Sanders campaign: Clinton should apologize for ‘lying’ charge

by Jesse Byrnes - 04/01/16 10:16 AM ET

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’s campaign is calling for rival Hillary Clinton to apologize for accusing him of lying about her receiving campaign funds the fossil fuel industry.

“We didn’t say so-and-so is lying — I think the secretary did — and I think she probably owes the senator an apology for that because the senator is not lying about her record. He’s talking about her record; he’s talking about her practices,” Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd on Friday.

{mosads}”She obviously doesn’t like it, but that doesn’t make it lying, because you don’t like it,” Weaver added.

The former secretary of State had a heated exchange with an environmental activist Thursday, saying: “I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me. I’m sick of it.”

She stressed that she received money from individuals who work for fossil fuel companies, not the industry, and her campaign accused the Vermont senator of “misleading voters.”

“They’ve repeatedly made the claim that she takes money from the fossil fuel industry; she doesn’t. Neither does Sen. Sanders,” Clinton strategist Joel Benenson said on MSNBC on Friday, adding that “both of them have individuals who work in that industry and have given that money.”

Weaver pointed to a Greenpeace report saying that Clinton had received more than $1 million from lobbyists connected to the fossil fuel industry and that donors connected to the industry gave another $3.2 million to the pro-Clinton super-PAC Priorities Action USA.

Weaver accused the Clinton campaign of being “cagey” about the donations, and Sanders himself on Friday spoke of multimillion-dollar donations in an interview on CBSN, saying Clinton has received contributions from “over 50 lobbyists from the gas and oil industry.”

Weaver followed up his remarks in a statement: “To call us liars for pointing out basic facts about the secretary’s fundraising is deeply cynical and very disappointing.”

“It’s very clear from research done by Greenpeace that she’s not just receiving money from ‘individuals’ who happen to work in the oil, coal and gas industry,” he said.

The statement mentioned that 57 “lobbyists from the industry have personally given to her campaign and 11 of those lobbyists have bundled more than $1 million to help put her in the White House.”

“If you include money given to super PACs backing Clinton, the fossil fuel industry has given more than $4.5 million in support of Clinton’s bid.”

NPR published a fact check of the dispute Friday, citing the Center for Responsive Politics, which found based on Federal Election Commission reports that workers in the oil and gas industry have given more than $300,000 to Clinton and more than $50,000 to Sanders.

Tags Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton