Bloomberg Attacks Sanders and Some Democratic Strategists Privately Cheer: ‘Bernie Hasn’t Been Vetted’

The fight for the Democratic nomination has moved into a new phase, one growing more personal, with perhaps no fight more high stakes than Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) versus former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg.

The two may end up ultimately facing up against each other for the nomination weeks from now, but the attacks that broke out into the open in recent days have also made some Democrats happy, with a feeling that Sanders needs to be vetted and battle-tested on the airwaves if he hopes to succeed in a general election against President Donald Trump.

“I do think it’s really important for Bernie to respond to, frankly, any attack that is lodged against him by Democrats because it’s going to be velvet kittens compared to what Trump is going to throw against him,” CNN contributor Maria Cardona told Mediaite. Cardona is also a member of the DNC rules and bylaws committee.

Sanders criticized Bloomberg openly Saturday stating the “simple truth” that Bloomberg even with “all his money will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have, the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump.” Bloomberg’s campaign responded by highlighting personal online attacks by so-called “Bernie Bros” that targeted supporters of other Democratic campaigns, spotlighting it as the kind of “energy” the party doesn’t need if it hopes to defeat Trump.

Other Democrats Mediaite spoke with, who asked for anonymity because they said they don’t want to be attacked by Sanders supporters, told us its the right time for Sanders to be held to account for his campaign and policies.

“It is true Bernie hasn’t been vetted, one of the criticisms is that Elizabeth Warren, who has been forced to defend her plans, has gotten more scrutiny than Bernie has,” said a Nevada Democrat. “So I don’t think it’s wrong for people to start holding him accountable, he’s the frontrunner, so he merits that.”

“If you’re Warren, Klobuchar, Buttigieg, even Biden, what do you have to lose by drawing a contrast?” said a longtime Democratic strategist. “Bernie is throwing the book at Bloomberg on name the issue — he’s a billionaire, on Stop and Frisk, but so far no one has taken Bernie to task on issues like his 2007 comprehensive immigration reform vote or anything else.”

[In 2007, Sanders voted against an immigration overhaul over concerns that bringing in guest workers would drive down wages for low-income Americans.]

Democrats who spoke to Mediaite said Sanders basically got off without having much of a negative campaign run against him by Hillary Clinton because from the New York primary to the convention, he faced a math problem on delegates that he was going to be unable to overcome, so it made more sense for Clinton to “guide the ship into port rather than savage him.”

Bloomberg, they say, will prime Sanders for an unassailable fact: Donald Trump will not do the same.

“We know Trump is going to call him Soviet Sanders, or Bolshevik Bernie. We need to know how resilient he is and what kind of operation he has to fight against negative attacks,” a different Democratic operative said. “Trump’s going to run a campaign that’s not dissimilar to Bloomberg.”

Still, there were those who say Bloomberg isn’t a perfect messenger, and worry too much animus in the primary will mean Sanders supporters “take their ball and go home” if he doesn’t win the nomination, a problem when up against the Trump machine.

“I’m very conflicted about this, people hate on Bernie for not being a Democrat but Bloomberg is the same on the other side, he’s a f*cking Republican, who’s been a Democrat for six months,” a Washington Democratic consultant said.

But when it comes to vetting, Democrats say that Bloomberg is in the same boat.

“Bloomberg has had a free ride, of course his numbers will go up if no one is challenging him,” Cardona said.

“Some people think it’s unfair he made the debate stage, but the candidates should be looking forward to Bloomberg standing next to them — who’ve been on the stage for almost a year now — to defend his policies, answer attacks, and answer the media.”

Democrats said that while they think it’s a net-positive for Sanders to be vetted now, they say it’s an open question whether bruised Sanders supporters will come home to the Democratic Party to vote against Trump if Bloomberg’s attacks work and he wins the nomination.

“It’s not like the Republican nomination when everyone fell in line and Ted Cruz did what he had to to defeat Hillary,” the veteran strategist said. “The jury is still out on what Bernie supporters would do if Bloomberg wins. Right now we’re in the heat of battle, so no one wants to contemplate that possibility.”