Hillary Clinton blasts Bernie Sanders: ‘Nobody likes him’

Hillary Clinton, who battled with Senator Bernie Sanders for months in a 2016 Democratic primary that sometimes turned contentious, ripped into her former campaign rival in a new docuseries and declined to say if she would endorse and campaign for Sanders if he were to win the presidential nomination this time around.

"He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him," she said in a forthcoming four-part series, set to premiere at Sundance and air on Hulu beginning on March 6.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, pictured in 2016.Credit:AP

"Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician. It's all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it."

Asked in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, published on Tuesday, if that assessment still held, she said, "Yes, it does."

And in response to a question about whether she would endorse and campaign for Sanders if he were to get the nomination, she said: "I'm not going to go there yet. We're still in a very vigorous primary season."

The remarks suggest the wounds created four years ago remain fresh, with less than two weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses and as many Democrats are harbouring renewed concerns about party unity.

Since having a heart attack in autumn, Sanders has gained high-profile endorsements, shown increased strength in the polls and finds himself locked in a tight four-way race to win Iowa.

But this month, a virtual nonaggression pact between Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren, the other leading progressive in the Democratic race, broke down, in part over a disagreement over whether Sanders told Warren that he did not believe a woman could be elected president. In recent days, both candidates have sought to de-escalate the tension, but the feud has been disconcerting to liberal activists and some of their supporters.

Asked to weigh in on the Warren-Sanders dispute in the Hollywood Reporter interview, Clinton called it "part of a pattern," noting that Sanders had criticised her as being "unqualified" during the 2016 primary.

And she spoke of a "culture" around Sanders' campaign she found troubling.

"It's his leadership team. It's his prominent supporters. It's his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women," she said. "And I really hope people are paying attention to that because it should be worrisome that he has permitted this culture — not only permitted, [he] seems to really be very much supporting it."

Sanders' campaign declined to comment on Tuesday.

He endorsed Clinton in July 2016 after a long campaign against her. Months later, in the general election, Clinton won the popular vote but lost the presidency to Donald Trump.

The New York Times

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