Bernie Sanders’ attacks on Hillary Clinton are helping Donald Trump
Bernie Sanders is starting to become Donald Trump’s best ally in 2016.
Sanders is not close to being on track to collect enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination for president. Hillary Clinton is.
However, the increasingly self-centered Sanders and too many of his excitable and defiant followers don’t want to hear that blunt truth. They seem eager to unleash attacks designed to undermine Clinton and the Democratic Party.
The Sanders’ camp’s furor over the recent Nevada Democratic Party convention attracted national attention. Yet fact-checkers said allegations of fraud were unfounded.
Plunging ahead, Sanders and his people are demanding that Clinton debate him in California before its June 7 primary. Yes, she should. Their usually civil dialogues have offered some informative, policy-filled moments during the 2016 campaign.
Yet recent polls show Sanders won’t win California, or New Jersey on the same day for that matter. Even if a Sanders miracle occurs in both states, Clinton will still poll well enough to get enough delegates to put her over the top as the nominee.
Don’t mention that political reality to starry-eyed Sanders backers. They say he has Plan B in his pocket, which is to try to persuade some “super delegates” to switch from Clinton at the Democratic convention. But this idea is fraught with problems. The biggest is that Clinton likely will still lead Sanders in regular delegates when the primaries are over in mid-June.
Many longtime Democrats understandably are irritated, frustrated or outright angry with Sanders. Now is the time top party officials and political leaders ought to be coming together to get ready to face the incredibly dangerous Trump this fall.
Instead, Sanders appears to be too full of himself, too ready to whip his followers into a frenzy over a lost cause and increasingly capable of harming Clinton’s ability to win in November.
This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Bernie Sanders’ attacks on Hillary Clinton are helping Donald Trump."