Is Hillary Clinton running for president? She certainly seems to think it is still 2016 and she is battling Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination. In recent weeks, in the run-up to the crucial primary season, Clinton has publicly criticised Sanders, saying “nobody likes him” and “nobody wants to work with him”. The former secretary of state said the idea that he represents ordinary Americans is “just baloney” and that she feels “so bad that people got sucked into it”.

Clearly, Clinton doesn’t feel that bad, because she also had some harsh words for Sanders’ supporters. In an interview last month with the Hollywood Reporter, she complained about the Vermont senator enabling a toxic, misogynistic culture. “It’s his online Bernie bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women,” she said. She didn’t quite call Bernie supporters “deplorables”, but she got close.

On Friday night, the congresswoman (and outspoken Sanders supporter) Rashida Tlaib booed Clinton at a Sanders event. Following a backlash, Tlaib issued an apology, saying she had let her disappointment with Clinton’s comments get the better of her and that she would do everything possible to unify the party and beat Donald Trump.

Tlaib was right to apologise. But while I don’t condone her boos, I understand what drove them. Civility is a two-way street. Establishment Democrats such as Clinton seem to think it is fine for them to insult progressives, but verboten for progressives to respond in kind. In their worldview, they are the reasonable grownups and the people who want outrageous things such as universal affordable healthcare are petulant children, unworthy of respect.

Clinton’s accusations of misogyny among “Bernie bros” are also maddening. Contrary to the message of privileged, white “brocialists” that certain factions of the media like to push, the movement Sanders has built is incredibly diverse. The first Palestinian-American congresswoman (Tlaib) is working passionately to get the first Jewish president elected. The US’s largest nurses’ union has endorsed Sanders. Barbara Smith, a founding member of the black feminist collective that coined the term “identity politics”, is a Berner. In any case, it is rather rich of Clinton, who was backed by Harvey Weinstein, to accuse Sanders of having a toxic-supporter problem.

What is most infuriating about all this is the extent to which Clinton has inserted herself unhelpfully into the 2020 election. Clinton is a private citizen who is entitled to say whatever she wants. But she is also an extremely high-profile and polarising figure; what she says has an impact. She appears to have made the conscious decision to go on a publicity blitz for her Hulu documentary, Hillary, right before the Democratic primaries. She has made the decision to thrust herself into the spotlight at a crucial time. And she has seemingly made the decision to use that spotlight to try to stop Sanders getting the party’s nomination.

I am sure that Clinton thinks she is denouncing Sanders for all the right reasons; that she is doing the US a public service. Clearly, she thinks that Sanders is unelectable, that he is too “far-left” and incapable of beating Trump. But I am not sure anyone is less qualified to opine on who is capable of beating Trump than the person who lost to him in 2016. No doubt I am being a misogynistic Bernie bro for saying this, but I think it is in everyone’s best interest if she stays out of this one.

•Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist