News

Exclusive: Bernie's brother Larry Sanders says Hillary Clinton 'sold out' her principles and 'destroyed lives'

Exclusive: Bernie's brother Larry Sanders says Hillary Clinton 'sold out' her principles and 'destroyed lives'

Larry Sanders is the​ only pe​rson who can actually claim to be​ the​ first e​ve​r Bernie Bro.

The brother of Vermont senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders sat down with indy100 to discuss his brother's campaign and the future of the left. Larry, who lives in Oxfordshire in England, is the UK Green Party's spokesperson for Health and Social Care. But now the UK general election is out of the way, he's putting all his energy into getting the vote out for his brother.

The conversation covered numerous topics, from the similarities between UK and US politics to Brexit and, you've guessed it, Hillary Clinton.

The 2016 Democratic nominee made her feelings on Sanders clear in a recent interview, where Clinton claimed that "nobody" likes him and refused to say whether she'd support him against Trump (although she subsequently tweeted that she'd back whoever the Democratic candidate is). There's no love lost the other way, either, with Sanders ally Rashida Tlaib even booing Clinton at a rally. Cynthia Nixon, however, called out Bernie supporters for booing Clinton as she spoke at a campaign rally for the Vermont senator.

When asked about Clinton, Larry Sanders didn't hold back, saying that she had "sold out" her principles for political power.

He started out by praising some of Clinton's earlier work.

She's got quite a history and she's done quite a good things. Her first job out of law school was to work for the Children's Defence Fund. Which didn't make as much money as she would have made as a Yale school graduate. That was working for poor children, basically.

... Before discussing how, in his view, welfare reforms during her husband's presidency (which she supported) "destroyed" peoples' lives.

They enacted this welfare reform act in the nineties which destroyed lives for tens, if not hundreds of thousands of parents, mostly single mothers with children.

Tens of thousands of those families were reduced not to poverty, but to what they called 'extreme' poverty. Remember this is the United States, only in the 1990s... $2 a day.

I don't know if anybody knows how many people died, and how much suffering that caused.

Finally, ​he said:

I think Mrs Clinton had started with a good heart, started with principles and sold them out for political power. And she's angry and bitter at somebody who stuck by his principles.

Yeesh.

It looks like there​'s little​ chance​ of a Hillary-Be​rnie​ re​conciliation, but if you're​ a De​mocrat living abroad you can make​ your voice​ he​ard during the​ US primary.

De​mocrats living outside of the US, including those living – and studying – in the UK, can vote in a primary that runs just like a small state that will elect 13 delegates to the Democratic convention. If that sounds like​ you, all have to do is go to ​de​​mocratsabroad.org to find out about how you can vote​​ online​​ or in pe​​rson.

More: Larry Sanders on Brexit, Boris and why only Bernie can beat Trump

The Conversation (0)
x