President Donald Trump’s campaign reacted to rumblings of Mike Bloomberg considering Hillary Clinton as a running mate Saturday, arguing that the Democratic establishment was “once again” trying to “steal” the nomination from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Trump’s campaign and White House teams presented a united message on the news, which was first reported by Matt Drudge.
Hillary can’t resist trying to steal the nomination from Bernie a second time. https://t.co/ZPu0Ue6JjD
— Tim Murtaugh – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TimMurtaugh) February 15, 2020
The Trump campaign and former associates echoed the White House’s line.
“Hillary apparently can’t resist trying to steal the nomination from Bernie Sanders a second time,” said Erin Perrine, deputy communications director for the Trump campaign. (RELATED: Bernie Sanders Calls James Carville A ‘Political Hack’)
“It appears that Bloomberg is colluding with Hillary to once again steal the Democrat nomination from Bernie,” Republican strategist and former White House official Andy Surabian told the Daily Caller. “Did anti-establishment Dems really think the establishment oligarchs in their party were just gonna roll over in the face of Bernie’s revolution?”
Many Democrats accused Clinton’s 2016 campaign of stealing the nomination from Sanders, resulting in some reforms to the Party’s 2020 primary process. Central to the controversy were the party’s super-delegates, who enter the national convention free to vote for any candidate, whereas other delegates are bound by the results of their state primaries.
Super-delegates are often high-level members of the party establishment, fueling suspicion that they would vote to block a candidate like Sanders. The 2020 primary is the first time Democrats won’t allow these super-delegates to weigh in on the first round of voting at the Democratic National Convention.
Trump himself has yet to weigh in on the news.
Will Davis contributed to this report.