“You called me a liar,” Sanders responded. “You told me — all right, let’s not do it now.”

One of the most disgusting spectacles I’ve seen in a national presidential debate was CNN’s obvious hit job on Bernie Sanders.

Stacey covered it in Elizabeth Warren Refuses Bernie Post-Debate Handshake as #NeverWarren and #CNNisTrash Trend.

The short version is that the Warren campaign leaked to CNN that in a private conversation in 2018, Bernie Sanders said a woman couldn’t win the presidency. As I pointed out #RefundWarren: Bernie supporters go ballistic on Elizabeth Warren over last-minute sexism claim

Just two days before the final Iowa debate, CNN ran a story — obviously leaked by the Elizabeth Warren campaign and based on second- and third- hand sourcing — claiming that in a private meeting in 2018, Bernie Sanders told her a woman couldn’t win the presidency. That claim is frequently made by liberals lamenting how Hillary Clinton lost and the uphill fight women face on a national political stage. But coming in the ultra-woke Democratic primary, it was an incendiary accusation against Bernie.

Bernie denied it, Warren used Bernie’s denial to come out from behind the leak to say he did it.

When the issue came up at the debate, Bernie again denied it, but then the CNN questionaire asked Warren a question presuming that Bernie said it.

CNN’s setup created a fury among Bernie supporters, and their anger was justified.

But in another interesting moment, just after the debate while still on stage, Bernie and Warren had an obviously tense exchange after Warren refused to shake Bernie’s outstretched hand.

We didn’t know what was said, but now CNN has located audio picked up by stage microphones microphones on the candidates. Here’s what was said per the CNN audio:

“I think you called me a liar on national TV,” Warren can be heard saying. “What?” Sanders responded. “I think you called me a liar on national TV,” she repeated. “You know, let’s not do it right now. If you want to have that discussion, we’ll have that discussion,” Sanders said, to which Warren replied, “Anytime.” “You called me a liar,” Sanders continued. “You told me — all right, let’s not do it now.”

This feud is not over.

BONUS QUESTION: Was this confrontation staged by Warren knowing the mics were on? On first read, I had not picked up on the fact that the audio was picked up by the microphones the candidates were wearing:

The conversation was not captured on the primary audio feed from the candidates’ podiums. After the debate, CNN did an inventory of the audio equipment that was used and found two backup recordings from the microphones Sanders and Warren were wearing.

Is this another example of #CNNisTrash?

I’m the farthest from a Bernie supporter as one could get, but for CNN to have originally broke this story, then for Warren to confront Sanders while still hooked up to CNN mics, and for CNN to then air that audio stinks out loud. You can’t tell me that wasn’t orchestrated. https://t.co/DyEUDmhrXO — Johnathon O'Halloran (@JohnnyOHally) January 16, 2020

And yes, it was absolutely a scumbag move for Warren to approach Bernie on the stage while they were both mic’d up. — Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) January 16, 2020



