New York Times Joins Parade of Papers Endorsing Clinton | Off Message

Bernie Sanders
New York Times Joins Parade of Papers Endorsing Clinton

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Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks Saturday in Manchester, Iowa - PAUL HEINTZ
  • Paul Heintz
  • Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks Saturday in Manchester, Iowa
Beyond his standard denunciations of the “corporate media,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) declined Saturday morning to address the New York Times’ endorsement of rival Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

In a brief appearance in Manchester, Iowa, Sanders did manage to lump the media in with his other favorite bogeymen.

“Some people say, well, ‘This is an ambitious agenda. Can’t happen.’ Really? Really? Why not? Why can’t it happen?” he asked a small crowd gathered at the Delaware County Fairgrounds. “Because we don’t have the courage to stand up to the insurance companies and the drug companies and Wall Street and corporate America and the corporate media? Is that why it can’t happen? I don’t believe that. I think we can do that.”

The Times was the latest in a series of newspapers to pick Clinton over Sanders. Last week, the Des Moines Register, Concord Monitor and Boston Globe all endorsed the former secretary of state.

“Hillary Clinton is the right choice for the Democrats to present a vision for America that is radically different from the one that leading Republican candidates offer,” the Times wrote. “A vision in which middle-class Americans have a real shot at prosperity, women’s rights are enhanced, undocumented immigrants are given a chance at legitimacy, international alliances are nurtured and the country is kept safe.”

The paper did describe Sanders as a “more formidable” opponent than many had anticipated and noted that he had “brought income inequality and the lingering pain of the middle class to center stage.” But, it continued, Sanders “does not have the breadth of experience or policy ideas that Mrs. Clinton offers,” and “his plans for achieving them aren’t realistic.”

Sanders has been known to react less than graciously to unfriendly editorial boards. Earlier this week, he eviscerated the Washington Post after it ran an editorial entitled, “Bernie Sanders’ fiction-filled campaign.”

“Where was the Washington Post to express concern that the middle class was shrinking?” he said Thursday at a breakfast sponsored by Bloomberg Politics. “Where was the Washington Post talking about this radical transformation of America?”

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