Since the outset of his campaign, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has vowed to run an “issue-oriented” campaign, with his focus on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others further down the rungs of the ladder.
In an interview with “Morning Joe” on Wednesday, Sanders emphasized his intent on running an “issue-oriented” campaign, telling Bloomberg’s John Heilemann that he’s “never run a negative ad in his life.”
While Sanders made a point to not go negative (at least against Democrat), that didn’t last too long as the 2016 candidate went ahead and attacked the Koch brothers a mere 15 seconds later.
“No, no. Look, there are enough issues out there that are important to the American people,” Sanders told Heilemann when asked what Clinton material he can use against her.
“”Our kids can’t afford to go to college. The pope reminded us that climate change is one of the great global challenges that we face,” Sanders explained. “We have a situation where 1/10th of one percent of the American people own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. Those are the issues that resonate with the American people. Those are the issues that I will be focusing on.”
“We’re going to run an issue-oriented campaign,” Sanders said. “I’ve never run a negative ad in my life, don’t intend to do that.”
Heilemann tried again to get an answer on whether Clinton Foundation questions go under the personal or issue categories, but Sanders went off and hit against campaign finance and the Koch brothers.
“I’ll tell you what’s a more important issue to me, which I find getting very little discussion, and that is the Koch brothers are going to spend close to $900 million on this campaign, more than the Democrats and Republicans,” Sanders said without mentioning that Clinton’s campaign looks to raise close to $2.5 billion.
“That — because of Citizens United, makes me very concerned that we’re moving towards an oligarchic form of government,” Sanders said. “These are extremely right-wing people. We should be talking about their impact on political process.”
While, according to Sanders, the “extreme right-wing” Koch’s shouldn’t deign to impact the political process, he didn’t say a word about the Clinton team’s plan to raise and spend more than twice the Koch’s amount for the very presidential bid he is trying to usurp.
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