Sanders: DCCC primary attacks on other Dems ‘not acceptable’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on Wednesday that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s attacks on a progressive House candidate in Texas were “appalling” and “unacceptable.”

“What these organizations should not be doing is doing negative attacks on Democratic candidates,” Sanders told The Associated Press in an interview.

“That just continues the process of debasing the Democratic system in this country and is why so many people are disgusted with politics.”

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Sanders comments came in reference to the DCCC’s decision to publish opposition research against Democrat Laura Moser ahead of the March 6 congressional primary for Texas’ 7th district.

Moser, an activist endorsed by Sanders’ group Our Revolution, will now head to a runoff election against Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher in May. Neither candidate received a majority of the vote in the Tuesday primary.

The winner of the runoff will face Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) in the November general election.

The DCCC attacked Moser last month as a Washington insider, who only moved to back to her home state of Texas recently to run for Congress.

Sanders, a progressive who ran a competitive presidential primary race against Hillary Clinton in 2016, has been endorsing candidates across the country amid a Democratic push to win control of the House.

In the 2016 Democratic Primary, Sanders himself faced battling for a party nomination while the party actively worked against him.

Leaked emails from top Democratic National Committee officials in 2016 showed that party leaders had sought to help Clinton clinch the presidential nomination over the Vermont senator. These revelations prompted outrage among the party’s progressive wing.

Clinton has said she thought the long primary between her and Sanders hurt her in her general election loss to President Trump.