COLUMBIA, South Carolina — In 2008, Bernie Sanders stayed out of the contentious Democratic presidential primary until after the nominee had been chosen. Once Barack Obama became the party’s choice for president, Sanders ventured to a Democratic Party convention for the first time in his political career and called on independents like him to support Obama.



In 2011, Sanders said more than once that a challenge from the left might help President Obama get back on track after, Sanders said, the president had veered far to the right, selling out the left on issues like entitlement programs in the interests of cutting deals with Republican leaders. At one point, he Sanders said he was “giving thought” to encouraging a progressive to run against Obama, telling a radio caller, “I don’t want to tell you more than that, but this is an issue we are beginning to talk about a little bit.”

As he mounts his own bid for the Democratic nomination this year, Sanders is having to thread the needle of his past independence. In South Carolina on Saturday, Sanders rejected the idea that he was less than loyal to Obama in 2012 — something that Martin O’Malley, who is running in a distant third place in the nomination fight, suggested on Friday night and has this year on the trail. (O’Malley has his own problems casting himself as an Obama loyalist; he was among Clinton’s most fervent supporters in 2008.)

Sanders’s response on Saturday was unequivocal: He said he was a strong advocate for Obama’s election and reelection.

“I think contested elections are not a bad thing, but the idea that I worked against President Obama is untrue,” Sanders said at a press conference. “In fact, I vigorously supported him in 2008, he came to my state in 2006. I campaigned for him in 2008, I campaigned for him very hard in 2012, and I never made any effort to enlist a candidate against him.”

Senior officials on Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns did not remember the cycles the same way when it came to Sanders. BuzzFeed News talked to four senior officials from Obama’s campaigns, most of whom are unaligned in the 2016 primary.

Their take on Sanders’ role: In 2008, he got on board with Obama late. In 2012, he was either attacking the president from the left or doing little to get him elected. As for “vigorously” supporting him, they said, Sanders was not someone they thought of as a top surrogate.

“Every indication we had was that he was considering a primary challenge,” said one senior official from Obama’s 2012 campaign.

“Being annoying,” another said when asked to recall how they remembered Sanders in 2012.

A third senior Obama campaign aide from 2012 said Sanders was simply not often top of mind.

“Have no recollection of him being any kind of factor whatsoever, supporter or not,” the aide said in an email to BuzzFeed News.

The Sanders campaign declined to respond to the Obama campaign comments.

“I can't help you on what they remember or don't remember,” a Sanders adviser told BuzzFeed News.