The pro-Hillary Clinton political operative responsible for an attempted smear on Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has said he will not apologize for a negative message sent Monday to the Huffington Post detailing "similarities" between Sanders's positions and those of leftist leaders Jeremy Corbyn and Hugo Chavez.

As Common Dreams reported Tuesday, the email from the pro-Clinton Correct the Record super PAC attempted to couple Sanders with what it said were the more "extreme" positions taken by the newly-elected UK Labour Party leader Corbyn, noting the mutual affection shared between the two populist lawmakers.

Correct the Record, led by Clinton ally David Brock, also highlighted how Sanders helped negotiate a program with Venezuela's national oil company in 2006 that provided discounted heating oil assistance to low-income Vermonters.

Sanders seized on the tactic by saying in a Tuesday fundraising e-mail that "one of Hillary Clinton’s most prominent super-PACs attacked our campaign pretty viciously."

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"It was the kind of onslaught I expected to see from the Koch Brothers or Sheldon Adelson, and it’s the second time a billionaire super-PAC has tried to stop the momentum of the political revolution we’re building together," the Vermont senator added.

However, when asked by Bloomberg's With All Due Respect co-host Mark Halperin if he would apologize to Sanders, Brock was defiant.

"Gosh, no, no. This is just standard opposition research, Mark," Brock said, before implying that such negative attacks were sure to continue. "You've seen it before, you'll see it again."