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Finney Denies Senior Clinton Aide Made Vulgar Remark About Bernie Sanders

April 21, 2016

Hillary Clinton spokeswoman Karen Finney denied Thursday that a senior Clinton aide made a vulgar remark about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.).

In an article about takeaways from Clinton's win over Sanders in Tuesday's New York primary, Glenn Thrush reported that a Clinton aide said, "We kicked his ass tonight... I hope this convinces Bernie to tone it down. If not, fuck him."

CNN's Brianna Keilar said the comment is probably making the Sanders camp feel not-so-conciliatory.

Finney responded by saying that there are numerous people in Washington, D.C., that think they are a part of the Clinton "orbit." She stumbled through a response to the vulgar remark.

"Well, but, well, first of all, nobody that I know who was actually part of the campaign, officially, said that," she said. "So, and it is not hard, you could, you know, trip over somebody who would consider themselves in the Clinton orbit here in Washington. So, let's take that for what it is."

Keilar was not content with this answer.

"You don't think it was someone with the campaign, even though it says ‘senior Clinton aide?’" Keilar asked.

Finney said that this was not her understanding of the situation, then shifted attention to Sanders' senior aides instead.

"More importantly, we now have a situation where, you know, on the record, very publicly, senior people within the Sanders' campaign have made it very clear that their new strategy is that, at the end of the day, if Hillary Clinton has both more pledged delegates and right now she leads by over 200, and that even if she has more actual votes ... they're going to do something incredibly undemocratic and unprecedented and that is try to flip superdelegates," Finney said.

The Clinton and Sanders camps have ramped up their rhetoric in recent weeks, with the two candidates engaging in a particularly contentious debate last week. One Sanders supporter said that the American people could not afford to elect "corporate Democratic whores," although he denied that was directed at Clinton.