- A host of high-profile commentators and cable news anchors began lashing out at Sen. Bernie Sanders as preliminary results from the Nevada caucus showed him winning.
- MSNBC host Chris Matthews on Saturday compared Sanders' win in Nevada to Nazi Germany gaining control of France during World War II.
- James Carville, a longtime Democratic strategist who advised Sen. Michael Bennet's failed 2020 bid, suggested Sanders' success can be chalked up to a reported Russian interference campaign.
- MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, a former press secretary for President George W. Bush, praised Carville's comments and further claimed Sanders "hasn't been vetted" by the media or his opponents.
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As results in the Nevada caucus showed Sen. Bernie Sanders with a big lead on Saturday afternoon, a host of high-profile commentators and cable news anchors began lashing out at the candidate.
MSNBC host Chris Matthews on Saturday compared Sanders' win in Nevada to Nazi Germany gaining control of France during World War II. Matthews described the Vermont lawmaker's expected win - and step towards the party's nomination - as something of a catastrophe for the Democratic Party.
Matthews even argued moderate Democrats may rather see President Donald Trump win a second term than vote for Sanders.
"Do they want Bernie Sanders to take over the Democratic Party in perpetuity?" Matthews asked his panel in Las Vegas. "Maybe they'd rather wait four years and put in the Democrat that they like."
James Carville, a longtime Democratic strategist who advised Sen. Michael Bennet's failed 2020 bid, argued that Sanders' success thus far in the primary is attributable to Russian's reported interference campaign.
Carville said he doesn't think the Sanders campaign is colluding with Russia in any way, but then went on to argue that Sanders' 2016 campaign adviser Tad Devine was "Paul Manafort's sidekick," appearing to suggest Sanders' campaign has been corrupted by Russian influence.
"This thing is going very well for Vladimir Putin right now," Carville said.
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, a former press secretary for President George W. Bush, praised Carville's comments and further claimed that Sanders "hasn't been vetted by either the press or the other candidates." Another MSNBC host, Joy Reid, described Sanders' supporters as "angry" and argued, "Democrats need to sober up and figure out what the hell they're going to do" about Sanders' rise.
On CNN, Van Jones, a regular contributor who served in President Barack Obama's administration, joked that the Democratic establishment should toss marbles or a banana peel under Sanders to slow his rise.
The Sanders campaign has long argued that much of cable news and the "mainstream" media is biased against him and offers his more moderate Democratic opponents significantly more favorable coverage. And many Sanders supporters took issue with the cable punditry on Saturday.
MSNBC's Chris Matthews likens Sanders victory in Nevada to Nazi Germany overrunning France in 1940: "It's too late to stop him … it's over" pic.twitter.com/6GJetLoDkq
- Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 22, 2020James Carville: Putin is trying to help Sen. Sanders because Putin wants President Trump to win. It's a straight line.
"I don't think Sanders wants Putin to help ... I think they don't like this story, but the story is a fact." pic.twitter.com/YxOLhSACtA
- MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 22, 2020MSNBC just had an extended interview with James Carville in which he urged the candidates to stop attacking each other after he spent the entire interview attacking Bernie. Panel was Brian Williams, Nicolle Wallace, and Claire McCaskill - not a single progressive
- Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) February 22, 2020Meanwhile, on MSNBC, a panel is asked to discuss whether moderate Dems should prefer Trump to be re-elected over Sanders: pic.twitter.com/rfOsZkw6Q8
- Taniel (@Taniel) February 22, 2020MSNBC sure has a lot of commentators who hate Sanders.
- Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) February 22, 2020"Racist, liberal whites seem to love them some Bernie Sanders.
He cares nothing for intersectionality. I don't care how many people from the island of misfit Black girls you throw out there to defend you."@DrJasonJohnson on Bernie's staff & supporters. MSNBC should sever ties. pic.twitter.com/abxZKsFhaA
- Samuel D. Finkelstein II (@CANCEL_SAM) February 21, 2020AMAZING @JoyAnnReid as @BernieSanders crushes #NevadaCaucus.
1) Reid & @msnbc JUST NOW realize the working class in America is DESPERATE and ANGRY at their corporate neoliberal club.
2) Reid essentially tells Dems to "figure out what you're gonna do" to stop Sanders pic.twitter.com/iuJKxq7CXc
- Jordan (@JordanChariton) February 22, 2020