Katy Tur Confronts Sanders Press Sec on Campaign Swipe at Biden: Do You Think He Is Corrupt?
MSNBC’s Katy Tur spoke with Bernie Sanders national press secretary Briahna Joy Gray this afternoon and pressed her on what their campaign’s message is about Joe Biden.
Specifically, Tur took note of Sanders speechwriter David Sirota touting an op-ed from Zephyr Teachout arguing that Biden has a “big corruption problem” that may hurt Democrats in the general election.
THIS IS ?
“When Biden pushed for cuts to Social Security, was he serving donors or his constituents?” https://t.co/3QFo0m0sc7
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) January 20, 2020
After asking about concerns that the impeachment trial will keep Sanders off the campaign trail, Tur brought up Sirota’s tweet and asked, with respect to the “corruption problem” argument, “Do you believe that’s fair? And do you believe that that mirrors the president’s attacks on Joe Biden, especially in this moment, as the impeachment trial gets started?”
Gray instead swiped at Biden over Social Security, saying it’s “one of the things we hear the most about when we’re talking to actual Iowa voters and voters across this country.”
Tur asked again, “What about saying he has a corruption problem?”
“I think that how you characterize that is up to the voter, and that’s fine for them to decide. But what’s important is for us to have a conversation on TV not about a conflict between candidates…” Gray started.
Tur jumped in and asked, “What does that mean, to let the voter decide about a corruption problem? Your speechwriter is promoting this op-ed that’s written by a surrogate that says Joe Biden has a corruption problem. Is that a campaign-sanctioned thing? Does the campaign believe Joe Biden has a corruption problem?”
Gray ripped Biden again for making deals with Republicans to “cut Social Security and raise the requirement age.”
“Is that corrupt?” Tur asked.
“If someone wants to describe that as corrupt, that is up to them. But what I’m saying right now is that instead of trying to instigate disputes between candidates…”
“I’m not instigating it. It was written in the Guardian and promoted by your speechwriter,” Tur responded.
You can watch above, via MSNBC.
