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CNN Tells Clinton Backer to Convince Bernie Fan She's Wrong

April 27, 2016

CNN host Carol Costello asked Emily Tisch Sussman, a Hillary Clinton supporter and the campaign director for the Center for American Progress Action Fund, to convince a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) that she is wrong and should support Clinton now. However, the Sanders fan, YahNé Ndgo, cited a lack of trust in Clinton as why she could not support her.

"It's virtually impossible for Sen. Sanders to win the nomination, so why is it Bernie or bust for you?" Costello asked Ndgo.

"You know, a lot of people, they perceive the Bernie or bust movement as being something that's almost like a temper tantrum for people who support Bernie. And I think it's really important for people to understand that Bernie or bust is really a representation of how we feel about Hillary Clinton," Ndgo said. "We don't like Hillary Clinton and we can't support her."

"So, Emily, you're a Democratic strategist. You're a Clinton supporter. So convince YahNé she's wrong," Costello said.

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry to hear that and I do think there are a lot of people that are open to supporting Hillary. Really, the difference between the candidates has always really been in degree and not in kind. Look, there's no question that Sanders brought forward a lot of issues that really tapped into what a lot of people are feeling in this country right now and want to be talking about income inequality, affordable college, he talked about free college, she talks about affordable college, money in politics," Sussman said. "But the reality is that these are issues that she actually had in her platform, have always been a part of her platform, and she talks about increasingly more. He did put a real spotlight on them. He talks about them in very simplistic terms and so I think it has forced her and her campaign to talk about them much more broadly and put them more front and center."

"Pause for a second Emily, because I want to see if any of that makes sense to YahNé. So when you hear Emily say those things, what do you think YahNé?" Costello said.

"Well, there are a few things I think. I think first of all, that Hillary Clinton says things that aren't always what she means and aren't what she believes in. And she's demonstrated that. And one of the clearest ways that she's demonstrated that was in 2008 when she was running against then-Senator Obama for president and she claimed that she was going to, that she was against the Columbian Free Trade Agreement and that she was going to be basically, lobbying against that," Ndgo said. "And that's what she said publicly during her campaigning. But when her emails came out, we saw that what she was actually doing behind the scenes, out of the public eye, was actually lobbying for that exact agreement.

"So, that's evidence for us that what Hillary Clinton says in order to win the election doesn't have anything to do with what it is that she's going to actually do if she becomes the president," Ndgo said. "And so, whatever she's talking about in her platform, I just don't trust her."

"YahNé, I think you've hit the nail on the head, you just don't trust her," Costello said.