Presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is slamming the Center for American Progress (CAP) for its ties to big banks and big corporations and claims the leftist think tank that supported Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign is trying to derail his 2020 bid for the White House.

“The Center for American Progress is an organization whose massive annual budget is bankrolled by billionaires and corporate executives that profit from finance, pharmaceutical companies, fossil fuels, and sending American jobs overseas,” the statement from the campaign says.

The statement claims CAP took money from big banks and financial players, including Blackstone, “whose CEO was chair of Trump’s business council and is a leading Republican donor.”

Other corporations on Bernie’s hit list: Blue Cross Blue Shield, Pfizer, Walmart and defense contractors General Dynamics and BAE Systems.

Here's how the Sanders campaign portrays the Center for American Progress in the new fundraising email (subject line "We are under attack"): pic.twitter.com/q42UPsDWUb — Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) April 14, 2019

“They also took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the fossil fuel pumping United Arab Emirates while the country was bombing innocent civilians in Yemen — a war Bernie has led the fight to end,” the statement says.

“The Center for American Progress has deep connections to the economic and political elites who have done so much damage to working families in every zip code,” the statement says. “And what we must do today is send a message that we are prepared to fight back against those who are working day and night to defeat our movement.”

The Sanders campaign also blanketed email inboxes with portions of the statement and encouraged supporters to donate to counter what it calls an “attack” by CAP.

The email says, in part:

This week, an organization that is the epitome of the political establishment — the Center for American Progress (CAP) — unleashed and promoted an online attack video against Bernie. And behind the scenes on the day Bernie introduced his Medicare for All bill, they held a conference call with reporters attacking the bill. CAP’s leadership has been pretty upfront about their disdain for Bernie — and for all of us. They see our political revolution as a threat to their privilege and influence.

“We have to send a message that their attacks will only make our campaign stronger,” the email says ahead of asking for a donation to the campaign.

“If we come together to show that we won’t tolerate their attacks, organizations like Center for American Progress will think twice before attacking our campaign again,” the email says.

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