AP Photo Sanders campaign: We'll consider Hillary for veep

Sen. Bernie Sanders' campaign once again cranked up its rhetoric toward former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by saying she could very well be on Vermont senator's shortlist for vice president once he clinched the Democratic nomination.

In an interview with Bloomberg Politics' John Heilemann, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver was asked if he thought the Democratic front-runner was a "craven hypocrite" for moving to the left on a number of issues like the Keystone pipeline and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, effectively bringing her closer to the liberal Sanders on the political spectrum.


"A craven hypocrite?" Weaver responded with a grin described in the story as "sly." "That's a little bit harsh, don't you think?"

Weaver then added, "We're willing to give her more credit than Obama did. We're willing to consider her for vice president. We'll give her serious consideration. We'll even interview her."

Weaver was mostly joking, Bloomberg Politics went on to say. But the comment is just the latest example of growing tensions between the two major campaigns vying for the Democratic nomination.

Sanders campaign strategist Tad Devine vented to POLITICO's Annie Karni about what he described as the Clinton team's divisive attacks — which he said started well before Sanders began drawing a sharper contrast.

“We’d be very happy to have a straight-out debate on issues that matter to people and confine it to that,” Devine said. “But if they’re going to have a campaign that attacks Bernie on gun safety and implies he engages in sexism, that’s unacceptable. We’re not going to stand for that. We’re not going to sit here and let her attack him. We’re going to have to talk about other things if they do that. If they’re going to engage in this kind of attack, they need to understand we’re not going to stand there and take it.”

That came after Saturday night at the Democratic Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa, when Sanders contrasted himself with Clinton by picking at her as being slow on taking a position on the Keystone pipeline and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

"It is not now, nor has it ever been, the 'gold standard' of trade agreements," Sanders said, referring to Clinton's previous description of the trade deal.

He also jabbed at the former secretary of state for her 2002 vote supporting the war in Iraq.

"When I came to that fork in the road I took the right road, even though it was not the popular road at the time," Sanders said.