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Sanders: I Don't Want Any Advice From Hillary

Sanders: 'We got a letter someplace from Hillary Clinton thanking me' for help in 2016

March 1, 2019

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said Friday he wasn't interested in receiving advice from Hillary Clinton on the 2020 campaign trail, as other Democrats running for president have done.

Sanders fought Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016, and there are still raw feelings in both camps after the bitterly contested race. Clinton blamed Sanders in part for her eventual loss to President Donald Trump, and Sanders supporters point to the Democratic National Committee machinations on her behalf that they say rigged the nomination process.

"The View" co-host Meghan McCain asked Sanders what he thought Clinton did wrong to lose to "someone like Trump."

"I’m not enthusiastic in going back to 2016," Sanders said. "But I think, in some ways, she didn’t reach out to working-class people the way I think she should have. There were states where she did not campaign as vigorously as she should have, in Wisconsin, Michigan, maybe some other states. But that was 2016."

McCain noted some 2020 contenders have already met with her, and she wondered if Sanders would do the same.

"I suspect not," he said. "Hillary has not called me. Look, we have differences. Hillary has played a very important role in modern-American politics."

"But you're not interested in any advice from her?" McCain asked.

"I think not," Sanders said, to soft laughter from the audience. "Hillary and I have fundamental differences."

Co-host Joy Behar, a Sanders fan, also asked how he reacted to criticism that he helped Trump win in 2016. "I knocked my brains out working to get Hillary Clinton elected president," Sanders responded.

"We got a letter someplace from Hillary Clinton thanking me for what we did," he said.