Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren during the first night of the second 2020 Democratic presidential debate in Detroit, Mich., July 30, 2019. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

CNN is out with a report saying that Bernie told Elizabeth Warren in a private meeting that a woman can’t win. The story relies on anonymous sources who weren’t in the meeting — “two people Warren spoke with directly soon after the encounter, and two people familiar with the meeting” — and Bernie’s denial is full-throated.


Whom to believe? Noah Pollack tweeted a sharp take from a Senate aide: “this s*** is hilarious because it sounds like both something Bernie would say and Elizabeth Warren would make up.”

We haven’t heard from Warren directly, but if she doesn’t back it up, she’s going to look terrible, because the leak clearly came from her camp. Even if she does back it up, her past fabulism and the fact this is coming out when Bernie has eclipsed her in a lot of polling will undermine her credibility.

Meanwhile, Tim Carney reminds us that believing it’s harder for a woman to win isn’t exactly a hate crime, or wasn’t prior to this flare-up: