Sanders denies tweet about corporate Democrats was dig at Warren

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday denied that a tweet Wednesday referencing corporate Democrats supporting “anybody but Bernie” was a direct shot at his fellow progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Rather, he said the tweet was aimed at the Washington think-tank Third Way.

“That tweet was not about Elizabeth Warren at all. Not at all. Elizabeth is a friend of mine, and we’re going to run what I hope are issue-oriented campaigns,” Sanders told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “Cuomo Primetime.” 

“This was though, a very strong statement about a group called Third Way, and you know that Third Way is the corporatist wing of the Democratic Party,” he continued. 

Sanders’ remarks come hours after he referenced a Politico article about how Democrats are running to Warren’s campaign in a bid to block him from getting the nomination. 

The cat is out of the bag. The corporate wing of the Democratic Party is publicly “anybody but Bernie.” They know our progressive agenda of Medicare for All, breaking up big banks, taking on drug companies and raising wages is the real threat to the billionaire class. https://t.co/zimci7JRO6

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 19, 2019

The post was seen by many to be a dig at Warren, who has recently rivaled Sanders for his second place spot in a series of Democratic primary polls. 

Sanders went on in the interview to slam Third Way, and questioned whether they would support him if he was the Democratic presidential nominee. 

“So I don’t mind taking on all of corporate America and Trump and the Republican Party, but I have a question for Third Way, and that is if I win the Democratic nomination, I think we got a good shot at that, who are they going to support? Are they going to support Donald Trump? Or are they going to support Bernie Sanders?” he said. 

Third Way responded to Sanders’ earlier tweet, saying the group would “absolutely” support the Democratic nominee.  

We absolutely will – we are proud Democrats. We all strongly supported our nominee against Trump in 2016, and we will do the same in 2020.

Can you say the same of your entire senior team? @ThirdWayKessler https://t.co/Mwz1rZAgxg

— Third Way (@ThirdWayTweet) June 19, 2019