‘Stand on Your Own Record!’ Sanders Spox Slammed Obama Ads Just Weeks Before Bernie Put Out Deceptive Obama Ad
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders released a deceptively-edited campaign ad featuring former President Barack Obama on Wednesday, two weeks after Sanders senior adviser and former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner blasted other candidates for doing the same.
The day after Senator Sanders’ disastrous performance on Super Tuesday, his campaign put out a spot that cobbled together quotes from Obama that were wildly out of context, and edited to give the misleading impression that the comments were much more recent than they actually are.
But just two weeks earlier, Sen. Turner tore into other candidates who featured President Obama in their political ads, accusing them of using “the first black president as a prop.”
“Half of these people that are trying to use the proximity to the black president wasn’t supporting him in 2008,” Turner told CBS NEWS’ Musadiq Bidar following the Nevada debate. “He wasn’t a candidate of choice in 2008, but now all of a sudden because he is very popular in this country, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican he’s just a popular figure, now they want to use him as a prop.”
“They should not be using the black black president as their prop, to try to seduce the African American community,” Turned said, emphatically adding, “Stand on your own record!”
Nina Turner, a top surrogate for Bernie Sanders, says to candidates like Biden and Bloomberg:
“They should not be using the black president as their prop to try to seduce the African American community.” pic.twitter.com/Y4plpI5A0T
— Musadiq Bidar (@Bidar411) February 20, 2020
Biden surrogate and Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond responded by pointing out that Obama’s record — particularly things like the Paris Climate Agreement, the Iran Nuclear Deal, and the Recovery Act — is also Biden’s record, and touted Biden’s long history with black voters.
“He didn’t march 50 or 60 years ago and take a vacation until he ran for president. Joe Biden is tested and he is true,” Richmond said.
Rep. Cedric Richmond, a top surrogate for VP Biden responds:
“If the Sanders campaign wants to debate with the Biden campaign about who was closest to Obama, I would take that debate all day.” pic.twitter.com/h6zD8Tepgp
— Musadiq Bidar (@Bidar411) February 20, 2020
Richmond also pointed out that Sanders publicly urged a primary of Obama during the 2012 election.
Sanders’ ad features snippets of a 2006 speech in which then-Senator Obama praised Sanders and congressional candidate Peter Welch, but are deceptively edited to cut out — in mid-sentence — the reference to Welch. Those remarks are then cut together with the end of Obama’s 2016 Democratic National Convention speech.
Watch the clips above via CBS News.
