Washington Free Beacon reporter Lachlan Markay appeared Monday on MSNBC to discuss the Hillary Clinton audio recording he obtained that included the Democrat describing millennial supporters of primary rival Bernie Sanders as "living in their parents’ basement."
Clinton said at a February fundraising event that many of the younger supporters of Sanders were children of the Great Recession and frustrated with their economic opportunities. Clinton allies said she was expressing sympathy with their plight, but Markay said it appeared to play into stereotypes of the young voters who supported Sanders by wide margins over Clinton.
"I think it was clear that she was expressing some sympathy for these people she was saying live in their parents’ basement," Markay said. "But I think it does reinforce—it kind of sounds like a stereotype of millennials, and as a millennial, I can say we’re sort of tired of being stereotyped, and I think that’s what is really going to irk some of Sanders’ supporters, and these are people who she’s still having trouble bringing into her camp."
Sanders, asked on Sunday about Clinton’s critical remarks of his policies as unrealistic in the audio, said "of course" it bothered him, but he added it was done in the middle of a campaign. After their contentious primary battle, he endorsed Clinton for the presidency.
"I don’t think it’s surprising that Bernie said what he did," Markay said. "He’s now committed to supporting Hillary. He obviously sees her as preferable to Trump, but I’m not sure that a lot his supporters really think the same way that he does. They don’t have that same sort of political approach to things and are much more likely to take these statements at face value and either decide who to support accordingly or decide even whether to vote at all."
Markay also wrote about how how the Washington Free Beacon obtained the audio file.