Michael Moore slams Elizabeth Warren for Bernie Sanders comments, claims she’s helping Trump’s re-election
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Michael Moore is upset with Elizabeth Warren after her campaign forced Bernie Sanders to deny a rumor that he once told her in a private conversation that he doesn’t believe a woman can be president.
Moore was so rattled over the exchange between the two 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls that he made it the subject of Thursday's “Rumble” podcast with an episode titled, “The Sad Downfall of Elizabeth Warren.”
“Elizabeth & Bernie have appeared in my films. I love them both. Why Elizabeth chose to stick a knife in Bernie’s back is beyond me. At a time when job #1 is to remove Trump, how did this help?” the 65-year-old filmmaker tweeted Wednesday.
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Moore, who has previously expressed his support of Sanders in the 2020 race, said he felt “paralyzed” and felt "a knife in my heart" after hearing Warren’s camp tout the alleged story, which became so prevalent that Sanders was asked about it at the latest Democratic debate.
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“I was paralyzed — paralyzed — that her staffers would say such a thing,” Moore said on his podcast. “Any of us who have known Bernie forever know automatically, we don’t even have to hear him denying saying it, because there’s no way he’d say that.”
The filmmaker mentioned that he worked with both politicians on his movies in the past and noted that Sanders commented on the historic nature of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy in 2016, even after she beat him for the Democratic nomination. He also criticized Warren for infighting with a fellow Democrat as he believes it won’t help with the country’s main goal of removing Donald Trump from office.
“We have only one job right now and that’s to defeat Donald Trump. Remove him from the White House and then let's fix the system that gave us Donald Trump so that we never get another Donald Trump again,” he said. “That’s what we should be spending our time doing. The fact that we’re even talking about this on our podcast is taking time away from what we need to be doing.”
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He added: "I'm thinking 'what is going on here?' I'm thinking, on Monday night, I got so sad. I thought, 'Oh my God. Are we going to mark this date, Monday, January 13, 2020, as the day that Donald J. Trump actually won re-election because the Democrats couldn't keep it together? Because we had to fight each other?'"
TRUMP SIDES WITH SANDERS AMID DUSTUP WITH WARREN: 'I DON'T BELIEVE BERNIE SAID THAT'
Sanders' alleged remarks were first reported on Monday, according to sources close to Warren and those familiar with their meeting. Sanders offered a strong denial.
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"It is ludicrous to believe that at the same meeting where Elizabeth Warren told me she was going to run for president, I would tell her that a woman couldn't win," Sanders told Fox News. "It's sad that, three weeks before the Iowa caucus and a year after that private conversation, staff who weren't in the room are lying about what happened. What I did say that night was that Donald Trump is a sexist, a racist and a liar who would weaponize whatever he could. Do I believe a woman can win in 2020? Of course! After all, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes in 2016."
However, Warren issued a statement affirming the report before Tuesday's debate.
"Bernie and I met for more than two hours in December 2018 to discuss the 2020 election, our past work together and our shared goals: beating Donald Trump, taking back our government from the wealthy and well-connected, and building an economy that works for everyone. Among the topics that came up was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate. I thought a woman could win; he disagreed," Warren said.
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"I have no interest in discussing this private meeting any further because Bernie and I have far more in common than our differences on punditry," she continued. "I'm in this race to talk about what's broken in this country and how to fix it -- and that's what I'm going to continue to do. I know Bernie is in the race for the same reason. We have been friends and allies in this fight for a long time, and I have no doubt we will continue to work together to defeat Donald Trump and put our government on the side of the people."
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.