Former Clinton adviser: Sanders has ‘gotten off the hook’ for his supporters’ behavior

A former adviser to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said Thursday that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has “gotten off the hook” for his supporters’ negative behavior. 

Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball pressed Richard Goodstein on if Clinton was also responsible for her voters and their behavior, specifically during the 2008 election process. 

“Of course not,” he answered.

“But Bernie is responsible for his supporters, but she’s not responsible for hers?” Ball asked. 

Goodstein said Clinton’s supporters eventually “went crazy in support” of 2008 nominee Barack Obama, which wasn’t true of Sanders’s supporters in 2016.

“Really I think Bernie has gotten off the hook by virtue of the fact of the way he and his supporters kind of behaved there, before and after — sorry,” he said.

Both four years ago and in the 2020 primary, Sanders has repeatedly faced criticism for the way his backers behave online. 

“Harassment of all forms is unacceptable to me, and we urge supporters of all campaigns not to engage in bullying or ugly personal attacks,” Sanders said last month after the Nevada Culinary Workers Union said it had faced aggressive attacks online from his supporters over its opposition to “Medicare for All.”

Goodstein said that Clinton’s 2008 supporters also differed from how Republicans, including other candidates, treated President Trump during the 2016 campaign. He specifically cited when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot” among other remarks.

“So it never got there, right?” he said. “So are those people just as horrible as the Hillary people you’re talking about?”

Sanders is locked in a tight race for the Democratic White House nomination with former Vice President Joe Biden, who currently leads him the delegate count, 596 to 531, although some Super Tuesday delegates still need to be distributed.