Hillary and Bill Clinton reportedly have little confidence Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont could successfully take on President Donald Trump in 2020.
Tension between the Clintons and Sanders persists from the 2016 primary campaign, with the Clintons privately blaming the senator for "damaging" former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and expressing their belief that Sanders cannot beat Trump in the presidential election, according to an Associated Press report.
"I think that at some point bygones can be bygones, but what you can't get around is the electability question," David Brock, a longtime Clinton ally, told the AP.
The tension appears to flow both ways. While the Clintons have privately offered political advice to several 2020 Democratic candidates, Sanders has said publicly he's not interested.
"I suspect not," Sanders said on ABC's The View when asked if he would meet with Hillary Clinton. "She has not called me. We have differences. Hillary has played a very important role in modern American politics."
Asked if he would seek any advice from his former opponent, the presidential candidate said, "I think not…. I think every Democrat is going to come together."
In recent months, the Clintons have met with a host of primary candidates, some of whom have yet to officially declare a run. Those current candidates include Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, as well as former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. That's in addition to potential candidates, like Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and former Vice President Joe Biden, according to Axios, CNN and The New York Times.
A longtime Clinton confidant told Axios in January that Hillary Clinton "doesn't know who's best able to beat [Trump], but she knows about grueling nomination fights."
Adding to the reported tension, a former Sanders campaign staffer from 2016 blasted Hillary Clinton and her team last week as "total ingrates" and "some of the biggest assholes in American politics" over a Politico report that said Sanders repeatedly requested the use of a private jet from Hillary Clinton's campaign when acting as a surrogate in the final months leading up to the 2016 election.
"You can see why she's one of the most disliked politicians in America. She's not nice. Her people are not nice," Michael Briggs, the 2016 Sanders campaign spokesman, told Politico. "[Sanders] busted his tail to fly all over the country to talk about why it made sense to elect Hillary Clinton, and the thanks that [we] get is this kind of petty, stupid sniping a couple years after the fact."
Interacting with each other briefly in Selma, Alabama, this weekend at the 54th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," the two continued to show signs of resentment. Sanders reportedly received a brief handshake from Hillary Clinton, while others, such as Booker, received a more welcoming hug, according to those at the event.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ramsey Touchberry is a Washington Correspondent for Newsweek based in the nation's capital, where he regularly covers Congress.
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