CLAIM: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) that a woman could not win the presidency.

VERDICT: Unknown, but CNN moderator Abby Phillip continued to repeat Warren’s claim as fact after Sanders denied it.

Warren and Sanders traded claims on Monday about whether the “democratic socialist” from Vermont had actually told her in December 2018 that a woman could not win in 2020. No one has any evidence to prove the claims, one way or the other.

Nevertheless, Phillip continued to side with Warren — not only stating her claim as fact, but re-stating it as fact after Sanders explicitly said it did not happen.

Phillip: Senator Sanders, CNN reported yesterday, and Senator Sanders — Senator Warren confirmed in a statement — that in 2018, you told her that you did not believe that woman could win the election. Why did you say that? Sanders: Well, as a matter of fact, I didn’t say it. And I don’t want to waste a whole lot of time on this, because this is what Donald Trump and maybe some of the media want. Anybody who knows me knows that it’s incomprehensible that I would think that a woman cannot be President of the United States. … Phillip: So, Senator Sanders, I do want to be clear here — you’re saying that you never told Senator Warren that a woman could not win the election? Sanders: That is correct.

Nevertheless, Phillip then pitched this softball to Warren: “Senator Warren, what did you think when Senator Sanders told you a woman could not win the election?”

The audience laughed — at Phillip, not with her.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.