was a co-sponsor of an amendment with
two Republican senators that froze for one year nearly all military and
domestic spending, including cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security benefits.
Pressed by Ms.
Hylton after his inaccurate denial, Mr. Biden said that his proposal came “in
the context of we saved Social Security during the Reagan
administration” and noted that Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a
liberal stalwart, voted for the plan.
When President
Ronald Reagan entered office in 1981, Social Security was running low on funding and Mr.
Reagan did propose to make deep cuts to benefits. But he ultimately
endorsed and signed bipartisan legislation in 1983 — which Mr. Biden and Mr. Kennedy both
voted for — to assure the fund’s continuing solvency. Changes included postponing
cost-of-living adjustments, and the Biden campaign said that the former
vice president was referring to this episode.
“It is easy to
believe Biden thought minor cuts in the program in the short run would
represent a better outcome than the much bigger cuts President Reagan
and his advisers seemed to favor,” Gary Burtless, a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution, said. “In those days, ‘compromise’ was not a dirty word
in the eyes of most members of Congress.”
Mr. Biden’s own
freeze plan, though, came “well after the Social Security rescue was over,”
said Paul C. Light, a professor at New York University who wrote a book on the
1983 effort.
Rather, the plan
was another step in a decades-long “mating dance between centrist Democrats and
Republicans to come up with a grand bargain on the deficit,” said Eric
Laursen, author of “The People’s Pension: The Struggle to Defend Social
Security Since Reagan.”
Mr. Biden said
as much in April 1984, as he decried “gargantuan deficits” and argued that
not accepting a one-year freeze to cost-of-living adjustments would lead to a
“a fundamental debate over whether or not there should be COLAs in Social
Security” at all. The amendment that he co-sponsored ultimately failed
by a vote of 65 to 33 (Mr. Kennedy voted against it).
Mr. Biden’s
overall record on Social Security includes both actions that would slow or
reduce spending and those that would protect benefits.
He voted for an
amendment in 1995 to require a balanced federal budget that he and other
Democrats warned would endanger the Social Security fund. He was open
to raising the eligibility age for Social Security in 2007. And he
brokered a deal with Republican lawmakers in 2010 that extended the Bush-era
tax cuts and created a holiday for the payroll tax, which funds Social Security,
that temporarily reduced the tax by two percentage points.
But Mr. Biden
also voted for an amendment to that balanced budget legislation in 1995 that
would have excluded Social Security from its aims. From 2001 to 2008, he
repeatedly voted against privatizing Social Security and for improving the
trust fund’s solvency, according to the Alliance for Retired Americans, an
affiliate of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. that represents union retirees. In 2008, Mr.
Biden’s last year in the Senate, he received a lifetime score of 96 out of
100 from the group. He spoke out against Social Security privatization in
the 2012 vice-presidential debate and his current plan vows to protect the
safety net.
WHAT WAS SAID
Lauren Kelley,
New York Times Editorial Board member: “You also originally
argued for greater exemptions to the contraception mandate in Obamacare. So
I think there’s some concern out there —”
Mr. Biden: “No,
I didn’t, by the way.”
— in an
interview with The New York Times Editorial Board published Jan. 17
This is
disputed. The Obama administration announced in January 2012 a rule requiring
most insurance plans to cover birth control free of charge, including for the
employees of hospitals, schools and charities run by Catholic groups.
The making of
the rule sparked an internal debate in the White House. Reporting from news
outlets cast Mr. Biden as part of the camp arguing for a less stringent rule.
According to
ABC News and Bloomberg, the vice president and William Daley,
then the chief of staff to President Barack Obama, warned of the political
fallout with Catholic voters who backed Mr. Obama in the 2008 election and
argued that the issue would be framed as an attack on religious liberty. The
Times reported that officials had initially sought a year to work out a
compromise, but “a group of advisers had bested Vice President Joseph R. Biden
Jr. and others and sold the president on a stricter rule.”
The
announcement fueled a fierce backlash from Catholic organizations and
Republicans. As the Obama administration contemplated the fallout, Mr.
Biden did not publicly oppose or defend the rule, but hinted during a radio
interview that it would be softened.
“There’s going
to be a significant attempt to work this out, and there’s time to do that,” he
said on Feb. 9, 2012. “And as a practicing Catholic, you know, I am of the
view that this can be worked out and should be worked out and I think the
president, I know the president, feels the same way.”
Mr. Biden also
said in the interview that the administration wanted to “make sure women who
need access to birth control are not denied that,” according to The Wall
Street Journal.
A day later,
the administration revised the rule to shift the responsibility of providing
contraception to insurers, rather than the religiously affiliated
institutions themselves.
WHAT THE FACTS
ARE
Mr. Biden overstated
his support among young black voters and his role in the civil rights movement.
WHAT WAS SAID
Ms. Hylton: “Why
is Senator Sanders leading you with voters under age 35?”
Mr. Biden: “He
is not leading me with black voters under the age — look, just all I know is, I
am leading everybody, combined, with black voters.”
— at the Brown
& Black forum
This is
exaggerated. Mr. Biden is correct that in most polls, he leads
Democratic candidates among black voters overall, but he is wrong to deny
Senator Bernie Sanders’ edge with younger African Americans.
A January poll
conducted by The Washington Post and Ipsos, a nonpartisan research firm,
found that Mr. Biden held a wide lead among black Democrats with 48 percent
support, but Mr. Sanders led with those between age 18 and 34 at 42 percent
while Mr. Biden placed second at 30 percent.
An Ipsos
survey conducted with Vice this month asked black Americans who
they would consider voting for and found that 56 percent would consider voting
for Mr. Sanders and 54 percent for Mr. Biden, a statistical tie. Among
those between ages 18 and 34, Mr. Sanders’ support increased to 81 percent
compared with 65 percent for Mr. Biden, according to a breakdown provided
by Chris Jackson, the vice president of Ipsos Public Affairs.
In a poll by
the political action committee BlackPac and released in December, Mr.
Biden led all black voters with 38 percent, but trailed Mr. Sanders in support
among black voters between ages 18 and 24 at 14 percent compared to 30 percent
for Mr. Sanders. Support for the two candidates was nearly identical
among black voters between the ages of 25 and 39, with 24 percent supporting
Mr. Biden and 25 percent supporting Mr. Sanders.
The Sanders
campaign also pointed to an array of surveys demonstrating the same
generational gap: a fall poll from Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of
Politics where Mr. Sanders was the first choice of black voters between
ages 18 and 29, a January poll from the Chegg/College Pulse Student Election
Tracker where Mr. Sanders led with black college students with 43 percent
and a September survey from Essence Magazine where Mr. Sanders had the
most support of black women between ages 18 and 34 with 19 percent.
WHAT WAS SAID
“I was involved
in the civil rights movement.”
— at the Brown
& Black forum
This is
exaggerated. Over his long political career, Mr. Biden has
occasionally suggested he played a greater role in the civil rights
movement of the 1960s than he actually did. While there are accounts of Mr.
Biden participating in a few desegregation events, he has also said he would
not consider himself an activist in the movement.
Mr. Biden has
said that he protested a segregated movie theater in demonstrations in
Wilmington, Del. at the Rialto Theater in the early 1960s. His account is
backed by a former president of the state chapter of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People and a former president of the Delaware
A.F.L.-C.I.O.
A 1987
edition of “Current Biography Yearbook,” a magazine that profiles American
figures, noted that Mr. Biden had participated in “anti-segregation sit-ins
at Wilmington’s Town Theatre during his high school years.”
During his
first bid for president, Mr. Biden wrongly said in 1987 that he had “marched
with tens of thousands of others” in the civil rights movement. Later, a
spokesman for Mr. Biden clarified that he had participated in actions to
“desegregate one restaurant and one movie theater.” Mr. Biden himself
conceded that “I was not an activist.”
“I worked at an
all-black swimming pool in the east side of Wilmington, Del. I was involved
in what they were thinking, what they were feeling. But I was not out
marching,” he said in a news conference that fall. “I was not down in Selma. I
was not anywhere else. I was a suburbanite kid who got a dose of exposure
to what was happening to black Americans.”
He struck a
similar tone in interviews with the journalist Jules Witcover, who wrote the
book “Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption.”
“I didn’t do
any big deal, but I marched a couple of times to desegregate the movie theaters
in downtown Wilmington,” Mr. Biden said in the book. But he acknowledged that
“I wasn’t part of any great movement.”
WHAT THE FACTS
ARE
Mr. Biden
inaccurately characterized one element of President Trump’s North Korea
policy.
WHAT WAS SAID
“The president
showed up, met with them, gave him legitimacy, weakened these sanctions we have
against him.”
— at the
Democratic presidential debate in January
This is
misleading. Mr. Biden is referring to Mr. Trump’s efforts to engage
diplomatically with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. There is a
widespread consensus that the president’s willingness to meet with him provided
Mr. Kim with additional credibility at home and abroad without giving the
United States and its allies much in return.
At the same
time, Mr. Trump’s meetings with the North Koreans have increased support from
China and Russia for easing United Nations sanctions on North Korea, as the Biden
campaign pointed out. Soo Kim, a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, a
research group, pointed out that South Korea has also recently been testing
the waters for securing sanctions relief for its northern neighbor.
But the Trump
administration itself has not lifted the United States’ own sanctions and has
opposed the calls from China and Russia to ease the international sanctions.
“As far as I
know, sanctions have not been eased,” said Jim Walsh of the Security
Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Certainly the
international U.N. sanctions continue unabated, and I am unaware of any
significant sanctions relief granted by the administration.”
A spokeswoman
for the Treasury Department said Mr. Biden’s statement was inaccurate and
that the agency “has sanctioned 261 individuals and entities under its North
Korea authorities, accounting for more than half of North Korea-related
sanctions ever imposed.”
Nearly every
month from March 2017 to March 2018, the department announced sanctions on
North Korean nationals and companies, as well people and entities around
the world linked to North Korea. After Mr. Trump’s summit with Mr. Kim in
Singapore in June 2018, Treasury imposed more sanctions in August,
September, October, November and December of that year.
In March
2019, shortly after Mr. Trump met again with Mr. Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam, the
president issued a confusing statement on Twitter announcing that he had
rolled back newly imposed sanctions on North Korea, though restrictions
announced a day earlier on two Chinese companies linked to North Korea were not
actually revoked. The White House press secretary at the time, Sarah
Huckabee Sanders, explained that Mr. Trump “doesn’t feel it’s necessary to
add additional sanctions at this time.”
A month later,
Mr. Trump said the sanctions on North Korea are “at a fair level” and should
remain in place. More were announced in June, August and September. The
United States opposed lifting United Nations sanctions on North Korea in
December and sanctioned two more entities January.
Mr. Biden’s
theory that Mr. Trump’s personal appeals to Mr. Kim has weakened the resolve
of other countries to enforce sanctions is a matter of interpretation.
This line of
argument “was trotted out every time Obama engaged in diplomacy,” Mr. Walsh
said. “We don’t know if diplomacy with North Korea has had the effect of
reducing the impact of sanctions. Maybe. But as with all things North
Korea, it’s hard to say.”
Curious about
the accuracy of a claim? Email factcheck@nytimes.com.
Correction:
Jan. 26, 2020
An earlier
version of this article incorrectly described former Vice President Joseph R.
Biden Jr.'s position on raising the eligibility age for Social Security. Mr.
Biden said in 2007 that he was open to raising the eligibility age, not
that he supported raising it.
Linda Qiu is a
fact-check reporter, based in Washington. She came to The Times in 2017 from
the fact-checking service PolitiFact. @ylindaqiu
A version of
this article appears in print on Jan. 27, 2020, Section A, Page 16 of the New
York edition with the headline: Defending Long Career, Biden Has Sometimes
Stretched the Truth. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Our 2020
Election Guide
Updated Feb.
26, 2020
The Latest
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BERNIE AT HIS
BEST (NO KIDDING. I REALLY MEAN IT THIS TIME!) THE STATISTICS BEAR IT OUT AS
WELL. THESE TOTALS SHOWN ARE FROM ITS’ INCEPTION JUST THREE DAYS AGO.
#CNN #News
Bernie Sanders:
I thought this question might come up ...
1,482,027 views
• Feb 24, 2020
Ups 34K
downs 4.5K
21,699 Comments
DURATION 9:59
MIN.
CNN
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During a CNN
town hall in South Carolina, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-VT) describes how he will fund his "Medicare for All"
plan. #CNN #News
Category News & Politics
BERNIE HAS “THE
BIG MO,” DOESN’T HE? OF COURSE, BEING TOO CONFIDENT WOULD LEAD TO UNFORCED
ERRORS ON OUR PART, AND MAKE US LESS WARY OF PIT TRAPS IN THE ROAD AHEAD. I
THINK SANDERS HIMSELF HAS A GOOD HOLD ON THAT IDEA, BUT SOME OF US WHO FOLLOW
MAY NOT. MAKING REALLY HOSTILE COMMENTS ON THE INTERNET WILL GO AGAINST US, FOR
INSTANCE. BESIDES, WE HAVE TO UNITE BEHIND WHOMEVER THE NOMINEE IS IN ORDER TO
DEFEAT TRUMP.
AFTER NOVEMBER,
THOUGH, IF THE DNC DOES INTERFERE IN AN UNFAIR WAY YET AGAIN, I THINK WHAT A
GOOD MANY OF US MIGHT DO WILL BE TO WORK TO CREATE A SEPARATE PARTY OF
PROGRESSIVES, WHO WOULD OFTEN VOTE WITH THE DEMS IN THE LEGISLATURE AND STATE
HOUSES AROUND THE COUNTRY IF THEY SWEETEN THE PIE WITH POLICIES THAT BENEFIT
THE WORKERS AND THE VERY POOR, OR SIMPLY LEAN TOWARD ORDINARY HUMANS RATHER
THAN OLIGARCHS. DON’T GIVE BILLIONAIRES TAX CUTS.
Duration 9:09
min.
#CNN #News
John King
breaks down Bernie Sanders' effect on polls after Nevada
832,396 views •
Feb 23, 2020
Ups 6.7K
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CNN's John King
discusses the poll numbers around the Democratic presidential candidates
following Sen. Bernie Sanders' projected victory in the Nevada caucuses.
Category News & Politics
ALL PEOPLE
DESERVE DIGNITY: RALLY IN MYRTLE BEACH, SC
26,533 views •
Streamed live 8 hours ago FEBRUARY 26, 2020
UPS 3K
DOWNS 64
Bernie Sanders
345K
subscribers
ALL PEOPLE
DESERVE DIGNITY: The billionaire class has never had it so good. It's time for
an economy and a government that work for working people so that all Americans
can live in dignity. Join us live in Myrtle Beach:
Make a plan
with your family and friends to vote on Saturday Feb. 29, for Bernie Sanders.
Find your polling location and more information about to vote at: berniesanders.com/sc
Category News & Politics
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