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Thursday, February 27, 2020


 LUCY WARNER NEWS BLOG PROGRESSIVE OPINION DAILY 





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
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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 días.

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

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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.

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Bernie Sanders: I thought this question might come up ...
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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
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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.

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ALL PEOPLE DESERVE DIGNITY: RALLY IN MYRTLE BEACH, SC
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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
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