Sanders accuses think tank of smearing progressives
WASHINGTON >> Sen. Bernie Sanders, in a rare and forceful rebuke by a presidential candidate of an influential party ally, has accused a liberal think tank of undermining Democrats’ chances of taking back the White House in 2020 by “using its resources to smear” him and other contenders pushing progressive policies.
Sanders’ criticism of the Center for American Progress, delivered Saturday in a letter obtained by The New York Times, reflects a simmering ideological battle within the Democratic Party and threatens to reopen wounds from the 2016 primary between him and Hillary Clinton’s allies.
The letter airs criticisms shared among his supporters: that the think tank, which has close ties to Clinton and the Democratic Party establishment, is beholden to corporate donors and has worked to quash a leftward shift in the party led partly by Sanders.
“This counterproductive negative campaigning needs to stop,” Sanders wrote to the boards of the Center for American Progress and its sister group, the Center for American Progress Action Fund. “The Democratic primary must be a campaign of ideas, not of bad-faith smears. Please help play a constructive role in the effort to defeat Donald Trump.”
Sanders sent the letter days after a website run by the action fund, ThinkProgress, suggested that his attacks on income inequality were hypocritical in light of his growing personal wealth.
The letter is tantamount to a warning shot to the Democratic establishment that Sanders — who continues to criticize party insiders on the campaign trail — will not countenance a repeat of the 2016 primary, when he and his supporters believe party leaders and allies worked to deny him the Democratic nomination.
That primary between Sanders and Clinton left deep divisions in the party.
Democratic leaders worked assiduously to heal rifts and avoid a recurrence in 2020, in part by overhauling the party’s presidential nomination process. Specifically, they engaged in extensive outreach to Sanders’ fervent base of liberal supporters, who had come to distrust party leadership as beholden to major donors who favored centrist positions and supported Clinton’s campaign. Some viewed the Center for American Progress, and its leader, Neera Tanden, as part of that cabal, working to stymie liberal activists and ideas.
The letter from Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who is among the early front-runners in the 2020 Democratic field, threatens to undo a delicate rapprochement and could presage another bitter primary battle.
The Center for American Progress, which is known as CAP, was founded in 2003 by John Podesta, a close ally of the Clintons, and is based in Washington.