Bernie Sanders bashed Hillary Clinton for “hastily adopted campaign rhetoric” that mirrors his own as the two presidential candidates continue to trade barbs over who is more authentic.
{mosads}”The people of the United States need to know the difference between hastily adopted campaign rhetoric and the real record and the long-held ideas of the candidate,” Sanders said Monday at a press conference in Massachusetts.
“What I intend to do over the next number of weeks is kind of contrast my record to Secretary Clinton’s. And I have to say that I am delighted that Secretary Clinton, month after month, seems to be adopting more of the positions we have advocated, which is good, and is beginning to use a lot of the language and phraseology we’ve used.”
He went on to joke that he saw a political ad on television that he believed was his own, but “turns out it was Sec. Clinton’s picture in the ad.”
Sanders also hit Clinton for accepting large donations from Wall Street and her allied super-PAC for spending against him in the primary.
“The American people need to ask a very simple question — if these contributions from Wall Street and other powerful special interests have no influence over the candidate, why are these special interests making huge campaign contributions? Simple question?” he asked.
“These guys are many things. Dummies they are not.”
The attacks come as the Democratic primary tensions continue to flare. Surrogates of the former secretary of State have held a handful of press conferences accusing Sanders of being late to the party on criminal justice and immigration reform, with prominent civil rights leader and Clinton supporter John Lewis brushing aside the Vermont senator’s early civil rights participation as insufficient. The campaign also held a press call with surrogates Monday that bashed Sanders on his gun record.
Wes Jones contributed