Sanders: I’ve had a few differences with Obama
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Thursday pushed back against attacks that he has been disloyal to President Obama, saying differences of opinion are good for his party’s primary.
Sanders was pressed during an MSNBC/Telemundo town hall about comments he made in 2011 calling for a Democrat to oppose Obama in the 2012 presidential primary in order to prevent him from drifting too far to the right.
{mosads}”Do we have a right to have differences of opinion with President Obama?” he asked rhetorically. “I have had a number. For example, I have disagreed with him very strongly on his views on trade. He is for the TPP, I am against the TPP,” a reference to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a central part of Obama’s trade agenda.
Sanders also noted that he had broken ranks with the president when he filibustered a bill that would extend tax breaks to the wealthy.
“Overall, I think the president has done an outstanding job,” Sanders added.
“And the idea that there can be a primary where different ideas get floated and debated, I don’t think that that is terrible.”
He also slammed the media for focusing on the 2011 comment.
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