Former Bernie Sanders Staffer Tells Fox News Senator Should Make Up His Mind About 2020 Run: ‘It’s Becoming Irritating’

Tommy ChristopherDec 17th, 2018, 2:58 pm
 

It’s no secret that many Democratic voters are less-than-thrilled about Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ (I-VT) potential 2020 candidacy, but even one of Sanders’ own former campaign staffers is getting ” “irritated” with the speculation.

On Monday morning’s edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade interviewed former Bernie Sanders National Justice Director Tezlyn Figaro about a recent Iowa poll that showed Sanders in second place (at 19 percent) to former Vice President Joe Biden (at 32 percent) in a field of twenty potential Democratic presidential hopefuls.

Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke placed third with 11 percent support, which caused former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod to compare O’Rourke’s situation with then-Sen. Obama’s nascent 2008 candidacy:

Kilmeade asked Figaro about Axelrod’s remark, and she lit into it.

“I don’t know what Axelrod is talking about, saying it’s interesting,” Figaro said. “It’s not interesting to me. It’s quite clear that the media has once again chosen who they want to be the chosen one on the left by propping up Beto, completely just forgetting about [Sen. Kamala] Harris, completely forgetting about [Sen. Cory] Booker, and forgetting about [Stacey] Abrams and other candidates that have done fairly well in recent elections.”

But Figaro also had some harsh words for her own candidate. “He needs to figure out what he is going to do,” she said of Sanders, who is not a Democrat. “Either make a move or move around.”

She added that Sanders’ “supporters are becoming increasingly frustrated with Sanders” for allowing candidates like O’Rourke to gather early momentum.

“It’s actually becoming irritating to continue to pretend as if he’s running or not running,” Figaro said. “Either you are or you’re not. Continue to move forward with the process.”

Sanders has been an increasingly divisive figure in Democratic politics since his primary contest against Hillary Clinton, and has continued to alienate many rank-and-file Democratic voters with his unrelenting criticism of the party, and most recently by claiming that people who were “uncomfortable” voting for a black candidate in the midterms “are not necessarily racist.”

Sanders also inspires fierce loyalty among his supporters, a loyalty that doesn’t necessarily translate to other Democrats. It was this divide that Russia sought to exploit in 2016.

One thing that does appear to be uniting the two sides, to some  degree, is the outsize attention being paid to O’Rourke. CNN contributor and former Hillary Clinton aide Jess McIntosh recently made a very similar observation to Figaro’s:

“I have a hard time seeing Beto’s momentum, and not seeing the double standard for women candidates,” McIntosh said on CNN’s New Day. “There is no universe in which his name should not be mentioned in the same breath as Stacey Abrams, who came just as close, if not closer to, a historic win in Georgia.”

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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