Obama Allies Call BS on Bernie Sanders’ Claim He Speaks to Barack Obama Regularly

Independent Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders told CNN that he speaks with former President Barack Obama with some regularity, but allies who know both men say that’s not the case, according to The Atlantic‘s Edward-Isaac Dovere.

CNN’s Ryan Nobles interviewed Sanders this week, and asked him about the role President Obama has played — and will play — in the Democratic presidential primary.

Nobles asked Sanders “How often do you talk to him, how important is it to earn his endorsement, and what kind of role do you think he’ll play ultimately when you get to the general election?”

With some hesitation, Sanders said “I’m not going to tell you that he and I are best friends, but we’re friends. And I have talked to him on and off for the last many years, was sitting down alone with him in the oval office on more than one occasion, talk to him on the telephone every now and then.”

“He is an icon clearly in the Democratic party, and I have absolute confidence that he will play a vigorous vigorous role, I think he has said this, in the campaign and we need him no question about it. We need him,” Sanders said.

New reporting emerged this week, however, that the 2012 primary challenge to Obama that Sanders publicly floated was much more serious than was previously known.

Sanders also told Nobles “If I win, I’m sure he’ll be there by my side. If someone else wins, he’ll be there by their side. But I expect and know that he’ll play an enormously important role in helping us to defeat Trump.”

“And do you feel the role he has played in the primary to this, point it has been appropriate basically just you’re staying out of it?” Nobles asked.

“Yes I do. Everybody I’m sure is tugging at his sleeve. I’ve talked to him a couple times in the last month or two, and I’m sure everybody else has,” Sanders said.

But according to Dovere’s sources, Obama and Sanders have only spoken on the phone once since a 2018 in-person meeting:

People close to both Obama and Sanders were only able to identify one phone conversation to me that the two have had since their spring 2018 one on one meeting at Obama’s office https://t.co/6yi12I3fAL

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) February 20, 2020

A recent New Yorker report on Obama’s involvement in the primary simply says that Sanders and President Obama have “spoken directly” during this election cycle, but was silent on the regularity of that contact. That’s consistent with — but not dispositive of — Dovere’s reporting.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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